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.

[Tennessee Conservative]

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.

[robroys woman]

There is some truth to that.

BTW, one friend and I were discussing changes to american culture since the 19th century and he said something interesting. He said that if “gunsmoke” was truly authentic, they’d have had a human waste ditch running through the town. He was just making the point that many of our shows and movies back then really sanitized the whole experience in the western US in the 19th century.

I’m a huge fan of Louis L’Amour books and have his entire collection of books as well as many of them on audio. This includes many interviews with him regarding life in the REAL west of the 1800’s. It’s pretty fascinating stuff.

[TalBlack]

Watching the show a few months ago, never having seen it but being familiar with Bonanza and Gunsmoke, I thought it more soap opera like. It turned more on talk and relationships than action. I was wondering how long it ran.

[Ammo Republic 15]

I have the first four seasons of The Virginian on dvd.

Actually I have almost all of the great westerns from the late 50’s through the 60’s.

We’ve been watching Rawhide every night for the last 2 weeks and just started the second season last night.

[wally_bert]

I sometimes listen to Fort Laramie on 148.

Good stuff.

[Dixie Yooper]

As a little kid who missed the first few episodes, I do remember wondering why the show was named after the foreman, and how Trampus got his name. Thanks for answering a question I never thought about getting answered.

[jjotto]

Drury quote:

“The girl always had to die at the last minute, so I could be involved with another lady in the next show. There were lots of love stories.”

[Moonmad27]

I also listen to Sirius XM Radio Classics. When I was a kid and westerns on TV were the rage, I wasn’t even aware that radio dramas existed — for a couple more years. Now I enjoy those westerns but prefer the mysteries and detective shows.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

I was raised on Westerns like Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen, and all those John Wayne Westerns from the 1930s and 1940s. I think those shows and movies were a large part of the makeup of my character. Sure, my parents raised me to be moral and scouting encouraged morality, but there was nothing like show after show and movie after movie where the bad guys cheated, lied and stole but always lost to the good guys, who had to do things the right way, morally.

That code of the west really burned itself into a young mind and helped to make me a moral person. What do the young have today? Nothing but anti-heroes and zombies. It is sad.

[Navy Patriot]

CBS had become known as the “country broadcasting system ...

Now CBS is essential when one want's to See Bull S***.

[originalbuckeye]

I grew up on the TV westerns and having to listen to Gunsmoke (on the radio Sunday evenings), when we were traveling home from visiting relatives two states away. And I remember having an adolescent crush on Sugarfoot (Will Hutchins).

[Sans-Culotte]

He was just making the point that many of our shows and movies back then really sanitized the whole experience in the western US in the 19th century.

It's kind of amusing how most western shows present a nice orderly town, and hardly anything changes. It's like they are in some never-ending period of "the west" that goes on forever. 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. I still enjoy watching old 50's westerns.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Please tell me he didn’t have a “chrome” plated Colt SAA. It had better have been nickel plated like all genuine Colts. I would think the Virginian would know the difference.

[miss marmelstein]

Babe Paley didn’t like westerns or the hilarious Beverly Hillbillies or Green Acres. Not that she watched any of them but her pals complained.

TV has never recovered!

[miss marmelstein]

You can always watch Deadwood if you insist on human waste in your entertainment.

[robroys woman]

Deadwood is free on Amazon Prime. I understand it is pretty realistic regarding the time period. I’ve actually been to Deadwood.

But I don’t need to see the show. The only “modern” show I’ve gotten into is Suits. And some days it grossly disappoints. If it wasn’t free and commercial free, i’d not bother.

[Noumenon]

It’s rare that you see a Western movie where you can see actual horse poop in the streets.

[miss marmelstein]

You just seemed so high on the human waste aspect, I thought I’d help you out.

[robroys woman]

That reminds me of how technology can solve problems and sometimes we worry too much. 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. :)