The BEST episodes of The Young Riders season 1
Every episode of The Young Riders season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Young Riders season 1!
Set just before the American Civil War, this series presented a highly fictionalized account of the heyday of the Pony Express. Its focus was a group of young Express riders based at the waystation in Sweetwater, Kansas. Running the station was ex-Texas Ranger and all-around eccentric Teaspoon Hunter. The role of cook, housekeeper and mother hen was filled first by Emma and later by Rachel. The riders included the future "Buffalo Bill" Cody and James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok, as well as Ike, a mute, Buck, a half-White/half-Kiowa scout and the Kid, a quiet Southerner. Their final member was Lou, a young woman who lived and worked with the riders disguised as a boy. In second season, their group was joined by Noah Dixon.
#1 - Gunfighter
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1989
Hickok projects the demons of his childhood onto a bullying hired gun and decides only a showdown with the gunslinger will exorcise them.
#2 - False Colors
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/9/1989
Kid enjoys a reunion with his brother Jed, who seems to have found a niche in the Army, but is really leading a gang that is posing as cavalry to steal gold for the budding Confederacy.
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#3 - The End of Innocence
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/30/1989
Hickok discovers hidden feelings for Emma on a venture to an Army outpost commanded by a captain with a passion for cruelty.
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#4 - The Keepsake
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/14/1989
Teaspoon is given claim to a small fortune, but he may lose it to a young woman he thinks is his lost daughter, and to a crooked gambler willing to kill for the cash.
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#5 - Then There Was One
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/5/1990
Teaspoon sets out for Texas with an old comrade in arms to warn three other veterans that someone has been murdering the last men who truly remember the Alamo.
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#6 - Bad Blood
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/12/1989
Lou returns to the orphanage to retrieve her younger brother and sister, but her estranged father, a gunrunner, gets to them first.
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#7 - Black Ulysses
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/26/1989
The riders stand up for a runaway slave who is pursued by Missouri state militiamen committed to bringing down the fugitive.
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#8 - Ten-Cent Hero
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1989
A dime novelist creates the legendary gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok, and Hickok faces the consequences when a gunfighter arrives for a showdown with the fastest gun in the West.
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#9 - The Kid
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1989
This was the pilot episode. We meet Kid first, he gets into a fist fight to get his horse, Katy. Later he joins the Pony Express where we are introduced to Emma Shannon the station mistress, Teaspoon Hunter the shaggy station master, Buck, Jimmy, Ike, Cody, and Lou. Later in the episode we also meet the continuing character Sam Cain, the marshal of Sweetwater.
#10 - Home of the Brave
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1989
When the Kiowa begin to attack white settlements and civilians, Buck must decide between loyalty to his Kiowa brother and to the obligations and friendships he has found with the Pony Express. In the meantime, Lou, Hickok and Cody get into a fight with Tompkins and his men because of the shopkeeper's insults against Buck.
#11 - Lady for a Night
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/18/1990
Dressed as a lady for a night, Lou meets a vicious brute who develops an obsession for her, while he masterminds a series of heists in the territory.
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#12 - Matched Pair
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/8/1990
Hickok helps a friendly rival search for their gunfighting mentor's kidnapped daughter, who actually has escaped with evidence of her dad's corruption.
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#13 - A Good Day to Die
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1989
Kid finds a young warrior at the scene of a way-station massacre, and although the warrior denies any wrongdoing, Kid hauls him back through Indian territory to face justice in Sweetwater.
#14 - Fall from Grace
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/4/1990
Hickok has a falling-out with Teaspoon, and he falls in with a gang of outlaws who are after a store of Army guns and ammunition.
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#15 - Unfinished Business
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/1/1990
After surviving a massacre of wealthy settlers near Sal Lake, Emma's estranged husband arrives in Sweetwater looking for shelter from Emma, and raising the suspicions of Sam and the riders.
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#16 - Decoy
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/8/1990
On a wild ride to deliver a top-secret Government message, Cody helps a mortally wounded mountain man, who asks Cody to care for his pet bear. Meanwhile, back in Sweetwater, the other riders look after an abandoned baby.
#17 - Hard Time
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/11/1990
Kid is sentenced to hard time on a trumped-up charge by a small-town sheriff carrying out the policies of the sadistic man who keeps the town under a cloud of fear.
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#18 - Daddy's Girl
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/15/1990
A new girl in town has Buck in her sights, but he is caught in the cross-fire between her, her tyrannical father and her cruel suitor.
#19 - Bulldog
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/22/1990
An Eastern college boy arrives with dreams of meeting his Western idol, Hickok, but he is used as an unwitting accomplice in a scheme that endangers all the riders.
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#20 - Speak No Evil
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1989
While on an Express run, Ike witnesses a terrible stagecoach massacre and finds himself unable to take the life of the gang's leader. The man is apprehended, however, and it is up to the Riders to ensure Ike's safe passage to the courthouse where he can testify.
#21 - The Man Behind the Badge
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/22/1990
Sam finds himself on the wrong side of the law in his own town when the man responsible for the murder of Sam's wife takes over Sweetwater.
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#22 - Gathering Clouds (2)
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/14/1990
Kid escapes the noose, but Hawk's raiders are still on the loose, so Hickok works his way into the gang, which hangs any pretense of civility to pursue its violent purpose.
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#23 - Blind Love
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/7/1989
Hickok's heart is lassoed by a mysterious woman, but he is caught in a dangerous tangle when he discovers that she is bound to another man.
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#24 - Gathering Clouds (1)
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/7/1990
The tension between the North and the South reaches crisis proportions, and Kid is recruited to infiltrate a band of Southern guerrillas led by a charismatic Robin Hood called the Hawk.
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