Westerns: Old & New

[zoey1996]

Mr. Zoey and I enjoy watching old Gunsmokes.  We DVR them from TV Land.  Most we've seen multiple times, but every once in a whiile we will see one that we don't remember.  

 

Mr. Zoey watches a lot of the old ones he grew up watching, like Maverick and Bat Masterson on Encore Westerns, and Lone Ranger and Roy Rogers.  I always like Wagon Train, too.

 

For one that's newer, I've started watching The Pinkertons.  It's a syndicated show with no set time for airing across the board, but where I live, two stations carry it at different times.  I've been DVRing and then catching up when I can.

[pandora spocks]

Mr. Zoey and I enjoy watching old Gunsmokes.  We DVR them from TV Land.  Most we've seen multiple times, but every once in a whiile we will see one that we don't remember.

 

With your DVR, you can fast forward through the endless commercials on TV Land.  Bonanza is, by far, my favorite western.  Most of the episodes can be found on You Tube with no commercials.

[ennui]

I have a place in my heart for The Big Valley. I was so excited when MeTV picked it up. Now it's on Decades.

 

I also love High Chaparral. I wish it were on at better time.

[DoughGirl]

Love Big Valley! Didn't know it was on MeTV. I watch it on INSP. I don't get Decades.

INSP is really overdoing it with The Virginian and Daniel Boone. Neither is a fav of mine either.

Edited August 16, 2015 by DoughGirl

[ennui]

I don't know if Big Valley is still on MeTV -- check their Saturday western schedule. It is part of INSP's Saddle Up Saturdays.

 

I have to revise -- I think my favorite part of High Chaparral is the opening credits. I love the dramatic mariachi music.

[whatsatool]

Love the Steve McQueen one about the bounty hunter.

Edited August 24, 2015 by whatsatool

[whatsatool]

Just saw Jason Robards Sr in Laramie

Edited August 24, 2015 by whatsatool

[ennui]

The early seasons of The Virginian are great for starring guest roles. Hugh O'Brien, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, etc.

[pandora spocks]

TV Land started Bonanza's early episodes this week.  It's to be expected that characters start out differently than in later episodes.  Did the Cartwrights start out being gigantic assholes or is it my imagination?

Edited September 2, 2015 by pandora spocks

[ennui]

TV Land started Bonanza's early episodes this week.  It's to be expected that characters start out differently than in later episodes.  Did the Cartwrights start out being gigantic assholes or is it my imagination?

You're probably watching it with "modern" eyes.

[zoey1996]

With your DVR, you can fast forward through the endless commercials on TV Land.  Bonanza is, by far, my favorite western.  Most of the episodes can be found on You Tube with no commercials.

Yes, we often zoom through commercials.  Makes it much more pleasant!

 

Love watching the ones with guest stars who aren't around now.  Some of the story lines are pretty hokie, but still fun to watch.

 

My dad's favorite was Bonanza; one of my grandpas loved Wagon Train.  I always like Bonanza and Gunsmoke.  

 

I've been watching The Pinkertons, but would love to watch the ones I've missed.  It's kind of difficult to track down, but I'm hoping the one station that is broadcasting it here will re-run some of the ones I've missed.  

[Crs97]

One of the local stations ran Western reruns on Saturday mornings when I was a child. I loved Big Valley and Maverick, but my all-time favorite was The Rifleman. That was my favorite father-son relationship!

[ennui]

My problem with The Rifleman is the opening credits. Chuck cocking and shooting his rifle from the hip (and his crotch) and then winking at the camera.  Subtle.

[pandora spocks]

My problem with The Rifleman is the opening credits. Chuck cocking and shooting his rifle from the hip (and his crotch) and then winking at the camera.  Subtle.

 

Sigmund Freud would have been proud.  The only thing missing from the opening credits was Chuck Connors smoking a huge cigar.

[ennui]

I remember Chuck Connors doing commercials for Schick Center clinics to help people stop smoking. It was one of those places that gave you an electric shock when you lit a cigarette; completely based on behavior modification. Chuck was a heavy smoker for years.

[VCRTracking]

There's the infamous "Cartrwight Curse" on Bonanza where none of the Cartwright men's wives or girlfriends would survive one episode. The Big Valley had an "Audra Curse" where it seemed every guy Audra Barkley(Linda Evans) would be romantically involved with would turn out to be a psychopath!

[MelinaBallerina]

I would love it if some channel would run the Desperado series with Alex McArthur.  I loved those.

[DoughGirl]

The Big Valley had an "Audra Curse" where it seemed every guy Audra Barkley(Linda Evans) would be romantically involved with would turn out to be a psychopath!

Very true! And two played by Bradford Dillman. The psycho doctor with the nervous tick that he played had to be the scariest of all her love interests. "Auuuuudraaa!" INSP hardly ever shows that one. Probably something to do with their weird form of censorship.

[Crs97]

The Bonanza boys had the same problem with their wives/girlfriends.

[ennui]

Love the Steve McQueen one about the bounty hunter.

"Wanted: Dead or Alive."  I watched it tonight, and "Josh" was running through a list of local guns for hire, and one of the names was Tom Horn.  I thought, Steve didn't know he'd be portraying Tom in film several years later.

 

I love Steve McQueen, because really, who doesn't like a smartass? I'm probably one of the few on this forum old enough to remember when he was battling cancer, and the way he was front page fodder for the tabloids. If you think the tabs are bad now, you have no idea. All that drama with Laetrile. It was awful.

[ennui]

Encore Westerns is running some episodes from the first season of Gunsmoke. Miss Kitty was beautiful, before she got into the wigs and false eyelashes. In the pilot episode, she was obviously hitting on Matt. Later on, it became more subtext. 

 

These old westerns are like comfort food.

[walnutqueen]

Much as I love the westerns from my childhood, my senior citizen self delights in the late great Deadwood. 

[ennui]

I remember an editorial about how the world changed when John Wayne passed. I think we need icons and symbols like he provided. We need the good guys.

[zoey1996]

We've been watching Death Valley Days for several weeks now.  They really are interesting.  These are the ones with the Old Ranger, before Robert Taylor, Ronald Reagan, and Dale Robertson hosted/introduced each episode.  I even learn something from time to time.  For example, I knew that grasshoppers destroyed crops in the "dirty thirties," with dustbowl conditions in the Great Depression, but I had never heard of the "Mormon Crickets" (not literally crickets) and the Miracle of the Seagulls before an episode of this show.

[zoey1996]

A very young Clint Eastwood was in yesterday's episode of Death Valley Days, about mail service between San Francisco and the mining camps.  And I recognized him before seeing the credits!

[magicdog]

On 9/3/2015 at 6:05 PM, ennui said:

Did the Cartwrights start out being gigantic assholes or is it my imagination?

It's not your imagination!  I remember finally seeing the earliest episodes and they were very "isolationist".  They didn't seem to want to have anyone encroaching on their Ponderosa ranch.  It wasn't long before they were toned down and made more welcoming to strangers.

 

I liked The Big Valley (and was excited when a big screen adaptation had been in the works but scrapped shortly before shooting began) and I think in some ways the Barkleys were more interesting than The Cartwrights.  I used to think the two shared a universe for some reason;  maybe because it wouldn't have been implausible for two powerful families in the 19th century west to do business with one another.

[Raja]

On 9/13/2015 at 8:48 PM, ennui said:

My problem with The Rifleman is the opening credits. Chuck cocking and shooting his rifle from the hip (and his crotch) and then winking at the camera.  Subtle.

One thing about Chuck Connors in hindsight he is like a big Tom Cruise, a natural left hander who could weld his rifle with either hand. His baseball stats say he batted left and not as a switch hitter, but being a basketball player too i am sure he went to the right hand at times.

On 11/4/2016 at 3:09 AM, magicdog said:

It's not your imagination!  I remember finally seeing the earliest episodes and they were very "isolationist".  They didn't seem to want to have anyone encroaching on their Ponderosa ranch.  It wasn't long before they were toned down and made more welcoming to strangers.

 

I liked The Big Valley (and was excited when a big screen adaptation had been in the works but scrapped shortly before shooting began) and I think in some ways the Barkleys were more interesting than The Cartwrights.  I used to think the two shared a universe for some reason;  maybe because it wouldn't have been implausible for two powerful families in the 19th century west to do business with one another.

Due to Lee Majors and Linda Evans stardom in the late 70s and early 80s The Big Valley was the big show in syndication. Not having really seen the Cartwrights progression, the Barkley's did come a more adult later era. Accepting Heath the mistresses son that was largely forgotten by the family and even those that came into the orbit accepted him as if it was a common occurance. Interracial relations were treated more real, to my eye at least

 

Watching older TV I am amazed at how they were able to squeeze in the morality tale into the half hour drama. There being no B-plots or outward attempts at the continuing story probably helps.  If I were to look for a more modern TV western, The Young Riders Pony Express story comes to mind first.

[ennui]

Pierce Brosnan will star in a new western for AMC and Sundance (are they owned by the same parent company?).

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/the-son/255976/the-son-release-date-and-trailers-for-new-amc-western

[zoey1996]

We watched a Wagon Train yesterday.  The episode was, "The St. Nicholas Story," first aired Dec. 23, 1959.  Ward Bond was wagonmaster Seth Adams.  It seems rare that westerns had Christmas themed shows.  The other one I've seen was on Gunsmoke, Murry Christmas.  It's one of our favorite episodes, and we try to watch it every year.  We don't have a recording, so it's somewhat hit or miss.

[jb98]

On 8/26/2015 at 8:35 PM, ennui said:

The early seasons of The Virginian are great for starring guest roles. Hugh O'Brien, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, etc.

I love watching The Virginian and this is one of the biggest reasons why.  There was an episode with DeForest Kelley playing an army doctor and his patient was Leonard Nimoy.  There have also been episodes with James Doohan, including one where he spoke with a Scottish accent.

Harrison Ford is in two Season 5 episodes.  There's also a lot of fun in seeing the same actors over and over again playing different roles.  Royal Dano, Andrew Duggan, Leslie Neilson, John Dehner, John Anderson, and others.

It was amazing that they made around 30 episodes a season and they were all 90 minutes.  It's also funny how there's barely any continuity.  They just have stories with very little reference to the past.  Love interests that just disappear.  Some episodes are clearly out of order.

You can also learn a lot about history.  This year is the 150th anniversary of Wyoming giving women the right to vote.  Teddy Roosevelts Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill on foot.  A teamster is someone who drives a team of horses.  A drummer is a salesman (That adds a whole new dimension to "my mother told me to never date a drummer 🙂).  

[zoey1996]

Starz westerns channel recently changed their lineup, adding Wyatt Earp, moving Big Valley a half hour later.  They still have Laramie, then Maverick, and then Cheyenne.  Cheyenne ends after the local news starts, so we don't often watch it.  I wish they'd switch the times for Maverick and Cheyenne; I don't care for many of the Maverick episodes.  On the other hand, I usually skip Maverick to get some household chores done, so there's that.

[zoey1996]

The Death Valley Days episode,  Hugh Glass Meets the Bear, was on recently.  The movie, The Revenant also told the Hugh Glass story,  They were very different takes on the same man's story.

[Old Man Neil]

Here's a link to Uncle Earl's Classic Television Channel. It makes available hundreds of old TV westerns, and TV shows of all genres. 

https://solie.org/alibrary/index.html

[Old Man Neil]

I just watched The Guitar, an episode from the first season of Gunsmoke. It was written by Sam Peckinpah, best known for The Wild Bunch, and featured a down and out guitar picker. At one point the patrons of The Long Branch took up a collection for him. The actor who played the impoverished guitarist was Aaron Spelling. 

[VCRTracking]

On 1/8/2017 at 6:46 AM, Raja said:

Due to Lee Majors and Linda Evans stardom in the late 70s and early 80s The Big Valley was the big show in syndication. Not having really seen the Cartwrights progression, the Barkley's did come a more adult later era. Accepting Heath the mistresses son that was largely forgotten by the family and even those that came into the orbit accepted him as if it was a common occurance. Interracial relations were treated more real, to my eye at least

Man did Audra have the worst luck with men or what? It seemed every guy she was into turned out to be a psycho!

[Raja]

5 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

Man did Audra have the worst luck with men or what? It seemed every guy she was into turned out to be a psycho!

That was the 60s,  early 70s TV. She may have started out using sex as a weapon against Heath but she was at the age where culturally  the network and advertising would only allow her to be with the one. If the show had a longer run maybe if "the one" didn't work out she becomes a second widow at home 

[VCRTracking]

Anybody else remember the first time they watched the fourth season Bonanza episode "The War Comes to Washoe" and had this thought "Wait...the Civil War is going on during this?!"

[Raja]

6 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

Anybody else remember the first time they watched the fourth season Bonanza episode "The War Comes to Washoe" and had this thought "Wait...the Civil War is going on during this?!"

I remember especially since I never saw Bonanza as a kid. I was thinking they at least tried a 60s version of making Lorne Greene younger when they did episodes showing the stories of the boys mothers. If I remember correctly they didn't even take away their modern weapons

[Zella]

On 8/25/2020 at 1:13 AM, VCRTracking said:

Anybody else remember the first time they watched the fourth season Bonanza episode "The War Comes to Washoe" and had this thought "Wait...the Civil War is going on during this?!"

Rewatching some Bonanza right now, and Adam just claimed that he was raised in Nevada Territory, and I was like, "Well, that contradicts the whole backstory, but okay then." 

[Zella]

3 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

Adam was the stereotypical first born son on many television series, born with a stick up his ass and an unbelievable superiority complex. 

I know quite a few first born adult males that act just like him.  Hell, I grew up a couple houses away from an entire family that acted like that, and everyone they met kissed their collective asses, which made their egos even more over-inflated. 

I always liked Adam. I felt like he was more serious than the others because he'd had a lot more responsibility and because he just had a different personality. I'll always have a soft spot for a man who tries to read a book while riding a horse. 

Little Joe was the one who got on my nerves (though I always did like when he and Hoss had stupid adventures with each other.) 

Edited November 17, 2020 by Zella

[VCRTracking]

Watched a 1st season of ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN episode "Riddle of the Chinese Jade" and recognized Victor Sen Yung(Hop Sing)! Should've figured the accent he used on Bonanza was fake. Also didn know he had a nice head of hair under that hat!

[Tom Holmberg]

On 11/16/2020 at 9:24 PM, Zella said:

Rewatching some Bonanza right now, and Adam just claimed that he was raised in Nevada Territory, and I was like, "Well, that contradicts the whole backstory, but okay then." 

I recall that we kids would discuss the previous night's Bonanza episode in the schoolyard on Monday, but today I don't find them particularly watchable. I just got done watching all of Maverick from the beginning (I saw that the first episode was running on H&I during Covid and decided to watch the whole series.  I really liked all the Bret/James Garner episodes, the Bart/Jack Kelly were okay.  I also find "Have Gun, Will Travel" very watchable, as is "Rifleman", despite the improbability of it (they seemed to have really good character actors).

Edited July 15, 2021 by Tom Holmberg
Duplicate word

[Zella]

42 minutes ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I recall that we kids would discuss the previous night's Bonanza episode in the schoolyard on Monday, but today I don't find them particularly watchable today. I just got done watching all of Maverick from the beginning (I saw that the first episode was running on H&I during Covid and decided to watch the whole series.  I really liked all the Bret/James Garner episodes, the Bart/Jack Kelly were okay.  I also find "Have Gun, Will Travel" very watchable, as is "Rifleman", despite the improbability of it (they seemed to have really good character actors).

I enjoy Bonanza but I find selective viewings of certain episodes more enjoyable than binging it. I watched Maverick a couple of years ago and absolutely adored the James Garner episodes. Jack Kelly was good, but he couldn't hold a candle to Garner's charisma. 

[Tom Holmberg]

Just now, Zella said:

I enjoy Bonanza but I find selective viewings of certain episodes more enjoyable than binging it. I watched Maverick a couple of years ago and absolutely adored the James Garner episodes. Jack Kelly was good, but he couldn't hold a candle to Garner's charisma. 

Yes, Garner was a star for good reason.  I would rate Roger Moore's Beau below Jack Kelly.

[chessiegal]

I adore James Garner. MeTV runs the original Maverick once a week on Saturday morning. We watched Grand Prix on TCM recently. Garner learned to race the Formula One cars so well the pros said he could have been a pro. He met his wife at a party in the 50s, took her out to dinner every night for the next 2 weeks, and married her on the 14th day. They were married for almost 58 years when he died.

[Zella]

41 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

We watched Grand Prix on TCM recently. Garner learned to race the Formula One cars so well the pros said he could have been a pro.

He's also an uncredited stunt driver in Peckinpah's The Getaway! He was visiting a friend on set and ended up driving one of the cars during the bank robbery scene because of his stunt driving skills. 

[Tom Holmberg]

H&I shows Maverick daily at 5 am central time.  That's the ones I was watching.  They are back to the first season again.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 7/15/2021 at 1:48 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

Yes, Garner was a star for good reason.  I would rate Roger Moore's Beau below Jack Kelly.

They also tried to bring in Robert Colbert ("Time Tunnel"), doing a James Garner impersonation, in the second to last season, but he only lasted a couple of episodes.

[Raja]

Having seen the meat cleaver that H&I put to Star Trek episodes to get more advertising time I wonder what those who remember or own their own set of Maverick might think. For sake of saving plot points when cutting for more ads I can see them dropping the fine points of what makes Bret, Bret.

[Tom Holmberg]

On 7/17/2021 at 2:07 PM, Raja said:

Having seen the meat cleaver that H&I put to Star Trek episodes to get more advertising time I wonder what those who remember or own their own set of Maverick might think. For sake of saving plot points when cutting for more ads I can see them dropping the fine points of what makes Bret, Bret.

I haven't noticed cuts, though it might be the Star Trek in on in Prime Time and Maverick at 5 am. They don't even cut the credits, which is pretty common today.