When TV took off, westerns were by far the most popular genre on the air. There were hundreds.
FYI, Wikipedia has a complete list here It's alphabetical, which makes sense, but I wish they were listed chronologically. It's easier to look back that way.
Aside from my favorites, I was astonished by how many I'd forgotten (senior moments) and how many I'd never heard of at all, let alone never saw.
"Gunsmoke" is of course the iconic western, and also the longest running TV series ever..20 years. (The second longest running series was another western, "Bonanza.") But "Gunsmoke" was an adult, and thus, prime time show..for we Boomers, our first introduction to the genre was the afternoon, and Saturday morning shows. It was a far simpler time back then...there were good guys, and bad guys, and the god guys wore white (or at least what seemed white on the B&W TV sets..) and by the end of the show, they'd usually killed the bad guys...or "varmints."
NOTE: I'm not going to post a lot of links..there are tens of thousands out there. But, if you have a favorite, do check out YouTube..many of the episodes of these series are available on You Tube..so enjoy!!
For kids back then, "The Lone Ranger," was THE show to watch. Others I fondly remember are "Rin Tin Tin" ( a twofer with the military themed series) "Bat Masterson," "Maverick," "Davy Crockett," "Fury," "Hopalong Cassidy," "Have Gun, Will Travel," "The Rifleman," "Tales of Wells Fargo, " and last but not least, "Zorro."
But what really surprised me, as I was doing this thread, and looking over the list, was how great, how memorable, many of the theme songs for the old western shows were. Even today, they're fresh in my mind. Hardly any TV series today can make the same claim. Of course, maybe that's because it takes them 15 minutes to list all the titles and credits at the start of the show.
Just take a quicken listen to some of these gems:
Rawhide But Of Course!!!
It's amazing how many really big stars came out of the early westerns.
I hope you all have as much fun reading this, and reminiscing, as I had putting it together. Again, if you have links to some of your favorite shows, or episodes, please post 'em to the thread..let others enjoy with you.
And don't forget, lots of episodes of all these shows are on YouTube...it astonished me how many.
FYI..I think in a few days I might do medical dramas, then after that, cop shows. Your suggestions are welcome.
NOTE: If anyone dares to list Kung Fu as their favorite western..well, grasshopper..get yourself another thread..
And here's hoping everyone has a great week ahead!!!!
“Lash LaRue”
15 minutes on Saturday morning, sponsored by Reemer’s Blend.
The name and the fact that the hero’s main prop was a whip raises all kinds of questions now ;)
Wanted: Dead or Alive.
Rawhide - Clint Eastwood (all time favorite)
Maverick - James Garner
Laredo - Neville Brand
Magnificent 7 (1990’s) Eric Close
Brisco County Jr. - Bruce Campbell
Firefly - space western (cancelled way too soon)
The Rifleman
F Troop - any palomino is a pal o mine o
My favorites of these are The Grave, The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms, and Mr. Garrity and the Graves.
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Mr. Denton on Doomsday
Al Denton was once known as the quickest draw in town, but his life was ruined after he killed a teenaged boy in a duel—he is now an alcoholic wreck and the laughing stock of the community. A mysterious salesman named Henry J. Fate ostensibly further dooms Denton by causing him to inexplicably regain his expert shooting touch and once again inspire the respect and awe of the townsfolk, which Denton explains will only cause reputation-hungry gunslingers from miles around to seek him out and, inevitably, kill him. Just as Denton predicted, soon enough a challenge is delivered which Denton dare not refuse.
The still-weary and not-so-sure-handed Denton practices in the desert for his suicidal duel, but he misses his targets miserably and concludes that he must skip town. As he quietly packs his things and tries to flee under the cover of night, he strikes up a conversation with Fate, who seems to know things about Denton and offers him a way out. Fate claims to possess a potion guaranteed to make the drinker the fastest gun in the West for exactly ten seconds. Denton is skeptical but Fate goads him into drinking a free sample, after which Denton immediately realizes its benefits.
Still, Denton knows that with Fate’s magical potion he has extended his lease on life by only one gunfight; there will be no end to the challenges he will surely continue to receive.
At the appointed time, Denton faces his challenger, Pete Grant, a young gunfighter who behaves like he knows he can’t possibly lose. Denton downs his second potion only to find his opponent holding an identical empty bottle – Fate had slyly provided the same elixir to young Grant. Each man shoots the other in the hand, causing injuries which are minor but forever ruin both men’s ability to pull a trigger.
Denton tells his young opponent that they have both been blessed because they will never again be able to fire a gun in anger. Henry J. Fate tips his hat to Denton and rides quietly out of town. Just as Fate had helped one man out of a pit, he had simultaneously prevented another from falling into one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Denton_on_Doomsday
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(The) Execution
In 1880, an outlaw cowboy named Joe Caswell is about to be hanged for murder. But as the noose tightens around his neck, he suddenly disappears...and finds himself in 1959, in the laboratory of Professor Manion. Manion explains that he used a time machine to pluck Caswell from the past. But when Manion sees Caswell’s rope burns around his neck, and hears his admission that in his life he had murdered over twenty men, he knows he must try to send Caswell back.
The discussion leads to an argument. Caswell attacks Manion, killing him with a desk lamp. He then flees from the laboratory into a busy street, but becomes so overwhelmed by the lights and the noise that he returns to the lab. Caswell, distraught and desperate, breaks down, pleading for the dead scientist to help him.
Suddenly, a thief named Paul Johnson enters the lab. Caswell fights with Johnson, but Johnson gets the upper hand in the fight and strangles Caswell with the cord from the window curtains. As he tries to find Manion’s safe, he accidentally activates the time machine and is sent back to 1880, appearing in the noose intended for Caswell, just in time to be hanged. The Old Man and the Reverend are shocked to see a stranger’s body, in strange clothes, in place of Caswell’s; the Old Man orders it to be cut down and asks the Reverend for an explanation, but the latter cannot even answer whether this was the Devil’s work or some other power’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29
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Dust
Set in the Old West in a desolate barren town, an unscrupulous peddler, after selling the executioner some five-strand rope needed for a hanging, sells a bag of “magic” dust to the condemned man’s father. The condemned man had been found guilty of accidentally causing the death of a child. The peddler collects ordinary dirt from the ground and insists to his mark that it will spread good will throughout the crowd and will make them feel love and sympathy for the man sentenced to be hanged. As the crowd gathers for the hanging, the father cries out and starts sprinkling the dust everywhere. To his dismay, he hears the floor drop behind him and turns... to see that the fresh and sturdy noose has broken and his son is unharmed. When asked if another hanging attempt should be made, the girl’s parents decide that it should not, that the condemned man has suffered enough. As father and son walk home, the peddler discovers that he is also affected by the “magic” after throwing his gold pieces from the sale of the dust to the poor children of the town, laughing about it afterward.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29
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A Hundred Yards Over the Rim
In the year 1847, Chris Horn is one of the leaders of a small wagon train from Ohio attempting to reach California. Horn’s wife and young son Christian are riding in one of the group’s Conestoga wagons. Christian is dangerously ill, and the other leaders advise Horn the group wishes to turn back, as they’re almost out of food and water, and they lack medicine for those who are sick, like young Christian. Horn sets off alone in a desperate search for water and sustenance.
Horn crosses over a high, sandy hill rim and suddenly finds himself in New Mexico, in 1961. He is stunned to see power lines, a seemingly endless hard black road, and a loud, fast-moving “monster with a face” coming at him. As the truck zooms past the unnerved Horn, he stumbles, accidentally firing his rifle and grazing his arm.
He comes to a small café with gas pumps in front. The friendly couple inside offers Horn water and tends to his injury. They ask where he is from, curious about his old-fashioned clothes and “antique” rifle. When Horn is shocked to see September 1961 showing on the wall calendar, the couple assumes the desert heat has made him mentally unstable. Exploring the café, Horn finds an encyclopedia containing a brief biographical entry for “Christian Horn, Jr.”, a physician who achieved good works in late 19th-Century California. Horn realizes this must be his son who is sick, and it must be Christian’s destiny to recover from the illness and go on to help many others.
However, during his time in the café, Horn arouses concern about his well-being and that of his family. A local doctor alerts the sheriff, but before the police can arrive, Horn runs back to the rim, narrowly escaping back to the wagon party and his son, holding in his hand a bottle of penicillin from 1961 that can cure his son’s illness. He notices that he is no longer being chased and looks back over the rim to find unsettled territory, the power lines and highway vanished. After giving his son the medicine, Horn leads the party on toward California.
The café owner, who with the sheriff had chased Horn to the top of the rim, found only Horn’s rifle lying on the ground. He returns to the café to report that Horn inexplicably vanished, but that he brought back Horn’s gun. The rifle, now aged more than 100 years in the sun, falls apart at his touch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hundred_Yards_Over_the_Rim
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The Grave
The episode opens as outlaw Pinto Sykes is ambushed by the men of the town in the middle of the street. Some time later, gun-for-hire Conny Miller arrives in town, ready to kill Sykes and collect his pay. He goes to the saloon where the men who hired him are gathered and is angry to learn that they dispatched Sykes themselves. Uneasy because of Sykes’ deathbed vow and leery of Miller, the men—none of whom, clearly, would have taken on Sykes—dare Miller to make a midnight visit to the grave of Sykes, who, as he lay dying, had vowed to reach up and grab Miller if he ever came near his grave. Miller is told to stick a knife into the burial mound as proof that he visited the grave. Miller treks in the cold, windy darkness to the cemetery and, at midnight, kneels at the grave to plant the knife. As he attempts to rise, he suddenly falls back down...
The next day, the townsmen, accompanied by Sykes’s sister Ione, visit the cemetery in the safety of broad daylight. They find Miller lying dead atop Sykes’ grave, with his knife through his coat, pinning him to the ground. Steinhart says it’s plain what happened: the wind blew Miller’s coat over the grave, he stuck the knife through his coattail unknowingly, and as he stood up afterward, he mistook the pinned coat’s resistance for the tug of Sykes. Being scared half to death anyway, he fell dead of a heart attack. Ione reacts with scorn: “From which direction was the wind blowing last night?” she asks. “From the south,” one of the men replies. “Same as now?” she asks. They agree that it is so. As she stands in the spot where Miller would have stood before planting the knife, “Look at my cloak,” she challenges them. “Is the wind blowing it across the grave?” It is not. As the wind blows, Ione’s long cloak streams behind her, like that of the Grim Reaper. Ione laughs, chillingly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grave_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29
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Still Valley
Set during the American Civil War, the episode opens with two Confederate soldiers. They have been assigned to scout on the Union army that is marching into the valley below. Sergeant Joseph Paradine hears the army approaching, but suddenly the sound stops. He decides to descend into the valley to see the cause for himself. His companion refuses to come.
When Paradine gets into town, he finds the army there, but all of them are motionless, as if frozen in time. He tries unsuccessfully to wake them. Finally he comes across an old man named Teague, who is unaffected by the strange phenomenon. Teague claims to be a “witchman” and says he used a magic spell to freeze the soldiers. Paradine does not believe him, so Teague casts the spell on Paradine, freezing him. When Teague lifts the spell on Paradine, he brags that he could stop the entire army in this manner, ensuring the success of the Confederacy. Paradine asks why he doesn’t, and Teague replies that he is dying. He gives his book of spells (entitled Witchcraft) to Paradine, encouraging him to use it, but when Paradine looks in it, he realizes that using this magic requires one to align himself with Satan.
Teague dies, and Paradine returns to camp to tell his superior about what happened. The superior doesn’t believe him and encourages him to get some rest. When another scout returns with the same story, the superior realizes Paradine is telling the truth. Paradine relates the story about the old man, the spell book, and making a deal with the devil. The superior officer decides that the devil is the only one who can help them and encourages Paradine to read from the book.
Paradine discovers that using the book’s magic requires that not only must he praise the name of the Devil, but he must renounce the name of God. Rather than do either, Paradine throws the book into the fire, saying that if the Confederacy is to die, let it be buried in hallowed ground. The next day, Paradine receives orders that the army is going to march to Gettysburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_Valley
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The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms
The teaser shows three of General George Armstrong Custer’s scouts at the Little Bighorn River examining a teepee when McCluskey is struck by an arrow in his back. Cut to June 25, 1964, the 88th anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn, when three United States Army National Guard soldiers (MSgt. William Connors, Pvt. Michael McCluskey, Cpl. Richard Langsford) are an M5 Stuart tank crew participating in a war game being conducted near the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn, where Major General George Custer made his “last stand”. Their orders coincide with the route of Custer and his men. As they follow the route, they hear strange things such as Indian battle cries and horses running. As nobody is there, the men examine the possibilities. Connors wonders if they’ve somehow gone back in time. When they return, Connors reports to his captain what occurred and is reprimanded. The following day the trio goes out and again begins to experience strange phenomena. The captain contacts them via radio and orders them to return to base when Connors tries to explain what is happening. Connors breaks contact and the captain sends his lieutenant and two men to bring them in. However, the tank crew abandon their tank and continue on foot with their sidearms and rifles. They find a group of teepees and McCluskey goes to investigate; he soon returns with an arrow protruding from his back. The men climb a ridge where they see a battle taking place below. They join it and are never seen again.
Later, the captain enters the Custer Battlefield National Monument. A soldier reports that all they found was the abandoned tank. The two of them notice the names of their missing soldiers on the monument with the names of Custer’s men. The captain states that it was a pity the missing soldiers couldn’t have taken the tank with them to the battle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_7th_Is_Made_Up_of_Phantoms
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Mr. Garrity and the Graves
A traveling peddler, Garrity, arrives in the little, recently renamed town of Happiness, Arizona, offering to bring the townsfolk’s dead back from Boot Hill. Initially, they don’t believe him, but when he appears to resurrect a dead dog struck by a traveler’s horse-drawn wagon, they do believe him. After performing the resurrection ritual, Garrity, in seemingly casual conversation, reminds the people about the dead and departed, almost all of whom were murdered: who died having a score to settle with whom, and so forth. The townsfolk grow uncomfortable at the thought of facing problems they thought buried with the dead; when one apparent resurrectee is seen approaching town, his brother, who shot the man himself, bribes Garrity to reverse the ritual, and the figure vanishes. Ultimately, everyone in town similarly pays Garrity to not revive their “loved ones.”
Later that night, Garrity and his assistant (who was both wagon driver and “resurrectee”) ride away with the money, joking about how they cannot actually bring the dead back to life: they had simply performed a few smoke and mirrors tricks to con the townsfolk, and used a dog that was alive the whole time but simply knew how to play dead. After they have left the town, the last scene reveals that the dead really are rising from the grave, with one commenting that the peddler underestimates his own ability.
Edge goes to a smarter and better looking sidekick than a toothless geezer, fat Mexican, or a Redskin.