The Devil's Playground

An evil ranch foreman tries to provoke a range war by playing two cattlemen against each other while helping a gang to rustle the cattle. Each cattleman blames the other for missing cattle. With the help of Bill Cassidy (Hop-along, because of an earlier bullet wound) and Johnny Nelson, the warring cattlemen join forces to do in the outlaws.

When the outlaw El Toro saves Hoppy's life, Hoppy agrees to find his missing grandson.

Cattle rustler Nevada dreams of living like an emperor in the West. Hoppy and the Bar 20 boys aim to put an end to his dream.

Hoppy returns to find Johnny in trouble. Buck Peters has been shot by Porter who made it look like Johnny did it. When Johnny flees he runs into Linda. He takes a liking to her only to learn her father Shanghai is one of Porter's gang. Going after Shanghai, he gets captured by the gang and Porter now plans to kill him. But Hoppy is near by and Johnny will get unexpected help from Shanghai.

An evil gang is involved in both cattle rustling and the robbing of stagecoaches. Hoppy must stop them without help from the sheriff who turns out be a major outlaw himself.

Problems come in the form of one of Hopalong Cassidy's neighbors, but the matter is settled when Hoppy roots out the troublemaker.

A crusading newspaper editor recruits his old friend Hoppy to take the job of Marshall in a town rife with vice and murder directed at helpless miners.

Hoppy, Johnny and Windy are fighting a malicious gang trying to stop a cattle drive from reaching a drought-stricken North.

Hoppy goes undercover as an outlaw (which permits him, for once, to drink and be mean to children) to track down a bunch of outlaws operating along the border. Loco, the head bad guy, deflects suspicion from himself by pretending to be a moron.

An evil deputy is using Indian half-breeds to rustle cattle. This causes trouble between the cattlemen and Indians. Hoppy, Windy and Lucky see that justice is served. Songs abound.

Hoppy's brother has been murdered and he is on the trail of the murderers. To get them he makes himself seem to be a wanted man.

Hoppy clears Lucky on a charge of bank robbery and foils the plot of a crooked lawyer to rustle a herd of pedigree cattle and take over the valley.

On a cattle drive Hoppy, camp cook Windy, companion Lucky, and young Artie Peters encounter an eccentric professor. The professor professes to be searching for the evolutionary missing link, but in reality he is a cattle rustler who uses his dynamite to scatter the cattle in order capture some of them. Hoppy and Bar 20 guys ultimately capture the professor.

The U.S. Army needs more horses for the Spanish-American War. Hoppy must turn his Bar 20 cowhands into Rough Riders to gather up the horses, and of course bad guys try to sabotage the operation.

Lorna Drake has inherited a ranch. Hoppy teaches her a bit about ranching and handles Scar Lewis, the bad guy, in the process.

Hopalong Cassidy, boss of the Bar 20 ranch in Texas, rides down the Camino Real in the New Mexico cattle country near Alamogordo, in response to an urgent message from his lifelong sweetheart, Nora Blake, who is in serious trouble. Before he and his saddlemates, "Lucky" Jenkins and "Pappy", can reach her ranch, they are stopped by Clay Allison, a cattle-rustler who is in almost complete control of the district, and wants to extend his holdings by seizing Nora's cattle and driving her out. Seeing Cassidy as a menace to his plans, he has him arrested on a trumped-up charge. Cassidy and his pals shoot their way out of the trouble and reach Nora;s ranch where they learn that Allison's henchmen have murdered her foreman, Tom Dillon, and Allison has sent for a crew of outlaws on the Texas border.

Belle Starr has returned from time in prison only to face a hail of bullets, along with rescue by Hoppy and the Bar 20 gang.

Hoppy's friend Dennis owns a rich gold mine. Frazier who owns the adjoining mine and wants the Dennis mine, has Dennis killed. Hoppy steps in to take over running the Dennis mine and learns Frazier's men sneak into and work the Dennis mine at night. Hoppy captures one of Frazier's men only to be captured in return by Frazier and left to die in a burning building.

Caldwell and Nixon have their men rob the stage and then critcize the Sheriff for not catching the robbers. With her father the Sheriff under pressure, Mary sends for Hoppy who finds the stolen money and sets a trap to bring in the entire gang.

Escaped criminal "The Fox" hates Hoppy and a Rurales colonel for imprisoning him and lures Cassidy to Mexico in order to exact his vengeance.

The local school is causing Hoppy problems. First Bar 20 cattle are stolen when Hoppy investigates a problem there. Then the new teacher arrives and disrupts the routine of the Bar 20 hands. Later with the Bar 20 hands at graduation, the rustlers are poised to strike again. But there is dissension among them and this will lead to the break that Hoppy needs.

Disguising himself as a milquetoast Easterner who writes Western novels, Hoppy enrolls in a dude ranch in order to unmask the murderer of the owner's husband.

Hoppy goes undercover as a gambler from the East when Bar 20 cattle are stolen by unknown rustlers. Brennan/Talbot are twin brothers (one a casino owner, the other a rancher) and Hoppy believes they provide alibis for each other while one is out committing crimes. Hoppy gets a job in the casino to learn more but is exposed when a gambling gunslinger notices him.

Hoppy goes to town to help Marshal Windy with some rustlers and winds up helping the widow Joyce when confidence men try to take her herd. King's Men songs include: "Hi Thar Stranger" and "Lazy Rolls the Rio Grande."

Buck Colins heads a group of local ranchers who are trying to prevent the railroad from completing its line through their property. Till now they have been able to charge tolls on herds passing through. Hoppy goes undercover to expose them.

Hoppy and Lucky are headed to South America to deliver a heard of cattle. Bay guy Ralph Merritt gets in their way. For a while.

U.S. Marshal Hopalong Cassidy is called when a town becomes overun with bad guys. Disguised as a member of a medicine show, Hoppy discovers that the ringleader is none other than sweet li'l ol' Ma Burton.

European bad guy Baron Bendor leads some local townsmen in a plot to obtain horses through theft. Hoppy and his sidekicks Lucky and Speedy must find and expose the horse thieves.

Hoppy and Lucky have been called in to investigate a series of stage holdups. The robbers are taking gold from Colby's mine and Hoppy suspects it may be ex-outlaw Colby himself. When Speedy strikes gold, Hoppy borrows it and announces a gold shipment hoping to catch the gang and their leader.

Hoppy is busy chasing stagecoach bandits who sing as they rob.

Hoppy and new sidekick California Carlson head to California to help out Lucky Jenkins.

Stephen Westcott and Ed Martin scheme to put Jane Travers' wagon line out of business. They want to use it take over all the wagon- train traffic going west. Hoppy, California and Lucky must make sure that doesn't happen.

Joe Weller has instigated a conflict over water rights between two ranchers. The idea is to have the ranchers do each other in then move in and take over. Hoppy and the good guys won't let this happen.

A town bedeviled with outlaws sends for Hoppy, Lucky and California after their own vigilante committee fails to solve the towns problems. Hoppy discovers that the bad guys are led by the town boss, and so are the vigilantes.

Hoppy, Lucky and California search for a mine owned by Trudy Pendleton after it was taken from her by thw swindling gambler Ace Gibson. They find the mine and Hoppy fights Gibson over it.

Belle Langtry runs a town being taken over by cattle rustlers. She is also a front for the outlaws, who are led by Steve Fraser. Hoppy gets elected sheriff and cleans up the town with help from the Bar 20 boys.

Hopalong Cassidy and Johnny Nelson ride to the mountains to help a man and his daughter save their logging business from someone who is sabotaging their efforts.

Buck Peters arranges for Hoppy, California, Johnny and other cowboys to go to the aid of friends whose cattle are being rustled. Hoppy and California locate the rustlers' hideout and join the gang by posing as outlaws themselves, but must find a way to let the rest of the posse know where they are.

Hoppy, California and Johnny come to the ranch of a friend and his daughter, disguised as dude detectives from the east, to investigate the disappearances, without a trace, of several herds of cattle.

Hoppy, Johnny and California go to Arabia to buy some horses. There they get involved with a sheik and a harem and a kidnapping plot.

Hoppy is leading a scientific expedition and the Chinese who have a hidden settlement nearby are trying to stop them. Saulters and his outlaw gang are also in the area looking for a gold mine. When Saulters men attack, the gold mine is found. Hoppy agrees to file for the Chinese and heads after Saulters in the chase to the land office.

Burton is after Clark's ranch. He gets the banker to refuse to renew Clark's note and then sends his men to rustle his cattle. Hoppy is Clark's new foreman and is on to Burton's scheme. But just as he learns of the rustling and is about to go after the gang, the Sheriff arrives and arrests him for hiding Johnny who has been accused of robbery.

A bandit who robs both Americans and Mexicans is causing each side of the border to blame the other. Hoppy has to settle matters.

Posing as a cattle buyer, Hoppy crosses over into Oklahoma where the Jordan brother's and their outlaw gang operate outside the law. After receiving an unfriendly reception when he finds them, he, California, and Johnny rustle their cattle and drive across the river into Texas. He hopes they will cross over to retrieve their cattle and then he can arrest them.

When three Texas Rangers try to investigate kidnapped Mexicans being used as forced labor in the mines of Silver Bullet, they are framed for murder by the town's corrupt sheriff.

As rustled cattle have mysteriously disappeared, Johnny sends for his friend Hoppy, Hoppy arrives and immediately suspects Dan Slack. Realizing his telegram about Slack was intercepted, he locks up the operator Lafe knowing he can escape. Tailing Lafe he finds a secret entrance to a mine and inside finds the missing cattle. But Slack's men also find him just as the cattle are stampeded through the mine shaft.

Hoppy, California and Johnny partner up with brother and sister ranch owners, two of several who are having their access to water blocked by a dam owned by a greedy merchant in town, who is intent on driving them out and taking their land for himself.

Stagecoach robbers take the money Hoppy was going to use to buy cattle so Hoppy, California and Lin go after them.

Before he was killed by Mark Foster's men, Bud Lawton willed part ownership in his ranch to Hoppy and his two pals. When the three arrive they find a fake posing as Lawton. When they expose the imposter, Foster gets the Sheriff to jail them for Lawton's murder.

When Ranger Hoppy's falsely accused young ranger friend is killed while supposedly trying to escape from jail, Hoppy is blamed and drummed out of the Texas Rangers.

A young Eastern lawyer, seriously injured in a stage holdup, secures the help of Hoppy, California and Jimmy in completing his mission to his woman cousin's ranch in Texas. The ranch, as are others in the same area, is being plagued by a gang called the Night Riders, while the friendly local town lawyer is trying to cajole the cousin into selling out to him. Hoppy begins by arriving in the town, separate from his pals, all spiffed up and dandified, posing as the Eastern lawyer...

Julie's husband has been murdered and land agents want her to sign away her property rights. Hoppy warns against this but she does so anyway. It looks as though she will be unable to deliver the timber called for in her agreement. Hoppy has to make the lumber deal happened and solve the murder.

Hoppy's ranch is threatened by rustlers. Hoppy and the gang oblige as usual.

When he runs for sheriff, Hoppy is beaten by Jerry Doyle, the gutless wonder voted for by every crook in town. When Hoppy moves to have the new sheriff impeached, outlaw leader Tad Hammond hires forty gunslingers to stop him. Stop Hoppy? Hah!

The son of an Army friend is about the join an outlaw gang. Hoppy prevents this and brings the gang to justice.

At the reading of his late cousin's will, California learns the estate will be divied among whoever remains of the seven relatives. With one already dead, another immediately murdered, and the Lawyer telling them the ranch is almost worthless, Hoppy investigates.

Sue Morgan gets Hoppy and his friends to join their expedition looking for Indian artifacts. Expedition leader Atwood makes a deal with nearby cattle rustler Morgan to loot the Indian treasures instead and sell them. Hoppy is on to their plan and pretending to leave follows them. Not only is he outnumbered by Morgan's men, but California has himself about to be sacrificed in an Indian ritual.

Hoppy, California and Lucky take refuge from a storm inside a supposedly abandoned church outside a ghost town, only to meet a young woman and her mother there, then find themselves surrounded by a gang of "workmen" intent on tearing down the church if they have to kill the five to do it.

Hoppy, California, and Lucky travel to Mesa City for a short vacation. California buys new clothes and carrying his old ones in a suitcase, bumps into escaping bank robbers in the dark. His suitcase gets switched with that of the robbers and he is seen with the money. Hoppy must find the money that has mysteriously disappeared and also the robbers so that he can clear California who is now in jail.

One of Hoppy's Bar 20 ranch hands is tricked into participating in nefarious activities after being subjected to hypnosis.

Hoppy, California and Lucky arrive at a remote inn, where Lucky expects to be married - but finds the bride-to-be in distress over her uncle, who has suddenly disappeared from the inn. Then Hoppy finds the uncle's body in the shaft of his nearby mine...

Lee Garvin has eloped with the daughter of a railroad man who didn't approve of the marriage. Hoppy steps in when the young man is framed for murder.

Finishing a trail drive, Hoppy and the boys head to town and immediately get caught up in the conflict between school teacher Miss Abott and next door saloon owner Mawson. When Miss Abott disappears, Hoppy gets a clue to her location and rescues her from Mawson's cabin. It looks like Mawson is the man he wants, but Hoppy finds an item that indicates otherwise.

A banker is trying to cheat people out of their silver-rich land. Hoppy learns that the banker is in league with an outlaw gang.

Hoppy and his pals arrive in a remote town to investigate the counterfeiting of both U.S. and Mexican money; his only clues are the name "Mordigan" and a drawing of a comet. He quickly finds out that Mordigan is the town "boss"; but what or who is "the comet", and why are Mordigan and his henchmen intent on persecuting a young woman, her drunken brother, and her deathly ill sister-in-law who've also just arrived in town?

A criminal gang provokes the local Apaches in order to divert the authorities' attention from their own activities.

Spoiled society girl Beth Wynn agrees to stake her marriage to Francis Fraser on the outcome of an airplane race with him.

Nicky Nelson is a fast-talking sideshow barker with a wax-and-alive concession on Atlantic City's boardwalk. Even with the band of his friend, struggling musician Gene Krupa, playing on the sidewalk to attract the customers, "The Living Corpse" and other low-rent acts aren't enough to lure the seen-it-all boardwalk strollers, and the landlord closes the show in lieu of never-paid rent. Nicky, always promoting, goes to Stephen Hanratty, head of the pier's Dance Pavilion, to plug Krupa's band as an attraction, but Hanratty won't even listen to them. But, while there, he meets singer Lily Racquel, who knows he is a phoney but might have the ability to to talk a radio-station manager into giving her an audition. She gives him a ring to help finance the project; he promptly loses it in a crap-game.

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars is an anthology series that was telecast from 1951 until 1959 on CBS. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. The title was shortened to Schlitz Playhouse, beginning with the fall 1957 season.

Hoppy, California and Lucky take refuge from a storm inside a supposedly abandoned church outside a ghost town, only to meet a young woman and her mother there, then find themselves surrounded by a gang of "workmen" intent on tearing down the church if they have to kill the five to do it.

"Howdy" Nelson believes there is no such think as real love and that romance can be cooked up between any eligible persons (of the opposite sex.) He is so imbued with the idea that he has established a summer camp for that reason,and has written a play on the subject. The Yacht Club Boys visit the camp, misrepresenting themselves as Broadway producers, and the talented guest of the camp put on Nelson's play...which all ends up with a lot of marriage mating; Judy and Skipper, Betty Jane and Stanley and...Gwen and "Howdy,' the guy who was positive there was no such thing as true love.

Corrupt alcoholic attorney Tom Cardigan is one of the best lawyers around, commanding the courtroom like a stage and often winning his cases. Mobster Valentine Powers, who employs Cardigan and put him through school, asks him to represent a woman, June Perry, accused of prostitution. Cardigan agrees. But he never expected to fall for her, which is problematic since he's angling to become governor and will need the right kind of wife.

The Lone Ranger is an American western television series that ran from 1949 to 1957, starring Clayton Moore with Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator. Fred Foy served as both narrator and announcer of the radio series from 1948 to its finish and became announcer of the television version when story narration was dropped there. This was by far the highest-rated television program on the ABC network in the early 1950s and its first true "hit".

Hoppy and his pals arrive in a remote town to investigate the counterfeiting of both U.S. and Mexican money; his only clues are the name "Mordigan" and a drawing of a comet. He quickly finds out that Mordigan is the town "boss"; but what or who is "the comet", and why are Mordigan and his henchmen intent on persecuting a young woman, her drunken brother, and her deathly ill sister-in-law who've also just arrived in town?

Ted Howard, a vaudevillian left, stranded in a tank town. A local girl, Mary (Sally O'Neil), proposes to finance a new act with her savings and the team succeeds in a minor way until Ted is discovered by Broadway femme fatale Valeska (Carmel Myers). Not wishing to stand in her partner's way, Mary nobly resigns from the act and instead accepts a minor role in the show. She proves a sensation on opening night, however, and a jealous Valeska demands her ousted. But Ted, who is in love with Mary, reorganizes their old act and they begin a new life together as man and wife.

Hamilton's Rangers, led by our hero Gene, must keep the Indians in the northern Michigan territory from attacking the settlers.

Bat Masterson, who after failing to secure a job as a newspaper reporter becomes marshal of Dodge City. Preferring socializing to peacekeeping, Masterson falls in love with Dora Hand, the obligatory golden-hearted chorus girl whose concern for the welfare of her fellow citizens at time reaches Madonna-like dimensions. When Dora is shot down cattle baron King Kennedy, Masterson begins taking his job seriously. After taking care of Kennedy, Masterson determines to enshrine the memory of Dora, whose efforts to clean up Dodge City were largely ignored by the "decent" townsfolk.

Thirteen women who were schoolmates ask a swami to cast their horoscopes. The news they receive is not good for any of them.

There are plenty of guilty secrets at the school where Hildegarde Withers teaches. When she finds the body of the pretty music teacher, she calls in her old friend Inspector Piper, who promptly arrests the obvious suspect. Clues multiply and everyone looks suspicious as Piper and Miss Withers continue their battle of the sexes.

Lassie is the pet of Jeff Miller, an 11-year-old farm boy. The two become best friends and enjoy family adventures in the American countryside, teaching each other about love, nature and commitment.

A lawyer uncovers secrets behind a 12-year-old murder case.