radio hit. In 1945, the radio show was dropped in favor of other material, but after nearly eight years, the show was re-developed for television as the Pacific Coast Borax Company sought to develop material for the new medium. Originally, McCann was interested in one minute advertising spots on television, but found so few available that full program sponsorship was more feasible. With more than 750 scripts from 14 years of radio programs, they already had the content to adapt. For its first two years, the series was produced by Gene Autry's Flying A Productions. In 1954, Dorrell and Stuart McGowan left Autry's Flying A to form McGowan Productions, bringing Death Valley Days along with them. Filmaster Productions, Inc., which produced the first several seasons of Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, and Playhouse 90 for CBS Television, took over production of the series in 1959, specifically noting that production company president Robert Stabler had a reputation for producing shows on-time and under budget. Madison Productions began to produce the series in 1965. Writing Ruth Woodman had previously researched and written all of the scripts for the show's radio run. When the show was re-worked for television, she continued to write all scripts for the first five years of production, at which time she became the show's story editor. The series required historical accuracy for its stories, breaking out of the standard Western genre plotlines, instead focusing on actual pioneer events. Casting As an anthology, the cast changed with each episode. When Filmaster took over production in 1959, one of their immediate changes was to use bigger name Hollywood actors. Filming Although parts of the series were filmed in Kanab, Utah and Apacheland Studio in Arizona, the series was primarily filmed in Death Valley National Park, Segments were done on location, and shot on short, three-day schedules. Filming would take place approximately six times per year, and while on location, the cast and crew would stay at the Pacific Coast Borax Company's Death Valley resort, the Furnace Creek Inn. Host segments for the final cut were filmed in studio. Under the production of Filmaster, the production schedule was to complete two half-hour episodes per week, with final cut host segments shot at Producers Studios in Hollywood. Ownership Under the Death Valley Days title, the program was sponsored by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, which during the program's run changed its