Wagon Train

The series originally featured veteran supporting actor Ward Bond in the role of the wagon master, a position later taken over by John McIntire following Bond's death. Robert Horton portrayed the scout, a role that was subsequently assumed by lookalike Robert Fuller after Horton decided to leave the series a year later. The show was inspired by the 1950 film *Wagon Master*, directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., and Ward Bond. It also draws from the early widescreen wagon train epic *The Big Trail*, which starred John Wayne and featured Bond in his first major screen role as a supporting character. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series closely resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.