Wagon Train

Starring: Robert Horton, Ward Bond, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson, John McIntire
First Aired: September 18, 1957
Number of Seasons: 8
Estimated Production Cost: $100,000 per episode*

Wagon Train was one of the most expensive television programs on the air at the time it aired. It first ran on NBC from 1957 to 1962, and then on ABC from 1962 to 1965, when it was canceled. The show gained the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings, which allowed it to maintain its massive budget (which appears insignificant when compared to modern shows like the $15 million per episode Game of Thrones), which allowed it to continue running. The experience of early pioneers traveling through the Rocky Mountains in a wagon train was the inspiration for the television series Wagon Train. The train began its journey in Missouri and was destined for the California Gold Rush.

Wagon Train

Land of the Giants

Starring: Deanna Lund, Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Don Marshall, Heather Young
First Aired: September 22, 1968
Number of Seasons: 2
Estimated Production Cost: $250,000 per episode*

It is likely that sci-fi aficionados will know this one because it was produced by sci-fi creator Irwin Allen, who had previously made four other programs that centered around science fiction notions prior to Land of the Giants. Land of the Giants even developed its own media property in the form of novels, which is still in production. Three of the books based on the series were written by Murray Leinster, a well-known science-fiction author, and the other two were written by other authors. Among those who appeared in Land of the Giants was Kurt Kasznar as a special guest and Gary Conway as the main character. Several characters were trapped on a planet where everything is twelve times the size of Earth after being caught in the magnetic field of an interplanetary space storm.

Land Of The Giants