This was the pilot episode. We meet Kid first, he gets into a fist fight to get his horse, Katy. Later he joins the Pony Express where we are introduced to Emma Shannon the station mistress, Teaspoon Hunter the shaggy station master, Buck, Jimmy, Ike, Cody, and Lou. Later in the episode we also meet the continuing character Sam Cain, the marshal of Sweetwater.

Hickok projects the demons of his childhood onto a bullying hired gun and decides only a showdown with the gunslinger will exorcise them.

When the Kiowa begin to attack white settlements and civilians, Buck must decide between loyalty to his Kiowa brother and to the obligations and friendships he has found with the Pony Express. In the meantime, Lou, Hickok and Cody get into a fight with Tompkins and his men because of the shopkeeper's insults against Buck.

While on an Express run, Ike witnesses a terrible stagecoach massacre and finds himself unable to take the life of the gang's leader. The man is apprehended, however, and it is up to the Riders to ensure Ike's safe passage to the courthouse where he can testify.

Lou returns to the orphanage to retrieve her younger brother and sister, but her estranged father, a gunrunner, gets to them first.

The riders stand up for a runaway slave who is pursued by Missouri state militiamen committed to bringing down the fugitive.

A dime novelist creates the legendary gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok, and Hickok faces the consequences when a gunfighter arrives for a showdown with the fastest gun in the West.

Kid finds a young warrior at the scene of a way-station massacre, and although the warrior denies any wrongdoing, Kid hauls him back through Indian territory to face justice in Sweetwater.

Hickok discovers hidden feelings for Emma on a venture to an Army outpost commanded by a captain with a passion for cruelty.

Hickok's heart is lassoed by a mysterious woman, but he is caught in a dangerous tangle when he discovers that she is bound to another man.

Teaspoon is given claim to a small fortune, but he may lose it to a young woman he thinks is his lost daughter, and to a crooked gambler willing to kill for the cash.

Hickok has a falling-out with Teaspoon, and he falls in with a gang of outlaws who are after a store of Army guns and ammunition.

Kid is sentenced to hard time on a trumped-up charge by a small-town sheriff carrying out the policies of the sadistic man who keeps the town under a cloud of fear.

Dressed as a lady for a night, Lou meets a vicious brute who develops an obsession for her, while he masterminds a series of heists in the territory.

After surviving a massacre of wealthy settlers near Sal Lake, Emma's estranged husband arrives in Sweetwater looking for shelter from Emma, and raising the suspicions of Sam and the riders.

On a wild ride to deliver a top-secret Government message, Cody helps a mortally wounded mountain man, who asks Cody to care for his pet bear. Meanwhile, back in Sweetwater, the other riders look after an abandoned baby.

A new girl in town has Buck in her sights, but he is caught in the cross-fire between her, her tyrannical father and her cruel suitor.

An Eastern college boy arrives with dreams of meeting his Western idol, Hickok, but he is used as an unwitting accomplice in a scheme that endangers all the riders.

Hickok helps a friendly rival search for their gunfighting mentor's kidnapped daughter, who actually has escaped with evidence of her dad's corruption.

Sam finds himself on the wrong side of the law in his own town when the man responsible for the murder of Sam's wife takes over Sweetwater.

Teaspoon sets out for Texas with an old comrade in arms to warn three other veterans that someone has been murdering the last men who truly remember the Alamo.

The tension between the North and the South reaches crisis proportions, and Kid is recruited to infiltrate a band of Southern guerrillas led by a charismatic Robin Hood called the Hawk.

Kid escapes the noose, but Hawk's raiders are still on the loose, so Hickok works his way into the gang, which hangs any pretense of civility to pursue its violent purpose.