Tales of The Texas Rangers

Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal (or "Charky," as Jayce would sometimes refer to him), to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.

The series was produced and directed by Stacy Keach, Sr., and was sponsored for part of its run by Wheaties.

Captain Manuel T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas, a Ranger for 30 years and who was said to have killed 31 men during his career, served as consultant for the series.

The series was adapted for television from 1955 to 1957 and produced by Screen Gems. For the TV version, Willard Parker took over the role of Jace Pearson. On radio, Pearson often worked by request with a local sheriff's office or police department but on the TV show, he had a regular partner, Ranger Clay Morgan (who had been an occasional character on the radio show), played by Harry Lauter. During the opening and closing credits of the TV show, the actors would march toward the camera and an off-screen men's chorus sing the theme song, "These Are Tales of Texas Rangers", to the tune of "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You", which is also the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad". The radio series used contemporary cases and modern detective methods to solve crimes; it was a procedural drama, in many ways Dragnet with a Western flavor. The TV show was aimed at children (and aired on Saturday mornings) and was more of a traditional Western (with chases and shoot-outs). The TV series did both modern cases and cases set in the "Old West." With new cases using a car with horse float to get the rangers to their destinations it always made sure that the use of horses was only a step away. With older themes they would always ride into town on the horses to mete out their justice, they wore differing ranger attire for new and old scenes, also their weaponry was totally different.

Irving J. Moore began his career as a director on Tales of the Texas Rangers.