[1] Hashknife Hartley began as a summer replacement series,[2] filling the time slot of Juvenile Jury.
Paired with Hopalong Cassidy in the following half-hour, the substitution gave Mutual a one-hour Western block on Sunday afternoons.
[3] In September 1950, the block was extended to 90 minutes when Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders was added in the half-hour before Hashknife Hartley.
[4] The program featured the adventures of Hashknife Hartley and Sleepy Stevens, characters created by W.C. Tuttle, who served as narrator.
The Vandevert family, which developed the brand, became known as "the Hashknife Outfit", and in turn that group inspired the printed stories and the radio program.