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Post by loucapitano on Jan 25, 2015 16:55:53 GMT -5
Thanks Rich, this is a thread worth jogging. Every show ended with: "Who was that masked man?" And how many times was this part of the plot? "Scout came back alone...Tonto must be in trouble!" By the way, Encore Westerns is showing Bat Masterson, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Cheyenne and Wanted Dead or Alive. But my favorite is Death Valley days with the Old Ranger and later with Ronald Reagan. Nice little soap operas that purport to be based on true tales of the old west. Does anyone want to add their favorites from those thrilling days of yesteryear? Lou from Long Island
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boba
Full Member
Posts: 36
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Post by boba on Jan 26, 2015 15:45:41 GMT -5
I'd like to add my favorites which include all of the above named by Lou.How about Maverick,Wagon Train,Lawman,Bronco,Yancy derringer,Have Gun will travel and the Disney cowboys like Texas John Slaughter,Elfego Baca and Andy Burnette.I wasn't crazy about Hopalong Cassidy and Gene Autry (too much singing) but Roy Rodgers was OK.The Lone Ranger was OK until I saw him on color TV.I think he was lucky to survive in the old west with those blue duds.I remember getting a Lone Ranger official double holster and cap guns for Christmas one year,my pride and joy but no blue duds......bob
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Post by loucapitano on Jan 28, 2015 19:50:05 GMT -5
I agree with every additions to western TV shows listed by Boba. There were a few other favorite westerns like: The Restless Gun, Tombstone Territory, the Range Rider, Judge Roy Bean, The Cisco Kid, Sugarfoot, and the most wonderfully violent Chuck Connors in The Rifleman and his follow-up Branded. These shows occupied the first 12 years of my life and one by one they disappeared or became "adult westerns." I too loved the Disney Cowboys as they were the first miniseries of their time. I agree about the Long Ranger's blue duds. But it could be a problem with the color processing in the film. My wife met Clayton Moore personally and his outfit was Texas Gray. I was much more disappointed with the episodes that substituted Thomas Hart for Clayton. But Moore returned after about a year. Westerns today as with most movies and TV are all about realism, which is OK and probably inevitable. But I miss the primitive but colorful stories of my youth where there were just good guys and bad guys, and the good guys always won. Lou from Long Island (still digging out from the 18 inches my town got.)
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Post by mjbrathwaite on Jan 28, 2015 23:12:00 GMT -5
I'm not sure realism is that good a thing, as I suspect that if historical characters and events are presented realistically but inaccurately, audiences might be more inclined to believe things actually happened that way. For example, someone seeing "Dirty Little Billy" might come away thinking he was nothing but a despicable guttersnipe. (Do you have that word in America?) Similarly, someone might come away from "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" thinking Cody was a buffoon. We didn't have television in New Zealand until 1960, and at our house we didn't get it until late 1963, although by that time I was going next door to watch "Maverick" and "Bonanza". I used to read about most of the shows you mention, and buy the comic versions of some, but to this day I've never seen most of them. I have a theory that the demise of the Production Code killed the Western: it called for "compensating moral values", but when those disappeared the genre lost its psychological appeal. Like you, I miss the old days when Westerns had real heroes, and I also liked it at lot more when the films were in real colour as opposed to the muted colours verging on sepia they all seem to have now.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Oct 9, 2015 23:22:02 GMT -5
I'm glad my thread was resurrected. Most of those 50s and 60s TV series fit their time and aged well whether they were realistic or not.
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Post by mjbrathwaite on Oct 10, 2015 19:09:26 GMT -5
I've just recently started seeing some old TV Westerns for the first time. One that surprised me was "Have Gun, Will Travel": I liked it, but it was nothing like what I expected from reading the comics. I suppose that's not surprising, as even at the time "Maverick" was nothing like the comics either. Regarding "The Lone Ranger", I liked the Clayton Moore series on TV, but thought the film version was laughable - possibly I would have taken it more seriously if I hadn't seen it on a double bill with "The Searchers", and if a guy behind me hadn't been making loud but funny comments on its absurdities. I hated the Clinton Spillsbury film, which I had to go to as at the time I was writing an M.A. thesis on Hollywood's depiction of the Indians. As I'll be updating it in the not-too-distant future, I felt obliged to watch the Johhny Depp version when it was on TV in New Zealand last week. Based on the previous Lone Ranger films, along with its length, I wasn't looking forward to it, but it turned out to be the first Lone Ranger film I liked.
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Post by Bill Yowell on Oct 10, 2015 19:23:37 GMT -5
I will add one more to the above mentioned "oldies": Johnny Yuma starring Nick Adams. I still recall most of the words to the theme.
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Post by loucapitano on Oct 19, 2015 18:47:07 GMT -5
Johnny Yuma "figured he'd been pushed enough." I also remember a little of the theme song. I don't even recall the actor's name, although he was great in "No Time for Sergeants" opposite Andy Griffith. It seems his career nosedive after the Rebel and the last I saw he was making Japanese Godzilla movies. Too bad, he deserved more. I've tried to watch newer westerns, especially the series, "Hell On Wheels." But after the last season, I found it tedious and too frequently anachronistic, especially in the arms they carried and the treatment of Indians. I heard "Lonesome Dove", was pretty good, but I never saw all of it. Now about the Johnny Depp Lone Ranger...AARRGHH. It seemed there was a decent story trying to escape from all the nonsense, but we'll never know. Give it another 10 years and some new director is likely to try again. Hi-O Silver...Away!!!!!
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Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 19, 2015 23:02:14 GMT -5
Johnny Yuma was played by Nick Adams, who was from Nanticoke, Pennsylvania -- Anthracite coal reagions. Must have been a little tuffy.
Lonesome Dove is a must-see -- all four episodes. The first one is slow, but it takes this slow character development between Robert Duval and Tommy Lee Jones to make the last three shows so genuinely powerful.
The best Western spoof is not The Lone Ranger, as I had hoped it would be, but another Gore Verbinsky/Johnny Depp collaboration -- and far superior -- the awesomely written, animated and performed film Rango.
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Post by loucapitano on Oct 21, 2015 19:27:53 GMT -5
Thanks Rich...my wife couldn't believe I forgot Nick Adams name. But at 67, I'm forgetting a lot and also find I remember a lot I thought I forgot. If it wasn't for Jeopardy trivia, I'd have mental mush. I think I can get Lonesome Dove "On Demand." I still Remember the Alamo, thanks to you guys in the Forum. Best regards, Lou from Long Island
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Post by Rich Curilla on Oct 22, 2015 0:06:59 GMT -5
At 67, I have trouble remembering 66, but my childhood I remember perfectly -- most of the time.
Johnny Yuma was a rebel. He roamed through the west. Johnny Yuma... the Rebel. He wondered along.
He got fightin' mad, This young rebel lad... And that's all I know Though I know there's mo...
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Post by loucapitano on Oct 24, 2015 15:48:02 GMT -5
I also seem to remember the first years of my life better than what I had for breakfast yesterday. Sometimes I even remember test questions I got wrong in elementary school. As I've said: a mind is a terrible thing... There was also a line about: things getting tough and he figured he'd been pushed enough...Johnny Yuma Someone out there must know the rest of the words and who sang it. Any takers? Lou from Long Island
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