Does anybody know if "Yancy Derringer" was actually based on a book or maybe an old New Orleans legend? I tried to find it in amazon.com, but was not successful. If anybody knows please tell me at [email protected]. Thanks!Loved the series when it was on German TV in 1967 and am very lucky that I could find it last fall online. It's as great as it was 42 years ago....some things fortunately never change :)!My favorite episodes are the ones with Beverly Garland playing river pirate Coco LaSalle, "The Belle from Boston" and the episodes about Yancy's family mansion Waverly like "Old Dixie".

If only this wonderful little show were easily available on DVD! The Feb 19, 1959 episode "Hell or High Water" depicts Yancy saving New Orleans from flood by dynamiting the levee! This episode alone might have prevented the disaster following Katrina...or not. Anyway, this was a marvelous program that remains simultaneously a relic of its era and a charming, romantic, and sincere homage to the great American city of New Orleans. It was only on for one brief year, and, though I was no more than a toddler when it showed, the unique images of Jock Mahoney's Yancy and his stoic Indian sidekick Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah,so powerfully effected my psyche I never forgot them--just like so many other reviewers here. Yet for years, whenever I described the show to fellow Boomers, they shook their head. Nobody else remembered Yancy Derringer. At least not until the Great Mr. Gore invented the Internet! Huzzah and hooray for us all! In 2009 I finally encountered someone with a single old VHS copy of the above episode, so I happily renewed my childhood thrill. CBS--please release this golden oldies treasure.

I was trying to explain this show to my wife last night. It seems that given the character and his backstory, the producers could have gone two ways: they could have played Yancy very dark, much like Richard Boone did the Paladin character on "Have Gun Will Travel". They chose another way, and gave the character a supporting cast of rogues and comic foils that made Yancy an antebellum version of what Tom Selleck would be doing 2 decades later called "Magnum PI". As for X Brands, the story is that his real name is Jay Brands. Born in Germany, there was another person in his hometown by that name, so he took X as a middle initial. When he started acting, he decided to use the middle initial as his stage name.

This was another good western back in the '50s which gives me fond memories. I remember how me and my pals thought this hero was "cool," something like Richard Boone was in "Have Gun, Will Travel." The main differences in this western as opposed to most was that the title characterpacked a little derringer in his hat, and the setting was New Orleans instead of the old west. Otherwise, he was, like Boone's "Paladin" a smooth, dapper and cool customer.Jock Mahoney ("Yancy Derringer") was the rugged, silent type, if I remember correctly. The shows were very interesting and we looked forward to them each week. Why this show only lasted on year is a real mystery to me. I don't remember anyone who didn't enjoy it. The mid-to-late '50s was a fabulous era for westerns on TV. If this ever came out on DVD, I would buy it immediately.