TV series to feature trout fishing
The last “Postcard” touted the showing of “Curt Gowdy’s American Sportsman” on ABC TV in 1968. This article portrays the filming of the series in a small town in Wyoming. Following are excerpts from articles appearing in “The Saratoga Sun” in 1967 and 1968.
Curt Gowdy to film fishing on Platte
July 27, 1967
Camera crews will begin arriving at the Saratoga Inn next week where they will headquarter for a television show, which will be produced, directed, written and hosted by one of the nation’s top sportscasters and good will ambassador for his native Wyoming Curt Gowdy and his two sons Curt Jr. and Trevor.
Mr. Gowdy and his wife Jerre, daughter Cheryl and the two boys are in Cheyenne this week attending Frontier Days and are expected to arrive in Saratoga soon.
This trip has been a long-time dream of the host for TV’s “Game of the Week” and ABC’s “American Sportsman.”
The scene will be somewhere on the North Platte River. The script calls for Mr. Gowdy, one of the nation’s expert fly casters, to take his sons fishing in Wyoming where he acquired the art as a kid…
Curt Gowdy at Old Baldy Club
Aug. 3, 1967
Mr. and Mrs. Curt Gowdy and three children arrived at the Old Baldy Club Sunday to spend two weeks vacationing, fishing and relaxing. They were greeted at the Club by George B. Storer and Mayor Roy Welton.
While here, Mr. Gowdy will produce a television show which he has written. . . .
This week, Mr. Gowdy and his sons spent a lot of time fishing the North Platte River and surrounding lakes and streams. Wednesday, he and his wife and children floated the river with Len Bensen of Len’s Sport Shop. . . .
TV series to feature trout fishing here
Feb. 1, 1968
Saratoga and its superb trout fishing will be featured on ABC TV’s “American Sportsman” Show Sunday, Feb. 4 at 2:00 p.m. Television sport’s highest rated anthology series draws a weekly audience of approximately 23 million people.
The fishing segment is produced by Curt Gowdy, who also hosts “American Sportsman.” Gowdy and his crew of eight came to Wyoming last August and shot the show in the Saratoga area on the North Platte River. The Wyoming Travel Commission’s Director of Photography James R. Simon served as a cameraman during the filming.
“I always looked forward to the time when I could bring my two sons back to my native Wyoming and introduce them to the kind of trout fishing I enjoyed as a boy,” Gowdy said. “I talked the idea over with … our producers, and they were enthused. It is simply a story of two Eastern boys fishing on the exact same stretch of the Platte River where my father taught me how to fly fish.”
