Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Pistols 'N' Petticoats: Cast Photo

Pistols 'N' Petticoats aired from September 1966 until August 1967 on CBS.

Set in and around the town of Wretched Colorado, in the 1870's, this western situation comedy told the story of the Hanks family, three generations strong. They were led by widowed Henrietta ( Ann Sheridan); her Grandpa and Grandma ( Douglas Fowley, Ruth McDevitt) and her daughter Lucy ( Carole Wells). Despite their respective ages and sex, all of the members of the Hanks family , with the exception of Henrietta's city-bred daughter Lucy were remarkably adept with guns. They could outdraw and outshoot any desperado and hotshot gunslinger within 500 miles of their home. It was extremely embarrassing for a repudedly dangerous outlaw to be subdued by an attractive woman and her grandparents, but that was a common occurrence around Wretched, especially since inept and bumbling young Sheriff Sikes ( Gary Vinson) offered little resistance. Others in the cast were Robert Lowery as Buss Courtney, horror legend Lon Chaney Jr. as Indian "Chief Eagle Shadow" , Mark Cavell as Gray Hawk and Alex Henteloff as Little Bear. The Hanks family was so tough, in fact, that normal household pets were too tame for them. So what did they have for a pet? Would you believe a wolf named Bowser?

This western sitcom was no match for Get Smart running opposite it on NBC and when star Ann Sheridan died from cancer in January 1967, the series' fate was sealed.

Here are the theme song lyrics

Title: "Pistols 'N Petticoats Theme"
Written By: "George Tibbles" & "Jack Elliot"

Here's the legend about the Hanks in Pistols 'n' Petticoats.

Henrietta can fire a gun with one hand milkin' the goat.
And hit a coyote on the run in Pistols n Petticoats.

The story goes that grandma is the best
at shootin' buttons off a rustler's vest.
Shootin' buttons off a rustler's vest.

Grandpa kept his gun in trim, nobody messed around with him.
Nobody messed around with him.

Chasin' bandits was fun for them from Bristol to Tarahut.
Everyone in the west would run from Pistols 'n' Petticoats.

That's the legend about the Hanks just as she was wrote.
They kept busy protecting banks in Pistols 'n' Petticoats.

A Short Article on Ann Sheridan's death from Time Magazine
Published on January 27, 1967

Died. Ann Sheridan, 51, Hollywood's "Oomph Girl" of the 1930s, '40s and early '50s, whose red-haired beauty and deep velvet voice perfectly suited the gun molls and dance-hall girls she played in scores of potboilers (Torrid Zone) and some critical successes (King's Row), then, as her looks and the movieland whirl (including marriages to Actors Edward Norris and George Brent) faded, went into semiretirement until last year, when she married Actor Scott McKay and made a comeback in CBS's comedy series, Pistols 'n' Petticoats; of cancer; in Los Angeles.

For an episode guide go to http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Stage/2950/US/Comedy/PistolsNPetticoats.htm

For the Ann Sheridan Picture Gallery go to http://www.geocities.com/proxima3a/

For a Page dedicated to Ann Sheridan go to http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/hills/2440/sheridan.html

For more on the death of Ann Sheridan go to http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/s/sheridan/annsheridan.htm

For a Page dedicated to Douglas Fowley go to http://www.dougmacaulay.com/kingspud/sel_by_actor_index_2.php?actor_first=Douglas&actor_last=Fowley

For a Page dedicated to Ruth McDevitt go to http://www.dougmacaulay.com/kingspud/sel_by_actor_index_2.php?actor_first=Ruth&actor_last=McDevitt

For the Official Website of Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr. go to http://www.lonchaney.com/

For a Webpage dedicated to Lon Chaney Jr go to http://www.lonchaney.com/lc5/jr/lcjrmain.html