He wrote the story for the film "Shotgun" (1955) made by Allied Artists and tried to star in it, but Universal would not loan him. Calhoun's conviction history was widely published in May 1955, when his mugshot appeared on the cover of "Confidential" magazine. He also wrote the novels "The Man From Padera" (1979) and "Cerrado" (1980). In late 1956, he arranged to pull out of his contract with Universal and said his fee was $75,000 per film. In 1957, Calhoun formed Rorvic Productions, a production company with his partner, Victor Orsatti. He helped produce and starred in "Flight to Hong Kong" (1956), "The Hired Gun" (1957), "Domino Kid" (1957) and "Apache Territory" (1958). He made "Utah Blaine" (1957) for Sam Katzman and "The Big Caper" (1957) for Pine Thomas. For Kirk Douglas' company he appeared in "Ride Out for Revenge" (1958) and he returned to Universal for "The Saga of Hemp Brown" (1958). In 1958, on the recommendation of studio boss Desi Arnaz, Calhoun co-produced and starred in the television series "The Texan", which aired on Monday evenings until 1960. He said in a 1959 article that the only two good films he made were "With a Song in My Heart" and "How to Marry a Millionaire", the rest being "terrible". Calhoun produced and wrote screenplays throughout his career. "The Texan" could have filmed a third year, but Calhoun wanted to concentrate on films. On March 26, 1959, he appeared as himself in the episode "Rory Calhoun, The Texan" on the sitcom "December Bride", starring Spring Byington. After "The Texan" ended, Calhoun starred in "Thunder in Carolina" (1960). He appeared on TV shows such as "Gunsmoke", "Death Valley Days", "Zane Grey Theater" and "Bonanza". Calhoun went to Spain for "The Colossus of Rhodes" (1961) directed by Sergio Leone. (He was robbed during filming.) He did "The Treasure of Monte Cristo" (1961) in Britain, then did "Marco Polo" (1962) in Italy. He returned to the U.S. to make several films for producer A.C. Lyles, such as "The Young and The Brave" (1963), "Young Fury" (1965) and "Apache Uprising" (1965) as well as other films such as "Face in the Rain" (1963).