Crusader (sometimes erroneously listed as The Crusader) is a half-hour black-and-white American adventure/drama series that aired on CBS for two seasons from October 7th, 1955 to December 28th, 1956.

The series stars Brian Keith as the fictitious free-lance journalist Matt Anders, whose mother’s death in a World War II Nazi concentration camp in German-occupied Poland propels him to combat injustices worldwide during the height of the Cold War.  Keith’s Crusader has been compared to Zorro, The Lone Ranger, or The Cisco Kid in that the principal character is devoted to altruism.  Anders is particularly interested in liberating oppressed peoples from communism.  The series began as Nikita S. Khrushchev emerged as the premier and the general secretary of the Communist Party in the former Soviet Union.  The 52-episode program, Keith’s first television series, aired on CBS at 9 p.m. Eastern on Fridays.