Cowboy in Africa, 1967

Cowboy in Africa is an ABC television series that premiered on September 11, 1967. Jim Sinclair (Chuck Connors) is hired by Commander Hayes (British actor Ronald Howard) to introduce modern methods to his game ranch in Kenya. He brings his helper and best friend, a Navajo Indian named John Henry. Together, they work at roping wildlife and building herds on the ranch. During the first episode, a ten-year-old African boy named Samson (played by Gerald Edwards) watches from afar and decides Jim would make a perfect father. Samson runs for a day and a half to the Hayes/Sinclair ranch and declares to Jim, the world’s champion cowboy, that Jim would be his father. By the end of the first episode the boy and cowboy have adopted each other. Samson, John Henry, and Jim Sinclair become a family.