The Man With No Name Revealed

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 3/22/2018 | R Alexander

[w1n1]

The Virginian was a Western TV show that ran from 1962 to 1971. It was based on the 1902 Owen Wister novel, “The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains.” The star was the foreman of the Shiloh Ranch, played by James Drury. He was known only as The Virginian, the man with no name. The series circled around the foreman’s quest to maintain an orderly lifestyle at Shiloh. It was set in Medicine Bow, Wyo., around the year 1898. The Shiloh ranch was named after the two-day American Civil War Battle of Shiloh, Tenn.

The Virginian ran for nine seasons; it was television’s third longest running Western after Bonanza and Gunsmoke. Towards the end of its run, spaghetti Westerns were becoming popular, so the format was changed in the final season and it was renamed to The Men From Shiloh. Sadly, it was discontinued along with other Western shows in what was known as the “rural purge” of 1969 to 1971. CBS had become known as the “country broadcasting system” and sought to change its image.

Drury grew up on a ranch in Salem, Ore., and moved to Houston, Texas in 1974. Besides The Virginian, he appeared on Walker Texas Ranger, Kung Fu, The Red Skelton Show, Perry Mason, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Forbidden Planet and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1991, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. I had an opportunity to talk to him about the show, and discovered that he is a real authentic Old West individual, who doesn’t just talk the talk but grew up in an outdoors lifestyle with guns and horses. Read the rest of the Man with no Name story here.

[miss marmelstein]

If you guys are so upset about “sanitized” 50s westerns, you all should check out The Rifleman which was produced by...Sam Peckinpah. I used to keep a pad next to me on Saturday mornings a few years ago to keep track of how many men Chuck Conners blew away in the first ten minutes. The show was criticized for its violence.

[robroys woman]

:)

It was just an interesting point. Another one, unrelated, is that women were so highly valued (and rare) that they could travel alone without fear. The exception was how the Indians treated them. Which is one reason we considered the Indians “savages”.

[Verginius Rufus]

I was in Salem a few years ago and don't remember seeing any ranches in town.

My great-great-great-grandfather went to Oregon on the Oregon Trail in 1852 and lived on a farm a few miles from Salem.

[thulldud]

Oddly, they did nothing, and yet it seems to not be a problem today. :)

And yet, on the other coast, you have San Francisco.

[texas booster]

...it was discontinued along with other Western shows in what was known as the “rural purge” of 1969 to 1971. CBS had become known as the “country broadcasting system” and sought to change its image.

We came back from overseas in 1969 and I wondered why TV changed so quickly.

I guess CBS and the other lemming networks got tired of being the adults in the room, and started showing trash.

[Fiji Hill]

The show was popular in West Germany under the title “Die Leute von der Shiloh Ranch” (the people from the Shiloh Ranch).

[kalee]

I liked the first two or three seasons of Hell on Wheels, which was about building the transcontinental railroad, but they ruined it and I didn’t even bother to watch the last season.

[pgkdan]

My husband sits for hours and watches that show and other 60’s-70’s westerns on TV. He says nothing else is fit to watch.

Me too...except for baseball, that's certainly fit to watch.

[Rappini]

Thanks for posting great piece.

[jjotto]

Some claims are just too wrong to respond to. ‘Gunsmoke’ featured stories where the hero failed to save the day, involved prostitution, rape, failed redemption, opium addiction, etc.

And I can’t think of recent ‘realistic’ Western that show that shows a ‘realistic’ “human waste ditch running through the town”.

[pgkdan]

Back in the early 1900’s NYC was very concerned for the future regarding what to do with all the horse poop in the urban streets. Oddly, they did nothing, and yet it seems to not be a problem today. :)

Yep...we figured that one out. Now if only San Francisco could figure out what to do with streets full of people poop.

[moovova]

I remember that program...goodness, I’m getting old.

(Great article, thanks.)

[Fiji Hill]

You would think a long-running show would depict the introduction of modern inventions like automobiles, electricity, motion pictures,etc. But they never seem to advance from a period of "not long after the Civil War", even if the show runs for 10 or more years.

Kind of like the '60's TV series Combat, which was about soldiers fighting in the European Theater during WWII. Although the show ran for about five years, the fighting nerver moved very far from the Normandy beachhead.

[bobby.223]

I loved the Rifleman! Did as it ran and now when I see re-runs. For a complete video compilation of all of the Rifleman’s shootings, go to YouTube and type in: ‘The Rifleman. The Complete Rifleman massacre’. You will love it if you used to keep track during the show! Check out the young Vic Morrow, (Among the other guest stars you will recognize), in the first clip!

[freedomlover]

I always think of this Python sketch when discussing anything Peckinpah LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeYznvQvnsY

[Fiji Hill]

The Virginian fell victim to the “rural purge” of 1969-1971, when shows such as Green Acres, Andy Griffith and the Beverly Hillbillies, with their rural settings, were replaced by shows with urban settings that spewed liberal-leftist propaganda such as Mod Squad and All in the Family.

[robroys woman]

Heh. That’s the human waste thing, Different cause. I call it “de-evolution”. It’s a Devo thing. :)

[miss marmelstein]

I prefer the old westerns which had stars like Steve McQueen. I grew up on those, most in reruns. It gave me a positive ideal of masculinity which I still believe in. And I prefer the western films of the past as well.

[moovova]

I so wanted Timothy Oliphant to blow Gerald McRaney away in the last episode. But, that would’ve significantly changed US history.

Great series overall though.

[miss marmelstein]

I’ll have to check it out; that’s funny. I always wonder how Mark never ended up with PTSD since he always witnessed the massacres!