7.1/1026 votes#1 - Payment In Full
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/13/1959
For a price, simple-minded Hunk Farber is only happy to reveal the whereabouts of his boss, Monte, who accidentally killed a senator's son. The reward in his pocket, Hunk heads for Captain Holden's riverboat. There he is eager to impress a young lady aboard the Enterprise.
Director: Douglas Heyes
Writer: Douglas Heyes
- 8.5/1016 votes
#2 - The Barrier
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 9/20/1959
Young Jefferson Carruthers has been assigned to a new post as an Indian agent. He and his wife board the Enterprise to travel to their new home. Also on board is Vance Muldoon, who plans to offer Carruthers money if he will smuggle liquor to the Indians.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1017 votes
#3 - About Roger Mowbray
Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 9/27/1959
Wealthy Roger Mowbray's marriage is threatened when an old sweetheart intimates that Roger married for money. Because he really loves his wife, Roger is doubly upset to discover that his father seems to be involved in the scheme to break up the marriage.
Director: Felix E. Feist
Writer: Hagar Wilde
- 7.8/1012 votes
#4 - Race to Cincinnati
Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/4/1959
John Jenkins has placed a large down payment on land owned by three ruthless farmers. Jenkins is planning to deliver a shipment of peaches, via the Enterprise, to Cincinnati, as a final payment for the land. But the farmers plot to block the boat so the shipment of peaches will be spoiled.
Director: Jules Munshin
Writer: N/A
7.4/1024 votes#5 - The Unwilling
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/1959
Riverboat pilot John Murrell plans to hijack a shipment from rival pilot Dan Simpson. Murrell arranges to have Lela Candida take a job on Simpson's boat as a dancing girl, so that she can signal his raiders when to attack.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.7/1016 votes
#6 - The Fight Back
Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 10/18/1959
Ansel Torgin hires the Enterprise for his daughter's wedding. Captain Grey Holden recognizes the bridegroom as a drifter he once threw off his riverboat.
Director: Jules Munshin
Writer: N/A
- 6.4/1022 votes
#7 - Escape to Memphis
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/25/1959
Laura Sutton is forced to kill her husband in self defense. Laura's brother-in-law, Jarrett Sutton, witnesses the shooting and tries to blackmail her.
Director: John Rich
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1016 votes
#8 - Witness No Evil
Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 11/1/1959
Otto Justin, dealer in wild animals, is escorting a shipment of his captured beasts to St. Louis aboard the Enterprise. Widow Abby Saunders and her young son Paddy are both impressed with Justin's manner.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.2/1019 votes
#9 - A Night At Trapper's Landing
Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1959
French playboy Andre Devereaux has become an American lieutenant. Assigned to lead some troops into Indian Territory, he finds that the normally peaceful Indians have been provoked to violence.
Director: Felix E. Feist
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1016 votes
#10 - The Faithless
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/22/1959
Prisoner Paul Drake is being returned to custody by a prison guard. Because Drake has already tricked him once, the guard shackles his prisoner to a deckhouse on the Enterprise.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.1/1019 votes
#11 - The Boy From Pittsburgh
Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 11/29/1959
Tommy Jones, a young stowaway, is discovered aboard the Enterprise. Also on board is a pair of thieves, who plan to blow up the boat to collect insurance on some diamonds they are shipping to St. Louis.
Director: N/A
Writer: George Tibbles
- 7.6/1011 votes
#12 - Jessie Quinn
Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 12/6/1959
Lt. Perry Quinn, an officer in Sam Houston's Texas Army, hires the Enterprise to deliver a cargo of lead down river. Captain Grey Holden is warned that Santa Ana's agents may try to sabotage the shipment.
Director: Jules Munshin
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1012 votes
#13 - Strange Request
Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 12/13/1959
Actress Lorna Langton wants to charter the Enterprise and a skeleton crew for a trip to St. Louis. The actress has been told that her young son, kidnapped some years before, is being held in another town.
Director: John Rich
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1013 votes
#14 - Guns for Empire
Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 12/20/1959
Anthony Lorrimer charters the Enterprise to deliver a cargo of farm machinery to his thriving community of Lorrimer City. Captain Grey Holden is unaware that the cargo is actually arms and ammunition.
Director: William Witney
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/109 votes
#15 - The Face of Courage
Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 12/27/1959
The Enterprise steams upriver with a cargo of arms and recruits for the Fort Union outpost. At Akins Landing, Grey Holden is told by Homer Atkins that the Sioux have been watching the boat and are planning an uprising.
Director: William Witney
Writer: N/A
- 6.8/1011 votes
#16 - Tampico Raid
Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 1/3/1960
A group of volunteer teachers who have gone to the island of Diablo Corozan off the coast of Tampico are imprisoned when Spain conquers the island. The corrupt Spanish officials allow Joan Marchland, one of the teachers, to return to the United States to raise a ransom for the rest.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.8/109 votes
#17 - Landlubbers
Season 1 Episode 17 - Aired 1/10/1960
The Enterprise, tied up overnight, is boarded and highjacked by a vicious crew, who kill the three men left to guard the boat. Captain Grey Holden and Ben Fraser return to the scene in time to see their craft heading down the river. They set out overland to head her off.
Director: William Witney
Writer: N/A
- 6.3/1012 votes
#18 - The Blowup
Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 1/18/1960
Captain Grey Holden and his crew get into a street brawl over Martha Crane and land in jail. Martha agrees to bail them out on the condition that Grey will transport a supply of gunpowder up river to her father.
Director: Darren McGavin
Writer: N/A
- 7.0/108 votes
#19 - Forbidden Island
Season 1 Episode 19 - Aired 1/24/1960
While the Enterprise makes a stop for wood, a group of Cajuns board the vessel and hijack a part of the cargo. Two people are shot during the incident.
Director: Sidney Lanfield
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/108 votes
#20 - Salvage Pirates
Season 1 Episode 20 - Aired 1/31/1960
Louise Harrison and her boy friend, the only survivors of a boat tragedy, do some quick thinking. Realizing that a fortune in jewels went down with the ship, they appeal to their rescuer, Grey Holden, to help them retrieve Louise's ""dowry.""
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 6.7/1012 votes
#21 - Path of the Eagle
Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 2/1/1960
A trip to Independence, Missouri brings back memories of a bitter adventure to Grey Holden. Holden tells the story to Chip and Joshua.
Director: Jules Munshin
Writer: N/A
- 7.0/107 votes
#22 - The Treasure of Hawk Hill
Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 2/8/1960
Bank robbers have a falling-out over some hidden loot. One of the men manages to give a map of the hiding place to his son, before he is killed. The boy heads up river on a raft to deliver it to his uncle.
Director: William Witney
Writer: N/A
- 6.9/1011 votes
#23 - Fight At New Canal
Season 1 Episode 23 - Aired 2/22/1960
Grey Holden is chosen to represent riverboat captains in seeking a government-subsidized canal. Preliminary surveys and work must be completed before Congress will approve the project. Opponents of the canal set out to sabotage the project.
Director: R.G. Springsteen
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1010 votes
#24 - The Wichita Arrows
Season 1 Episode 24 - Aired 2/29/1960
Dan Duryea steps into the leading role for the first of two episodes.
Director: William Witney
Writer: N/A
- 7.5/1015 votes
#25 - Fort Epitaph
Season 1 Episode 25 - Aired 3/7/1960
Dan Duryea has the leading role in the second of two episodes.
Director: John Brahm
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Riverboat Season 1
Every episode of Riverboat Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Riverboat Season 1!
Riverboat is a 44-episode western television series starring Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds broadcast on the NBC television network from September 13, 1959 until January...
Genre:Western
Network:NBC
Season 1 Ratings Summary
"Payment In Full" is the best rated episode of "Riverboat" season 1. It scored 7.1/10 based on 26 votes. Directed by Douglas Heyes and written by Douglas Heyes, it aired on 9/13/1959. This episode is rated 1.4 points higher than the second-best, "The Barrier".