Audio Asylum Thread Printer

Get a view of an entire thread on one page

FAQ / News / Events

Films/DVD Asylum

My faves:

67.166.204.16

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display All Email ] [ Films/DVD Asylum ]

Audiophilander

In Reply to: Your choice of TV Westerns? posted by Bolt on July 22, 2005 at 20:32:06:

Have Gun Will Travel - (well conceived, executed and highly original; very adult for it's time)
The Legend of Briscoe County Jr. - (very clever, totally over the top without seeming campy or silly)
Rawhide - (great plots in an hour long format which was rare in the 50's; Clint Eastwood's break-out role)
Maverick - (excellent hour long tongue 'n cheek western, with a great sense of irony; wonderful humor)
Second Tier:
Deadwood - (This one has my attention, but the obscenities seem less realistic than the rest of the language & settings)
Wanted Dead or Alive (plots are okay, but not as consistently good as Have gun; it does have Steve McQueen in his break-out role)
The Rifleman - (great show, but not one of my first choices; too much pull-at-the-heartstrings, family angst stuff; not enough action)
Cheyenne - (haven't seen these in years, but my recollection is that this series was very well scripted and acted)
Gunsmoke - (early B&W years w/Dennis Weaver as Chester; this series seems to have worked best as a 30 minute morality play, losing a lot when the drama was extended to an hour's length)
Most disliked Western [with apologies toKT88]:
The Wild, Wild, West - This started out as a clever albeit semi-serious western, but quickly turned to a campy caricature of itself mid-way through it's first season. Also, when it switched from B&W to color the production values got noticeably worse as did the scripting (budget cuts?). One sign of a 60's vintage series in trouble is the tendency toward bringing in noteable guest cameos to try bolstering sagging ratings; as I recall, this series along with the once great spy drama The Man from U.N.C.L.E suffered greatly from corny guest cameos near the end of it's run.
Some of these opinions is based on recollections dating back decades, especially for series like Wild, Wild West. No offense is intended; everyone's mileage varies.
Cheers,
AuPh

Follow Ups:

Re: My faves: - Bolt 01:18:33 07/24/05 (6)
I appreciate your post greatly! How nice to read.
Glad to have found a big piece of what I was looking for.
With all the interesting information I noticed that you did not rate the "High Chaparral"

wish I still had my gunsmoke lunchbox.
Link to the "High Chaparral"
- http://www.thehighchaparral.com/ (Open in New Window)
- I can also recommend - KT88 10:11:22 07/24/05 (5)
  two that have already been mentioned:
  "The Rifleman" & "Wanted Dead or Alive"
  All westerns were pretty poorly done IMO and had low budgets. We are talking about a free TV program that ran during the daylight hours as I remember them. I would watch these shows as a kid when the weather was too nasty to go outside and play. Very tame by the standards of today, even for the wild west!
  -Bill
  - "We are talking about a free TV program that ran during the daylight hours..." - Most were originally prime time. - Audiophilander 08:24:01 07/25/05 (4)
    There were quite a few Saturday morning westerns aimed at kids during the 1950's (Sky King, My Friend Flicka, Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger, etc.), but after the initial success of Gunsmoke most western series (Have Gun Will Travel, Wanted Dead or Alive, Bat Masterson, Rifleman, Cheyenne, Maverick, Yancy Derringer, The Virginian, Bonanza, etc., etc., etc.) targeted adults and were prime time fare.
    You're absolutely right about the low budgets, but it seems like most shows back then were cheaply made regardless of genre. As for when you saw them as a kid (as did I), well, some of the more sophisticated prime time westerns were probably shown earlier when rerun in local markets, unless of course they had been syndicated, as opposed to network produced, to begin with.
    If your recollections are different, please correct mine.
    Cheers,
    AuPh
    - Re: "We are talking about a free TV program that ran during the daylight hours..." - Most were originally prime time. - KT88 08:50:17 07/25/05 (3)
      I just remember watching these during the day like perhaps Saturday morning or weekday afternoons as an alternative to soap operas(gag). I was maybe six or seven and this was the early 70's. We probably got three channels via VHF and two via UHF. Slim Pickin's to watch back then (hey, he was on the "Grand ole Opry" or "Hee, Haw!" wasn't he?).
      -Bill
      - Re Slim Pickens? Right here next to my heart! - Gee LP 15:37:42 07/25/05 (2)
        
        In Reply to: Re: "We are talking about a free TV program that ran during the daylight hours..." - Most were originally prime time. posted by KT88 on July 25, 2005 at 08:50:17:
        
        "Hee Haw", of course! I have the note verifying that right here next to my heart...heart...heart...heart! (Slim's fans know EXACTLY where his heart is!)
        A shame about how he (and his wife?) died, murdered for money they didn't even have.
        The shows you are talking about were originally produced for prime time. They shot something like 46 episodes of "The Rifleman" for that first season! But the combination of ratings success and low budgets made TV westerns irresistible for TV producers in the Fifties and Sixties and early Seventies.
        
        Re:One of these days maybe I'll remember who Slim Pickens is! - Gee LP 16:34:36 07/25/05 (1)
        
        In Reply to: Re Slim Pickens? Right here next to my heart! posted by Gee LP on July 25, 2005 at 15:37:42:
        
        Oh my God! I just realized I had confused beloved country comedian Stringbean with nuclear warhead rider Slim Pickens! They even looked completely different!
        Oh well....
        
        Re:One of these days maybe I'll remember who Slim Pickens is! - KT88 09:12:40 07/26/05 (0)
        
        In Reply to: Re:One of these days maybe I'll remember who Slim Pickens is! posted by Gee LP on July 25, 2005 at 16:34:36:
        
        I could not remember which was which either. Slim Pickens has played in way more movies than I could have imagined. It was indeed "Stringbean" who I had in mind.
        -Bill

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

You can not post to an archived thread.