The Stars On TV Continued: Cade's County

In 1971 Glenn Ford tried for his own television series. It was Cade’s County a police drama set in a small desert town of Madrid, California. Mr. Ford played Sheriff Sam Cade and was in charge of law enforcement through out the county. Of course that is what gave the show its name. He had many deputies to help in enforce the law. The role of the young deputy named Pete was played by Peter Ford. He was the son of Glenn Ford. It was broadcast on Sunday nights starting on September 19, 1971 from 9:30pm to 10:30pm. When it first started my family watched it if we were home at that time. Later I found my self wanting to play with my toys or with my cousin Rachel then rather watch TV. Now family shows weren’t too hard to come by in the early 70’s. However, the taste for entertainment by person in the family could differ. For example as a 10 year old I liked watching the Brady Bunch, the Partridge Family, Alias Smith and Jones etc. I sometimes felt that Mom and Dad watched my shows only because they were family friendly. While I liked watching the comedies like Here’s Lucy, My Three Sons, Bewitched etc. with my parents they also liked to watch shows like The F.B.I., Gunsmoke and Mission Impossible. While I have grown to appreciate those shows and would like to see them again they were boring to my 10 year old senses. One Sunday night I was playing a game with my cousin. My Mom called to me that Cade’s County was on. I told her that I didn’t want to watch it anymore. To this day I feel like I hurt her feelings when I heard her say “But I thought we all found a show that we like to watch!” The truth is we did for awhile. I just got bored with it. Just like I got bored with The F.B.I. and Mission Impossible. I suppose I should have gone into the living room to watch the show with them but I was having too much fun playing that game. The show must have been a hit early on. As evidence the above TV Guide cover talks about how movie stars don’t shine on TV but Glenn Ford does. It must have had a big drop in viewers because it was canceled. Its last broadcast was September 4, 1972.
It was in September of 1972 that my Mom’s prayer for a show we all enjoyed together was answered. It was at that time that The Walton’s came on. It was instantly the family favorite.