Claude Akins-Frank Converse
Dumb attempt to jump on the short lived trucker craze. Claude Akins is Sonny Pruitt and Frank Converse is his college educated partner Will Chandler. They haul cargo across the country. The opening theme is by Merle Haggard.
September 30,1978 episode: “The Elephant Story” w/Keenan Wynn. Directed by Sean Penn’s father Leo. – Sonny and Will get a job taking an elephant named Anna May to Florida. They’ll get fifteen hundred bucks upon delivery so they load her into the back.
Anna May goes for some hay that’s spread around. In the hay is the drunken Barnaby (Keenan Wynn). Sonny and Will open the back to let him out and Anna May heads off down the road. Barnaby has a habit of talking to himself. He sees Anna May with some wire wrapped around her left leg. He talks himself into helping her out. Now he has a loyal pal.
At a truck stop the rig is stolen. Thanks to the local Smokey they find the trailer in town. The tractor is missing. One of the cops opens the back and Anna May gets loose. She causes thousands of dollars in damages before Barnaby can get her back. She’s taken to the local pound.
The magistrate tells Sonny and Will that Anna May will be put down in two days. Across from the pound is a junkyard. It just happens to be the headquarters of a hijacking gang. They’re getting ready to do over Sonny’s rig.
While hitchhiking Sonny and Will are about to get a lift. Sonny go crazy when he spots his air cleaner on the truck. He’s about to crown the driver when the driver tells him where he bought the air cleaner and takes them back to the pound.
Sonny sees his tractor in the air headed for the crusher. A fire breaks out and the three hijackers run off. The fire is headed for a tanker. Looks like Anna May will have to come to the rescue.
Frank Converse played Michael Alden in the popular 1967 summer replacement series “Coronet Blue.” He was Detective Johnny Corso in N.Y.P.D. Blue” (1967-69).
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