"The Cisco Kid is a 1950-1956 half-hour American Western television series starring Duncan Renaldo in the title role, the Cisco Kid, and Leo Carrillo as the jovial sidekick, Pancho. Cisco and Pancho were technically desperados wanted for unspecified crimes but were viewed by the poor as Robin Hood figures who assisted the downtrodden when law enforcement officers proved corrupt or unwilling to help.[2] It was also the first television series to be filmed in color, although few viewers saw it in color until the 1960s.
The central character was created by the American short story author O. Henry in ""The Caballero's Way"", published in 1907 in the collection Heart of the West. Radio, television, and films have depicted the Cisco Kid as a heroic Mexican caballero, but in the original story, the Kid is non-Hispanic and an authentic, unusually vicious outlaw. The character was adapted as the radio drama The Cisco Kid in 1942–1955. Jackson Beck played the title role 1942–1945, and Jack Mather from 1946–1955.
The TV series began production in 1949, and was filmed by ZIV Productions at the Ray Corrigan Ranch in Simi Valley, California; in Pioneertown, California; and at other southwestern U.S. locations. Carrillo, a Los Angeles native of Castillian ancestry, was the first regular Hispanic television star. (Renaldo was a native of Romania; Desi Arnaz, Sr, of Cuban descent, went on the air with his wife and co-star, Lucille Ball, in I Love Lucy a year later.) When the series began, Carrillo was already 70 years of age; Renaldo, 46. Part of the humor of the series is reflected in Carrillo's mangling of the English language. Pancho's catch-phrase, when amused by Renaldo, was a drawn-out ""Ohhh, Ceesco!"" Viewers also became acquainted with the characters' horses, Cisco's Diablo, and Pancho's Loco."
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