But in the television version, Willard Parker assumed the role of Jace Pearson and had a regular partner, Ranger Clay Morgan, who had been an occasional character on the radio show. On radio, Joel McCrea's Pearson often worked by request with a local sheriff's office or police department. The television version was filmed by Screen Gems. 'Lone Wolf' Gonzaullas, who was said to have killed thirty-one men during his 30-year career as a Texas Ranger, was the consultant for the television series, as he had been for the earlier radio series. It was sponsored for part of its run by Wheaties cereal. The television version was produced and also directed for several episodes by Stacy Keach, Sr. The radio shows, some of which are available on the Internet, are reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases. His faithful horse, Charcoal (or 'Charky'), helps Pearson to track down the culprits. Film star Joel McCrea voiced the radio version as the fictitious Texas Ranger Jace Pearson, who uses the latest scientific techniques to identify criminals.
Tales of the Texas Rangers is a 20th century Western old-time radio and television police procedural drama which originally aired on NBC Radio from 1950 to 1952 and later on CBS Television from 1955 to 1958. Willard Parker (left) and Harry Lauter in 1957.
