Posted on 03/22/2018 5:35:57 AM PDT by w1n1
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.
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.
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.
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.
I sometimes listen to Fort Laramie on 148.
Good stuff.
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.
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.”
I also listen to Sirius XM Radio Classics. When I was a kid and westerns on TV were the rage, I wasnt even aware that radio dramas existed for a couple more years. Now I enjoy those westerns but prefer the mysteries and detective shows.
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.
Now CBS is essential when one want's to See Bull S***.
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).
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.
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.
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!
You can always watch Deadwood if you insist on human waste in your entertainment.
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.
It’s rare that you see a Western movie where you can see actual horse poop in the streets.
You just seemed so high on the human waste aspect, I thought I’d help you out.
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. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.