Gentle Ben TV Show
Candy Candido ................... Gentle Ben's Voice
Patrick Newell .................. Gentle Ben (In a bear suit)
Gentle Ben Trivia
    
Gentle Ben got its start as a childrens' book written by Walt Morey. The TV series strayed a bit from the book by moving the location from Alaska to Florida.
Mark Wedloe's dad, "Tom" was the park ranger of the fictional "Bear River Game Reserve" where Gentle Ben took place.
Since he was always in a bear suit, audiences never got to see Patrick Newell. You may have seen him, however, in his role as "Mother" on the hit British series, " The Avengers ".
Gentle Ben was filmed at Virginia Key, Florida; Africa USA in Acton, California; and Greenwich Studios (a.k.a. Ivan Tors Studios) in Miami, Florida.
Clint Howard scored pretty big as a child actor. When he grew up, he had the same problem that many child stars do in that audiences and producers found it difficult to accept him in adult roles. Clint was able to land starring adult roles in "B" movies, however, and he also played many minor roles in "A" movies which were mostly those directed by his brother, "Ron Howard" who had also been a child star on the series, " The Andy Griffith Show " and then later as a teenager on, " Happy Days ".
Many people think that there's some connection between the bear on Gentle Ben and another bear on the series, " The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams " because it's also named, "Ben". "Grizzly Adams" aired ten years after Gentle Ben and had no connection whatsoever with it.
Dennis Weaver was quite the accomplished man! He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in "Fine Arts" and a major in "Theater". He came in at sixth place in the decathlon at the 1948 Olympic trials and actually came in first in the 1500 meter run! He held office as the President of the "Screen Actor's Guild" from 1973-1975! He was the star of over 40 films and TV movies; several TV series including " Gunsmoke (1955-1964)", "Gentle Ben (1967-1969), " McCloud (1970-1977)", and " Buck James (1987)"; plus he guest starred on many other TV shows. In 1981, he was inducted into the "Hall of Great Western Performers" of the "National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum".
When Weaver was first signed on to "Gunsmoke", he was a working/but struggling actor. His starting salary was $300 per week which was pretty good money in 1955, but by his last season on the series in 1964, he was earning $9,000 per week!
Gentle Ben never won any awards. It even had to wait until 2004 to get nominated for one when TV Land nominated the series for its "Favorite Fauna Award". Unfortunately, the show lost out to the series, " Mister Ed ". It's pretty hard to beat a talking horse, huh?
Episodes List With Original Air Dates
Season 1
Voice From the Wilderness  (10/8/1967)
Invasion of Willie Sam Gopher  (10/15/1968  2008  Reviews  0.00
Restless Bear  (10/22/1967)
Battle of Wedloe Woods  (10/29/1967)
Warden For Man and Beast  (11/5/1967)
A Waste of Honey  (11/12/1967)
Jennifer  (11/19/1967)
Warden in the Bear Pit  (11/26/1967)
A Medal For Ben  (12/3/1967)
The Ransom  (12/17/1967)
The Wayward Bear - Part 1  (12/24/1967)
The Wayward Bear - Part 2  (12/31/1967)
The Opportunist  (1/7/1968)
The Battle of Birthday Bay  (1/14/1968)
Trophy Bear  (1/21/1968)
Fire in the Glades  (2/18/1968)
Take a Giant Step  (2/25/1968)
Survival in the Swamp  (3/3/1968)
Who's Afraid?  (3/10/1968)
Ol' Joe's Gotta Go  (3/24/1968)
Season 2
Two For The Sea - Part 1  (9/29/1968)
Two For The Sea - Part 2  (10/6/1968)
The Wall That Mark and Tom Built  (10/13/1968)
Ben The Champ  (10/20/1968)
A Gift of Love  (11/10/1968)
Code Name: Disaster  (11/17/1968)
Starr of Green Bay  (12/1/1968)
Warden's Pond  (12/15/1968)
Knights of the Road  (12/22/1968)
The Haunted Castle  (12/29/1968)
Keeper of the Glades - Part 1  (1/12/1969)
Keeper of the Glades - Part 2  (1/19/1969)
The Great Mail Boat Robbery  (1/26/1969)
Show Biz  (2/2/1969)
My Son the Banker  (2/23/1969)
The Last Red Wolf  (3/2/1969)
The Competitor  (3/9/1969)
Mark of the Arrow  (3/16/1969)
Boom's Land Boomerang  (3/23/1969)
Elephant on the Lam  (3/30/1969)
The Prey  (4/6/1969)