Casey Jones (TV Series) - Production Notes

Production Notes

Commissioned by the then jointly Los Angeles Times/CBS owned KTTV, it was shot on a special set at Ray "Crash" Corrigan's studio Corriganville in the Simi Valley, California.

Shot for one season, in part because of Alan Hale's commitment to filming episodes of Rory Calhoun's The Texan, the series ran for 32 half-hour black-and-white episodes. Its theme song was a version of the "Ballad of Casey Jones".

There are two versions of the opening title sequence. The first version features Pat Hogan (billed as playing Sam Peachpit) alongside Dub Taylor and Eddy Waller; however he only appears in the opening episode "Night Mail". This version features Cinders the dog but not Mary Lawrence. The second version opens with a head-on shot of the Cannonball coming down the line, has a different version of the shot of Alan Hale, Jr., with Bobby Clark in the cab and credits Mary Lawrence but omits Cinders.

There are alternate versions of the closing credits. Both feature Alan Hale, Jr., and Bobby Clark waving from the cab, the second features different shots of the Cannonball, including one of it passing over a trestle and the brow of a hill, and a different version of the song with slight amendments to the lyrics (to include Cinders). Alan Hale, Jr., filmed an introduction to the first episode on set with Bobby Clark where he introduced the new series to the audience.

The locomotive used in location footage was Sierra No. 3, which was also used in many other television shows and films.