In the films, Hopalong, or "Hoppy", and his white horse, Topper, travel through the Old West while dispensing justice, usually with two companions: one young and trouble-prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other older, comically awkward and outspoken.
[2] The juvenile lead was successively played by James Ellison, Russell Hayden, Jay Kirby, George Reeves, Rand Brooks, and Jimmy Rogers.
After Hayes left the series because of a salary dispute with producer Harry Sherman, he was replaced by the comedian Britt Wood as Speedy McGinnis and finally by the veteran film comedian Andy Clyde as California Carlson.
This remained the situation until the mid-1990s, after many Cassidy fans had died, when the company made available to The Western Channel a package series of restored and cleaned negative-based prints of the films to cable TV.
As of the present, FilmRise distributes the Cassidy films for YouTube under license from U.S. Television Office, which remains the copyright holder for the franchise.