On October 15, 1957, Ankrum had a major part in the episode "Strange Land" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western Sugarfoot, starring Will Hutchins. Ankrum played an embittered rancher named Cash Billings, who allows a hired gunman, Burr Fulton ( Rhodes Reason), to take over his spread, but Sugarfoot arrives to bring law and justice to the situation. Jan Chaney appears in the episode as Billings' daughter Anne, who takes a liking to Sugarfoot. Ankrum appeared again, as John Savage in 1959, in the Sugarfoot episode "The Wild Bunch". In 1961, he again played an embittered and this time paralyzed rancher, Cyrus Dawson, in the episode "Incident at Dawson Flats" of the ABC/WB western series, Cheyenne, with Clint Walker in the starring role, with other guest-starring parts for Jock Gaynor, Joan O'Brien, Gerald Mohr, and Hampton Fancher.