Wizards and Warriors (1983)

Debuting February 26, 1983. CBS, 8/7pm Central 

This one-hour light-hearted fantasy adventure was created by Don Reo for Warner Television and CBS. Set in the medieval realm of Aperans, Wizards and Warriors portrayed the ongoing conflict between the kingdoms of Karteia and Camarand. Prince Erik Greystone of Camarand (Jeff Conaway), engaged to Princess Ariel Baaldorf (Julia Duffy), continually clashes with the evil Prince Dirk Blackpool of Karteia (Duncan Regehr). Prince Erik was assisted by Marko, his valet (Walter Olkewicz) and the goodly crew often came up against the dealings of evil Karteian sorcerer Vector (Clive Revill). Recurring characters include Thomas Hill as King Edwin Baaldorf, Ian Wolfe as the wizard Traquill, Tim Dunigan as Geoffrey Blackpool, Jay Kerr as Prince Justin Greystone, and Randi Brooks as Bethel.

Wizards and Warriors aired on Saturdays at 8/7pm Central as a midseason replacement for Bring ‘Em Back Alive. Despite praise for its wit, directing, writing, and acting, the series suffered from low ratings and was not renewed for a second season. Saturday night competition from TJ Hooker, Diff’rent Strokes, and Silver Spoons contributed to its short run. However, the series did receive recognition for production values: Theadora Van Runkle won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Costumes for a Series. Sharleen Rassi, the series’ hairstylist, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling but lost to Edie Panda for Rosie: The Rosemary Clooney Story.

Airing in early 1983, the series came along at the height of popularity of role-playing tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons, which had been the target of a nationwide moral panic driven by an all-out smear campaign by a grassroots group headed by a psychiatrist now known to be a serial sexual predator. (A full documentary on the Satanic Panic is available from Forgotten TV.) Also in 1983, The Greatest American Hero had produced an episode titled “Wizards and Warlocks” which seemed to promote the narrative associated with the Dallas Egbert case, that D&D was a secretive, cult-like LARPing game. In the episode, an Arab prince attending an American university goes into hiding during a live-action role playing game and FBI agent Bill Maxwell is assigned to find him. However, as it happened, ABC pulled GAH off the air and the episode wasn’t seen until the series was rerun in syndication. Debuting in the fall of 1983, Dungeons & Dragons entered Saturday morning TV on CBS with an animated series produced by David H. DePatie and Marvel Entertainment. The story focused on a group of tween-and-teenage friends who take an amusement park ride and are transported into the realm of D&D.

While not directly related, Wizards and Warriors incorporated many elements familiar to D&D players, and you can’t help but think the popularity of the game contributed to the development of the show. According to creator Don Reo, he was not a D&D fan himself, but his kids were. “At the time my kids were small, and they were into Dungeons & Dragons, and I was interested in doing an hour action/adventure, a swashbuckler kind of thing. I was thinking about pirates and that came around to knights. I was also enamored with The Princess Bride by William Goldman…So I tried to combine those things.” (Interview found at the Wizards and Warriors Home Page.)

Although only 8 episodes were produced, the series made it to DVD in 2014. The panic over Dungeons & Dragons

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