Richard Boone portrayed Hector "Hec" Ramsey, a former gunfighter turned lawman, with a keen interest in the emerging field of forensics. Hec replaced his "gunfighter" rig with a cut-down Colt revolver - "Faster draw, good at short range. Use a rifle for long" that echoed modern detectives' guns - but his most important tools included fingerprinting equipment and magnifying lenses, which enabled him to determine the perpetrators of crimes with greater accuracy. Ramsey had served as a Deputy United States Marshal in the Oklahoma Indian Territory under the supervision of Judge Isaac Parker, Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, which had jurisdiction for the Indian Territory.
The series follows Ramsey after he accepts the position of deputy police chief in the fictional town of New Prospect, Oklahoma.
In the series' pilot, "The Century Turns", set in 1901, Hec meets New Prospect's chief of police, Oliver B. Stamp (Rick Lenz), a young, inexperienced lawman who needs help and after some initial friction, the two men develop a working relationship. They are frequently accompanied by a colorful local doctor, Amos Coogan, who is also the local Coroner/Medical Examiner (played by frequent Webb performer Harry Morgan, who was also a regular on The Richard Boone Show). All of them went on to appear in "The Shootist" with John Wayne.
Production
The series was one of the first television Westerns set in the early 20th century[1] at a time when viewer interest in the old West was waning. Two contemporary series with a similar setting were Nichols and Bearcats! (the latter was set in 1914).
Producer Jack Webb described Hec Ramsey as "Dragnet meets John Wayne" and critics picked up on that.[2] The scripts balanced authentic "modern" investigative methods of the 1900s with action and adventure.[citation needed]
Despite good ratings, the series was canceled after two seasons, following disagreements between Boone and Universal.[citation needed] Douglas Benton and creator Harold Jack Bloom were the producers; Jack Webb was executive producer.
An aging lawman in 1901 Oklahoma employs the latest crime detection techniques to solve the murder of a homesteading couple while overcoming the skepticism of his young, college-educated police chief.
Legendary outlaw Wes Durham is being held in the New Prospect jail, awaiting a new form of execution: electric chair. Hec's job is to uncover and capture an admirer of the outlaw, who is killing a person each day until Durham is set free.
Hec sets out to uncover the killers of a family of settlers. Their arrow-pierced bodies and a brave's medicine bag containing a green feather implicate a local Native American tribe, but Hec is reluctant to rush to judgment.
Hec tracks a check forger to Santa Rita, New Mexico, where he encounters an old flame who is being framed for murder. Hec plays attorney to free his friend, which puts him afoul of Henry T. Madden, a tyrant who holds the town in fear.
A lawman arrives in the town of New Prospect to tell the citizens his side of the story of how he shot the idolized outlaw they're about to honor with a monument.
Matthias Kane comes to New Prospect looking for the father he never met. Hec befriends the hot-headed young man and assists him in locating his father, uncovering dark secrets and shady pasts in the process.
New Prospect hosts the first flight by two airplane inventors, but a cloud hanging over the celebrated exhibition is Hec's investigation of a mysterious murder. Doc Coogan attempts to heal a family torn asunder by alcoholism.
