Death Valley Days
How to Beat a Badman
TV Flash files “How to Beat a Badman” as hour 421 of 452 in the TV Flash guide — Death Valley Days (1952–1970) on Syndication, season 17, episode 21, aired 1969-03-18, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S17E21: listed hour 421 of 452 in the Death Valley Days guide, hour 21 of 26 in season 17. It aired 1969-03-18 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “A Full House” (S17E20). Next is “A Key for the Fort” (S17E22). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Viewer FAQ
Where does How to Beat a Badman sit in the Death Valley Days guide?
S17E21 is listed hour 421 of 452 — hour 21 of 26 in season 17, season 17 episode 21.
When did Death Valley Days S17E21 air?
How to Beat a Badman aired 1969-03-18 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with any host era you can find — Andrews, Reagan, Taylor, Robertson — and a Borax-framed 'true' desert tale. The anthology-plus-pitch is the show.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Death Valley Days is the longest-running western anthology, Borax-sponsored Americana hosted by old pros and at least one future president. True-ish frontier tales as a brand. A 2026 viewer watches it for the host-as-pitchman ritual and the trivia that Ronald Reagan once sold 20 Mule Team from the same desk.
The window is eighteen seasons. Death Valley Days ran in syndication from 1952 to 1970 — **452 episodes**, outlasting shinier primetime westerns on pure inventory — and the continuity was not a sheriff. It was Twenty Mule Team Borax. Ruth Woodman's desert brief treated claimed-true stories of the American West as a weekly textbook with a pitchman host: Stanley Andrews as the Old Ranger, then Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, Dale Robertson. Old pros and at least one future president selling desert lore from the same…
Filed against
- Stanley Andrews as The Old Ranger
Stanley Andrews hosted Death Valley Days as The Old Ranger — Borax-sponsored Americana, the longest-running western anthology, true-ish frontier tales as a brand. Host-as-pitchman ritual, old-pro weather. TV Flash files him as 1950s…
- Ronald Reagan as Host
Ronald Reagan hosted Death Valley Days as Borax-sponsored Americana — longest-running western anthology, true-ish frontier tales as a brand, host-as-pitchman ritual that later trivia would never let go. A future president selling 20 Mule…
- Robert Taylor as Host
Robert Taylor hosted Death Valley Days as Borax-sponsored Americana — longest-running western anthology, true-ish frontier tales as a brand, old-pro pitchman ritual in the desert. TV Flash files him as 1950s host-as-product craft: a…
- Dale Robertson as Host
Dale Robertson’s host weather on Death Valley Days sold Borax with a western drawl — 1950s catalog frontier anthology, then Tales of Wells Fargo making him a soft-spoken company agent on the trail. TV Flash files him as the cowboy who…