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Home » Video » PIONEERS OF TELEVISION | Fess Parker and Ed Ames on Davy...

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  • Pioneers of Television

PIONEERS OF TELEVISION | Fess Parker and Ed Ames on Davy Crockett vs Daniel Boone | PBS

Duration: 00:39
Program: Pioneers of Television

Fess Parker and (co-star) Ed Ames on the transition from the Davy Crockett TV series to the similar (but different!) Daniel Boone series. Many worried the public wouldn't want to see Parker in any role other than Crockett. But Daniel Boone was a big hit for 6 years on prime time.

Ed Ames played Mingo on the Daniel Boone series. (When demonstrating for Johnny Carson how Mingo throws a hatchet, one of Ames' errants throws became the most memorable clip in Tonight Show history)

This clip is an excerpt from the upcoming season of PBS "Pioneers of Television." The interviews with Fess Parker and Ed Ames are just two of the more than 100 exclusive interviews conducted by the producers of this Emmy-nominated series.

Sadly, the "Pioneers of Television" interview with Fess Parker was his final on-camera appearance, he passed away March 18, 2010.

Parker wasn't just a TV star, he was the spark behind the first merchandising craze of the TV era. Ten million Davy Crockett coonskin caps were sold in a matter of months. There were more than three thousand different Crockett items... lunchboxes... pajamas... toothbrushes.

In today's dollars, the craze earned more than a half-billion in revenue almost overnight--and provided executive producer Walt Disney with the money to build his new pet project: Disneyland.

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Post Date: March 19, 2010