The best Western series was....

[mrbaseball]

Easily Deadwood but that one shouldn't count. As a kid my favorite was Maverick by a wide margin. My least favorite was Bat Masterson because I didn't like his hat [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[John Feeney]

I think Bonanza was better than most of you guys feel it was. I'm not sure I'd like it now, but I did like it all the way into college when I'd watch it in reruns. I also know a lot of the words to the (intrumental after the first episode) theme song.

As a small child I found some of the major westerns like The Virginian, and Wagon Train boring. I think I was just a few years too young for them (several of you are about 3 or 4 years older than I, though you're about 30 years more curmudgeonly [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]), and would undoubtedly like them better now. I did occasionally like Gunsmoke. And I definitely liked The High Chapparal, possibly because it came out when I was a few years older, compadres.

All of these westerns were the kind of morality plays Myrtle mentions. They were strong on instilling certain values like honor and honesty. Despite the violence, I think those things often came through the most clearly.

About the Rifleman:

The various episodes of The Rifleman promote fair play toward one's opponents, neighborliness, equal rights, and the need to use violence in a highly controlled manner ("A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark," McCain tells his son, "But that doesn't mean you go looking to run TO one!"). In other words, the program's villains tend to be those who cheat, who refuse to help people down on their luck, who hold bigoted attitudes, and who see violence as a first resort rather than the final option. Indeed, a curious aspect of the program is that when they meet African-Americans, the people of North Fork are truly color-blind. In "The Most Amazing Man", a black man (played by Sammy Davis, Jr.) checks into the only hotel in town; for the entire show, no one notices his race. Not only is this noteworthy for the 1880s setting, it was radical for Hollywood of the early 1960s. While the message was clear, it was neither heavy-handed nor universal. A certain amount of xenophobia drifts around North Fork, however, forcing McCain to defend the right of a Chinese immigrant to open a laundry ("The Queue") and the right of an Argentine family to buy a ranch ("The Gaucho"). This racial liberalism does not extend to villains, however. The Mexicans in "The Vaqueros" are indolent, dangerous, and speak in the way of most Mexican outlaws in Westerns of the time.

Another fundamental value of the series is that people deserve a second chance. Sheriff Micah Torrance is a recovering alcoholic and McCain once gave an ex-con a job on his ranch ("The Jailbird"). Royal Dano appeared as a former Confederate soldier, given a job on the McCain ranch, who encounters the Union soldier who had cost him his arm in battle. The soldier, now a general, arranges for medical care for the wounded former foe, quoting Abraham Lincoln's orders to "Bind up the Nation's wounds."

In retrospect, The Rifleman holds up better than most Westerns of its era, partly because Connors fit so well into the role (his gravestone reads "The Rifleman") and partly because the father-son interactions between Connors and Crawford seem genuine. And the Lucas McCain character has an angry, vindictive streak that makes him more human. The lighting and camera angles give the program a mildly artistic look. The excellent musical score, one of the most remembered aspects of the program, was composed by Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Most importantly, however, the show was created and initially developed by a young Sam Peckinpah...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rifleman

[Rootabager]

Your forgetting "The Adventures of Brisco County Junior." Starring Bruce Campbell, that show was great. It wasnt around very long but really great show. You all should download the torrent of it, i dont even know if it's out on DVD.

[Blarg]

Kung fu sucked. Everyone was waiting for the dude to come out of slow motion and actually look like he could fight, but it never happened. That said, sometimes the story lines were very good.

My nomination is Have Gun Will Travel.

Before Gunsmoke dragged on too long, it was also often very good.

[swede123]

I'm shocked there's been no mention of "How the West Was Won." This show, starring James Arness as Zeb Macahan and Bruce Boxleitner as Luke Macahan was just perfect...at least in the mind of a 13 year old Swedish boy when it was repeated on Swedish television. The original show started as a mini-series in 1977, and continued as a serial in 1979. Surely someone else remembers it.

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0Je5xdJ1CJFUCMAdBqjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=123k0nbvc/EXP=1159996873/**http%3a//img200.exs.cx/img200/381/macah78p4bq.jpg[/img]

Swede

[Phat Mack]

From the early years:

Hopalong Cassidy
Gene Autry
Roy Rogers

Favorite show was Hopalong. Bill Boyd had it down.
Best production was Roy Rogers, with Dale Evans, Nellie Belle, Trigger, Bullet, and comical sidekick Pat Butrum (sp?). As a sidekick, Butrum was second only to Gabby Hayes.

From the Classic years:

Rawhide
Maverick
Wagon Train
Have Gun.

I may have liked these the best because the characters were always going somewhere, they weren't in a settled place as werethose in Gunsmoke and Bonanza.

Oddball entries:

F Troop
Wild Wild West

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm shocked there's been no mention of "How the West Was Won." This show, starring James Arness as Zeb Macahan and Bruce Boxleitner as Luke Macahan was just perfect...at least in the mind of a 13 year old Swedish boy when it was repeated on Swedish television. The original show started as a mini-series in 1977, and continued as a serial in 1979. Surely someone else remembers it.

[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0Je5xdJ1CJFUCMAdBqjzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4NDgyNWN 0BHNlYwNwcm9m/SIG=123k0nbvc/EXP=1159996873/**http%3a//img200.exs.cx/img200/381/macah78p4bq.jpg[/img]

Swede

[/ QUOTE ]

....nice call. You're absolutely right.

It had completely slipped my mind.

Thanks for reminding me.

[diebitter]

This thread makes me realise how sucky British TV used to be, as we didn't get some of these great-sounding shows at all. The Rifleman for example, or even later ones like the Bruce Campbell one, I'm sure we didn't get.



Would you guys consider 'The Little House on the Prairie' as a 'Western'? cos it rocked when I was 7

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
This thread makes me realise how sucky British TV used to be, as we didn't get some of these great-sounding shows at all. The Rifleman for example, or even later ones like the Bruce Campbell one, I'm sure we didn't get.



Would you guys consider 'The Little House on the Prairie' as a 'Western'? cos it rocked when I was 7

[/ QUOTE ]

.....hmmmmm?

Well, it was set in the frontier 'West', but I always considered it more of a 'Western' version of Father Knows Best meets Ozzie & Harriet.

[bearly]

i think "gunsmoke" would make most lists of classic westerns. but, "have gun will travel", "rifleman", and several others may be hampered by the small number of years they ran................b