The 60 minute “The Alaskans”, starring Roger Moore and Dorothy Provine, debuted on ABC on Sunday October 4, 1959 from 9:30-10:30 EST. The b/w series couldn’t have asked for a better lead-in… “Colt .45”, “Maverick”, “Lawman” and “The Rebel”, but perhaps viewers shied away from the snowbound “Alaskans” in favor of “Alfred Hitchcock” and “Jack Benny” on CBS and “Dinah Shore” and “Loretta Young” on NBC. For whatever reason, “The Alaskans” only lasted one season, 37 episodes, and ended June 19, 1960, just in time for Warner Bros. to move Roger Moore over to “Maverick” in September ‘60 as Cousin Beau for the strike-bound James Garner. Dorothy Provine jumped into “The Roaring ‘20s” in October ‘60.
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“The Alaskans” 
Set in Alaska during the Gold Rush of 1898, hoping to get rich quick, smooth talking conman Silky Harris (Moore), his powerful partner Reno McKee (Jeff York) and singer Rocky Shaw (Dorothy Provine) seek their fortune in the region and often come into conflict with slick saloon owner Nifty Cronin (Ray Danton) (left). Shrewd and unethical wheeler-dealer Soapy Smith (John Dehner) popped up in several episodes. Ratings were never very strong and Jeff York left the show after 23 episodes when his contract ran out. The series also had the benefit of an impressive array of guest stars including James Coburn, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Troy Donahue, Rex Reason, Peter Whitney, Robert Colbert, Ruta Lee, Fay Spain, Lee Van Cleef, Leo Gordon, Marie Windsor, Stan Jolley, Neil Hamilton, Alan Hale, Claude Akins and Julie Adams to name but a few.
As for “The Alaskans” failure, Hugh Benson, executive in charge of WB television, said it plainly, “‘The Alaskans’ was really expensive to do. We built a stage with snow and huts and so forth, then on the backlot we built a whole street. It was a very expensive show. We never should have done it; it just didn’t catch on.” Executive producer Bill Orr agreed, “We were looking for an area to do another Western, but not in fact in the West. We came up with ‘The Alaskans’—the battle for rights and the mining. The rationale why the show didn’t last but one season was, it was too cold. People wore too many clothes and somehow the audience didn’t identify.” Also because of the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike, “The Alaskans” inherited a certain amount of scripted material from “Maverick”. Roger Moore acknowledged, “An old ‘Bronco’ or ‘Maverick’ script would
interchange with an ‘Alaskans’. In some cases even the dialogue stayed unchanged.” The joke going around was—“The Alaskans” was “Maverick” on ice! Warner even invented a writer named W. Hermanos which turns out to be Spanish for Warner Bros. Warners thought that was very funny.