How the West Was Won (TV series)
How the West Was Won is an American Western television series that starred James Arness, Eva Marie Saint, Fionnula Flanagan, Bruce Boxleitner, and Richard Kiley. Loosely based on the 1962 Cinerama film of the same name, it began with a two-hour television film, The Macahans, in 1976, followed by a mini-series in 1977, and a regular series in 1978 and 1979. The show was a great success in Europe, apparently finding a larger and more lasting audience there than in the United States. It has been rebroadcast many times on various European networks, e.g. in France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden, and has built a cult following. It was released on DVD in Europe in November 2009. A sequence of paintings by Charles Marion Russell is shown during the end credits. Episodes Plot Zebulon Macahan is a well-known mountain man and scout working for the U.S. Army in the Indian Territories. The pilot movie shows Zeb not having seen his family for ten years and with the Civil War approaching, deciding to visit them in Manassas, Virginia. As war comes too close to home, Zeb's sister-in-law, Kate, convinces her husband, Zeb's brother Tim, to move their two sons, Seth and Jed (renamed Luke and Josh in the remaining episodes) and two daughters (Jessie and Laura) out west. There the family learns that the first battle of the war is likely to occur at Bull Run, near Zeb and Tim's parents' home. Tim returns to Virginia while the family winters in the Indian Territories. Zeb learns that a friend has been murdered by Dutton, who escaped from an Army Guardhouse he was in for murdering innocent Indians. Knowing that Dutton swore vengeance on him and fearing for his family, Zeb attempts to intercept Dutton before he can reach the Macahan homestead. Luke heads east to look for his father and grandparents but gets home, only to find his grandparents were killed by artillery fire that struck their home during the First Battle of Bull Run. He learns that his father was conscripted into a unit of the Union Army heading for Tennessee to the Battle of Shiloh. Luke is also conscripted at Shiloh but is wounded and taken to a field aid station, where he finds his mortally-wounded father dying. Luke tells his superiors that he will no longer serve and is about to be shot as a deserter when shelling nearly kills his entire platoon. Escaping on foot, he reaches Missouri, finding the abandoned horse of a dead soldier and rides the horse until a local sheriff, Martin Stillman, and his men find Luke, accusing him of horse thievery. Luke tries to explain that he is a former Union soldier who found the horse but Stillman and his men, being Confederate sympathizers, try to lynch him. Luke escapes, severely wounding Stillman's arm in the process. Meanwhile, Zeb tracks down and kills Dutton. Luke arrives at the family homestead near the Platte River in western Nebraska and tells his mother Kate