Crossbow (TV series) Crossbow (TV series) Crossbow is a 1987 action/adventure television series that aired on The Family Channel. The series was produced by Steven North and Richard Schlesinger for Robert Halmi Inc., in co-production with French television network FR3, and filmed entirely on location in France. "Crossbow" follows the adventures of William Tell (Will Lyman) and takes place in the 14th-century in Switzerland. William Tell and his son Matthew are imprisoned by the tyrannical Gessler (Jeremy Clyde). As Governor (Landburgher in the original story) of Austria, Gessler plans to stop the Swiss uprising. Having split the apple on his son's head with
Shooting an apple off one's child's head of the master marksman shooting an apple (or similar small target) was known outside the Germanic sphere and the adjacent regions (Finland and the Baltic) in India, Arabia, Persia and the Balkans (Serbia). Shooting an apple off one's child's head Shooting an apple off one's child's head, also known as apple-shot (from German "") is a feat of marksmanship with a bow or crossbow that occurs as a motif in a number of legends in Germanic folklore (and has been connected with non-European folklore). In the Stith Thompson Motif Index it is F661.3, described as "Skillful marksman shoots apple from