Bat Masterson is loosely based on the life and adventures of real life lawman, army scout, gunfighter and journalist. Dressed-up dandy (derby and cane), gambler and lawman roams the West charming women and defending the unjustly accused. His primary weapon was his wit (and cane) rather than his gun.
Bat responds to cry for help when a friend's small gambling house is threatened by rival casino owned by Big Keel Roberts. Roberts suggest that he and Bat play one hand of poker, with the winner gaining ownership of both casinos.
A vicious night rider reacts with murderous intent when he thinks Bat is flirting with his girl, pretty saloon girl Molly Doyle. Everyone tells Bat to leave town to save his life but Bat not wanting to be told what to do decides to stay.
Bat wins a herd of cattle in a card game in Laramie and discovers that in order to convert them into cash, he'll have to fight his way past a rancher determined to only allow his cattle to be sold in Cheyenne.
Bat encounters a group of wranglers who are stealing horses. A old flame of Bat's asks him to rescue her current beau, accused of murder and shackled to a tree by a lynch mob led by the slain man's brother who leads the wranglers.
Bat wins the contract of a young fighter from his unscrupulous manager, then trains him for one honest fight, betting all his poker winnings on it. The boxer's former manager doesn't want a fair fight and plans to ensure the boxer loses.
Bat is hired to guide a hunting party to Canada. The sheriff suspects that the three are wanted for robbery and murder but he needs proof. When Bat discovers the truth, he is roped to a tree as bait for the bears by them.
Bat is hired to guide a hunting party to Canada. The sheriff suspects that the three are wanted for robbery and murder but he needs proof. When Bat discovers the truth, he is roped to a tree as bait for the bears by them.
When a bully threatens two youngsters if they won't sell the hardware store they inherited, Bat helps. He teaches the man how to defend himself with a gun, but the student shoots his antagonist in the back and then goes after his teacher.
Three cousins inherit pieces of map describing the location of their uncle's buried treasure. Not trusting each other, they hire Bat to guide them to the place where the money has been hidden - a place known as "Worry Hill".
Bat is hired by John Conant to discover if his daughter's fiancée cheats at cards. Bat discovers the crooked card sharp is really a powerful cattle baron who plans to kill Bat before he can tell anyone else.
President Hayes is coming to Dodge City accompanied by General Sherman during an election stop. The Marshal will protect Hayes but he asking Bat to become a deputy to protect General Sherman in a town full of southern cowboys who hate him.
Bat recommends himself to be a wagon guide to cross the desert after a wagon guide is brought in dead with bullets in him. Three wagon trains have been lost that summer to a trail pirate. The woman leading the next train doesn't trust Bat.
When Bat learns that a man sporting a derby and a cane and claiming to be "Bat Masterson" has set himself up as sheriff of Trinidad, Colorado, he immediately rides there to investigate to protect his name.
While leading a trail drive, Bat is confronted at a town by a gang who tries to extort money from him before they allow his cattle to pass. Bat refuses to pay and discovers the gang is backed by the mayor he decides to boot from office.
Pawnee renegade Stone Calf and his braves have taken two white girls captive in a raid. The Army is leaving to back up Custer so Bat is asked to rescue the sisters. He reluctantly agrees to do it when his female friends pressures him.
Outlaw Bailey Harper steals Bat's horse, gun and money. Bailey laughs when Bat tells him he'll get all of his property back. He tells the gambler that no one will help him. Bat's plan is to court Bailey's girl and force Bailey to find him.
Bat sees a poker game break up when a player accuses the dealer of cheating. Bat learns that all the games in town are rigged with the Sheriff collecting a payoff so Bat tries to start an honest game but he is jailed and banned from cards.
A casino owner hires a marksman with money problems to kill Bat to whom he is deeply in debt. When the man's pregnant wife convinces him to renege on the agreement, the casino owner hires two hard cases to force the confrontation.
A gang of river pirates take over the paddle-wheeler Dakota Queen and relieve the passengers of jewels and furs and Bat of $10,000. Bat uses a barrel of rare cheeses to trap the gang's gluttonous leader to recover the items.
When an old railroad boss refuses to pay Bat the salary owed him, Bat decides to work for his competitor. Both men are racing to build a railroad through a canyon. Although behind, Bat has an idea on how to win the race for the canyon.
Bat is cheated at cards by a town boss with the cooperation of the local sheriff. When he meets a brother and sister who were cheated in a land swindle, they three plot to get their money back and bring the crook to justice.
Bat rides to Leadville, Colorado to confront an editor that wrote an article describing him as one of the West's most ruthless gunfighters. The editor learns of Bat's true nature when he defends the paper against a crooked civic leader.
Bat agrees to escort a murder suspect to trial, but he escapes with the help of his girl friend. Bat decides to take the woman to Fort Smith to stand trial for jail-breaking with the hope that he might capture the suspect along the way.
Bat buys a boxing club in Denver. When he arrives he sees that the police have posted "Property Condemned" signs on his building. He soon discovers that the town councilors have plans to raze his gym and erect a casino on the spot.
Two gunmen steal the horses from the stagecoach in which Bat and Lorna Adams are riding. Bat trades his cane for a horse so Lorna can get to Austin to present evidence that will save a man from the gallows but the thieves have other ideas.
Bat follows his favorite tailor to a New Mexico town to order custom made suits. Bat's order is put on hold when the crooked casino owner orders the tailor, a town-leader, kidnapped before he can organize a town counsel to fight his gang.
On his way to build a gambling casino in a boomtown, Bat is confronted by an inept robber - an Austrian nobleman who has been cheated at a crooked saloonkeeper's roulette table who is in love with a dance hall girl.
Bat wins half of a lottery ticket during a high stakes poker game, but the man with other half dies and his ticket goes missing.
Bat returns to the small mining town Bonanza, Colorado to withdraw his earnings from a cattle drive. He discovers he died and his pretty widow has emptied his bank account.
Bat is undercover to break up a gang of highly respected businessmen in Cheyenne. He has to work himself into their group to be the fall guy. His task becomes dangerous when the only man who knows of his assignment dies of a heart attack.
Bat is kidnapped and asked to become the bank president in a town consisting entirely of former outlaws, because the former crooks don't trust each other. He is to keep the money safe while a blonde beauty handles the books.
Bat is asked by a woman to prevent a false story from being printed in a Cheyenne newspaper supposedly written by John Surratt, one of John Wilkes Booth's confederates for the Lincoln assassination. She says her uncle is dead.
Bat discovers that a bartender serves as John Surratt in order to sell a scandalous story to the local newspaper. After Bat learns the truth, the bartender is found dead and the gambler is blamed for the murder.
Bat is hired to join a man in jail to gain his confidence and help him escape. The hope is the man will lead Bat to a string of black pearls he stole a train's express box. Bat's job is complicated when the man's sister shows up.
Two Dutch treasure hunters search for a legendary Spanish galleon that sank in the Colorado River. Bat attempts to rescue the unwary pair from a desert sandstorm and two crooks who are out to steal the jewels if the ship is found.
After Bat rescues an old gypsy from a brutal rancher, the old man offers him many valuable gifts, including a beautiful girl. When Bat learns she is not a gypsy but found near a wagon train massacred by Indians, he decides to take her.
Bat agrees to substitute for a bully as the leader of a party of buffalo hunters into Indian territory, but the man he supplanted stirs up trouble by killing a Sioux Indian brave and framing Bat for the murder.
An old friend asks Bat to San Francisco to look into the background of her daughter's fiancée which is a cousin. Bat learns she is a frequent visitor at a casino where she seems to win but her fiancée seems to lose - even his life.
Bat seeks to collect a loan given to a reformed gunman who is now a rancher. In order to get his money he must save the man from a trigger-happy sheriff who believes the man is guilty of murder due to a witness's story.
Bat races to the bedside of a dying friend, only to discover the man is quite well and needs Bat's help in his quest to relocate the Stone County seat from Bundy to Sapphira. However, the other gunmen brought in have a bigger idea.
While visiting St. Joseph, Missouri to see his former girlfriend, an up-and-coming soprano, Bat comes to the aid of a businessman who refuses to pay protection money but finds himself accused of being an enforcer for the racket.
Bat's stake is stolen to force him to work for a crooked casino owner. When he refuses, events lead Bat to come to the aid of two beautiful women who are being blackmailed by the owner of Sacramento's largest casino, "The Lady Luck".
When Bat buys a derby hat in a small Missouri town he is aghast at the price. Learning that a freight line owner forces shopkeepers to use only his line to ship their supplies from the river, Bat decides to break his monopoly.
When Bat learns that the two thousand dollars the Bassett brothers owe him is in jeopardy because of the shooting feud between the Bassetts and the Clements, Bat decides to intervene to protect his investment.
When an honest man is elected to be the town sheriff campaigning for fair taxes, the wealthy railroad owner ships his cash out of town to avoid paying his fair share. Bat provides the new sheriff with help to collect the taxes.
An unsophisticated miner runs afoul of a town boss and is framed for murder. When the town's lawyers refuse to represent him properly because they fear for their lives, Bat decides to represent the defendant in court himself.
When General Moran bets a spur of his railroad against a Texas horse ranch that a Kentucky thoroughbred can beat a Texas quarter-horse in a 440 yard sprint, he hires Bat to train his horse to win the wager.
Bat is convinced that a painting purchased by a beautiful friend is a forgery since the original burned. He tries to prove the painting is fake but finds himself on the wrong side of a bet and framed for the murder of a renown art critic.
When threaten by anti-suffrage leaders, Bat decides to help a group of women campaigning for women's suffrage in Wyoming fight a cabal of wealthy ranchers who wish to prevent women from getting the vote fearing homesteaders.
Bat is asked to take half interest in the Long Branch Saloon to help make it profitable. He does so by hiring a female piano player but a crooked mayor and Marshal force him to create the Dodge City Peace Commission to clean up the town.
When Hugh Blaine bets $50,000 that all four hooves of a racehorse are off the ground at once, he agrees to pay Bat 10% of the bet to supply proof. Bat hires a man to take photographs of the trotter in action, but the pictures are stolen.
When two speculators try to corner the stock market by sending former Pony Express riders racing from the mining towns to Denver with the latest information, Bat helps his friend counter the move with by sending news by carrier pigeon.
Bat and his partners fleece an unscrupulous businessman out of half the profits in a gold mine. He exacts revenge by buying up the timber they need to shore up the mine walls, then tries to kill the men with an explosion in the mine.
A stagecoach carrying Bat and Claire, the local sheriff's fiancée, is robbed and Claire is kidnapped. With the sheriff wounded and out of action, Bat tries to rescue Claire and capture the entire gang of kidnappers by himself.
Bat's friend, Ellie Winters, is hired by promoters selling shares in their diamond mine. Although Ellie is convinced that the mine is legitimate, Bat investigates and discovers the owners are salting the mine with high-grade quartz.
On his way to investigate irregularities in a bank's bookkeeping, Bat encounters a gun fight in which a man is killed by two gunmen. Bat finds himself involved with embezzlers, murderers and a new friend - a thieving dog.
Bat spots Lisa Truex in Deadwood who stole $2000 from him. Bat wants to collect but Lisa's boyfriend runs the town. She sells Bat an acre of land she owns that appears to be worthless but Bat finds a way to profit from it if he lives.
Bat receives half of a cane he gave to Jane Taylor and rides to her ranch to investigate. He is forced to choose sides between her family and other ranchers and his old friend, a cattle baron intent on returning to the days of open range.
Three cowboys trick a magician into helping them rob a bank by taking Bat Masterson's gun "as a joke" before he enters the bank. Bat and the magician team up to recover the loot through the aid of another conjurer's stunt.
Bat travels to Yuma to give away the bride at a wedding but discovers the girl's murdered fiancée on the way there. After telling the bride, he joins the posse sent to bring the suspected killer, the Yaqui Kid, to justice.
While awaiting a murder trail in which he will be the star witness, Bat visits a Mexican ranch where, he is told, a fortune in jewels awaits. It's a trap, though, set by the defendant's uncle and Bat will face a firing squad at dawn.
When Ellie Winters is framed for murder, she desperately telegraphs Bat for help. He bails her out to help search for a missing witness but he decides to create a second witness and get Wyatt Earp to play her high priced lawyer.
During a rest stop in Headstone, Texas Bat has a run in with a Judge known for "fine" work. The Judge is up for reelection and Bat has an idea to take advantage of it. The Judge sponsors an exhibition fight and Bat makes a killing.
After Bat and the stagecoach he is riding is robbed, Bat's plan to catch the gang of stagecoach robbers backfires, when not only the silver bullion the stagecoach was carrying is stolen, but the stagecoach itself disappears.
The U.S. Cavalry at Fort Bowie contracts with Bat for a herd of 55 horses. When his herd is stolen and his men all killed or wounded, Bat determines to recapture his herd and bring the killers to justice but it requires some trickery.
When Bat meets cowboys on a trail drive, he discovers that a gambler has appropriated his name and set up a casino called "Masterson's Arcadia Club" where all the ranch hands passing through town lose all their money playing crooked games.
While his stage makes a stop, Bat is arrested, charged with possession of a gun and assessed a staggering fine. When Bat learns that the local judge runs the town as a personal fiefdom, he decides to change things when a man faces hanging.
After Bat's good friend and railroad tycoon Hugh Blaine is conned in a complex land and cattle swindle, Blaine hires Bat to get his money back and bring the crooks to justice. However, Bat ends up digging his own grave.
When depositing his winnings, Bat and the bank are robbed by a gang of Mexican bandits. Bat tracks the bandits and their double-crossing female accomplice through Spanish-American communities to retrieve his money and the bank's money.
Bat is asked to find how stolen Mexican cattle, many diseased, are entering Texas and mingling with local animals. With the help of the local sheriff he prints a wanted poster which he hopes serve as his introduction to the local rustlers.
Bat down and out on his luck is hired as the bodyguard of a beautiful widow. She must wear a fabulously expensive diamond to the Governor's reception that evening but before they can leave the necklace is stolen while Bat is distracted.
When a man Bat staked to search for the Lost Dutchman's Mine disappears, Bat buys a map from a too agreeable bartender and sets off in pursuit. Bat soon learns that his friend is but one of many miners who have recently vanished.
Before Bat's partner in a casino venture is dies, he asks Masterson to deliver his share of the money to his brother on the Mexican border. Bat learns that the man is rumored to lead a gang of rustlers.
An old sea captain has dismantled his clan's Scottish castle and is rebuilding it in San Francisco. A stockholder serves him with a restraining order, claiming he's wasting the business' assets constructing such an extravagant building.
Bat grubstakes Cactus Charlie, an elderly prospector searching for a gold strike. Charlie finds gold, all right, the proceeds from a recent robbery and the crooks who buried the loot will stop at nothing to recover their ill-gotten gains.
Working again for his friend Hugh Blaine, Bat is hired to investigate the theft of barbed-wire fencing that prevents cattle from climbing onto a railroad's right-of-way. Question is whether Bat wants to tackle the five to one odds.
Midas Creek hires Bat to run their annual shooting contest. The council believe that the local bully will generally do anything in his power to win the contest. When the local gunsmith wins, it's the thug's rifle vs. Bat's pistol.
Bat has an interest in a mine in Colorado and discovers its conditions are unsafe, but the general manager is forcing the miners to work in it anyway. He decides to convince the other owners including its pretty namesake to improve safety.
An Englishman has a theory that accuracy is more important in a gunfight than speed or size of the ammunition. When he kills a bully with his specially designed rifled pistol, the Englishman decides he's ready to take on his goal - Bat.
When Bat catches his gambling casino partner embezzling money, he kicks the man out, telling him never return unless he brings $25,000 to buy Bat's interest in the business. The partner plans to get control of Bat's half by killing him.
After a bank robbery Bat finds himself broke so he accepts an offer from a friend for a job. When his friend is murdered, Bat agrees to undertake his unfinished business - delivering three mail-order brides to their new husbands.
Bat rides to the assistance of his friend, a sheriff, but arrives after the Dakota boys gun him down. The president of the town council asks Bat to step into the office, but Bat decides the job should go to another person.
Bat is asked by a woman to help her and her young son escape the deadly Doolin gang who Bat has tangled with before. She wants to return to St. Louis with her son to her parents but her son wants to stay knowing only the gang as family.
Bat thinks a young gunfighter might be the son of a man with whom he fought at the Battle of Adobe Wells. He plans to appeal to the governor for a pardon for his crimes because of the unrewarded service of his father.
Bat returns to Casper, Wyoming to testify at a murder trial. He learns that all the other witnesses are either dead or are afraid to testify and the father of the man under arrest intends to eliminate the last witness
Bat inherits a casino from an old enemy and soon discovers why. Upon arriving in town, he learns that the casino is $3000 behind in its mortgage payments and the previous owner was killed by the town marshal who owns the mortgage.
An eastern gambler playing a "system" breaks the bank at Bat's casino, putting the dapper Masterson out of business. Bat wonders if the "system" didn't have more than a little help from his pretty dealer.
When a old miner refuses to allow a road to be built through a high mountain pass he owns, the California Governor asks Bat to intervene. Bat finds the holdout to be an old friend Soda Smith and all is not as the Governor thought.
The stagecoach in which Bat Masterson, Major Mars and pretty Lottie Tremaine are traveling is waylaid by a vengeful gang led by an Indian whose family was slain when the Major's men wiped out a village. Bat is forced to defend the Major.
Bat arrives in Paradise, Colorado to collect a gambling debt from a crooked casino owner who doesn't like to pay his debts. He also doesn't like to pay his taxes - until Bat accepts an appointment as the new county tax assessor .
Bat's lucrative contract to build a railroad in Colorado is in jeopardy. His crew is menaced by natural disasters and then wagon loads of equipment are lost. Just when things it seems things can't get worse, Bat is arrested for murder.
Bat's old friend from Dodge City, Marshal Ben Holt, asks him to help fight a scheme plotted by the power-grabbing land baron General Silas Guild. When he arrives, Bat isn't sure that the Marshal is on the side of law and order.
Bat's plan to journey to Cheyenne for a big poker game are disrupted when the cavalry escort for a vital load of gunpowder is wiped out and the only men available to drive the wagons to the supply starved Fort Stewart appear unreliable.
In response to an urgent telegram offering a large salary, Bat rides to a remote Texas ranch where he is to drive a herd of 2000 cattle to Abilene. As he arrives he finds that the Grant family believes he's a hired killer and pays for it.
A villainous saloon keeper plots to take over Bat's bank by preventing the gold bars the bank needs to back its gold certificates from getting through and then provoking a run on the bank by its frightened depositors.
Bat wins a mining claim in a lottery, but a huge bearded man attacks Bat when he tries to find it. He throws Bat into the Trinity River and Bat floats downriver finding his companion Bob Bradbury dead on the other side of the river.
When gunslingers employed by Sam Shanks terrorize the small New Mexico town of Eden, Bat is drafted to serve as a special prosecutor when one of Shank's men is to be tried for murder and the expected result is a not guilty verdict.
A gang of outlaws tries to take a Medal of Honor from a woman whose husband gave his life for it. Bat offers a $100 in exchange for the medal, but the gunman escapes with Bat's money, cane and the medal of honor with Bat in hot pursuit.
Bat's riding rescues three men from the gallows - he bears an amnesty for all combatants in the Lincoln County War. The three gunmen soon return to their criminal ways and Bat must help the local marshal hunt down the recently freed men.
Bat rescues a woman from three men trying to grab her and her carpet bag. The woman tells Bat she and her father were the prisoners of a gang of outlaws who rode with Jesse James and she has the evidence to prove it.
Several Indian tribes claim that white men are kidnapping their women and children to be sold for slaves or held for ransom. In order to prevent an all-out war with the local tribes, the U.S. Army sends Bat Masterson to investigate.
A wounded and fainting Bat delivers a message to a Major at Fort Logan ordering the Colonel to skip a meeting with the Indians. However, the Major believing the Colonel is impeding his political career doesn't deliver the message.
Bat rides into town to meet a young friend. He arrives too late - the young man was killed when he accused three wealthy ranchers of cheating at cards and the sheriff refuses to arrest the men responsible for the murder.
When a new silver strike is made in Monument City, Nevada, Bat returns to the former ghost town to check on his four year old claim and finds two claim jumpers are prepared to shoot first and ask questions later.
Pinkerton hires Bat to get evidence against a gang that is terrorizing a town. Bat goes undercover as a marble salesman to convince the leader that so prominent a citizen should have a statue in his honor erected in the town square.
Bat is ambushed in the desert by two men, his horse and water stolen. Left to die he is rescued by a farmer who is now the town marshal. Bat is determined to help the young lawman gain confidence in his ability to keep the peace.
Bat is hired to serve as a bodyguard at Wyatt Earp's El Paso casino, but the two of them can't prevent a robbery which costs Wyatt Earp $13,000 as he won't bank his money. The robbers use a costly shirt as a gift to distract Bat.
Bat is called upon by the daughter of an old friend to investigate his murder in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The family runs a freight and stage line there but the drivers are being killed for some reason and the line is nearly bankrupt.
Complete episode guide for Bat Masterson with detailed information about every season and episode including air dates, summaries, ratings, and streaming availability in Japan.
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