Hooked on Westerns!

My wife and I have started watching the Western Channel, and we can't get enough of Westerns.

Western, after Western, after Western. I hated them as a kid, looked down at them as a youth, and now we sit watching.

Anyone else like the genre? I don't know how long this burst of interest will last, but it's odd to find myself enjoying at age 47 a genre I despised most of my life.

I grew up on Bonanza, The Gunslinger and I don't know how many other western TV shows and movies shown on TV. That's about all my dad watched or read. :) There are some excellent movies out there, then there are a lot of, well, ho hum ones. What I'm surprised at is the modest revival of the Western on the Big Screen. I thought it couldn't be done, but there have been some very good ones in the last few years.

I "found" Westerns later in life. Once I acquired a taste for them, I have not gone back. I love 'em. Mythic stuff!

Favorites:
Once Upon a Time in the West (amazing soundtrack, amazing everything)
Unforgiven
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
The Searchers
Lonesome Dove
Red River
The Wild Bunch
The Grey Fox
The Magnificent Seven
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

These are "sorta" in order from top to bottom. Sorta. It's tough.

Run, don't walk, to see Once Upon a Time in the West. :)

/me looks at list.

/me types up a few minutes on the Netflix.

/me will get them, in time, over time, as is the Netflix' way.

Fortunately, I was given The Searchers as a Christmas gift a number of years ago, and the DVD has sat, unwatched, since then. We'll watch that, tonight. :D

Have you read any 'Westerns'? On the recommendation of a friend I recently gave The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard to a relative who was convalescing (as a 'light, well-written read'). It was very well-received, and is now doing the rounds of family and friends and I don't know when I'll be able to get my own hands on it to read.

I've been listening to old radio episodes of Gunsmoke. Adult entertainment, with some interesting plots. Happy endings not a requirement. Much better than the TV show, IMO.

http://freeclassicradio.com/modules/zina/Western/Gun%20Smoke

ETA: That didn't work. I'll try copy & paste.

Btw, JPB, are they running Maverick? I'd love to see that series again.

I watched westerns growing up because my parents loved them. My brother watches them all the time and my oldest son (27) can't get enough of them. It's disgusting when my brother and my son start quoting lines from them. I do watch occasionally, but science fiction is still my favorite genre.

#7 Yup. The Western channel is sort of the "Maverick" channel these past few weeks.

So, is High Noon not on anyone's list? That is my all time favorite. I don't remember the titles, but James Stewart was in some great westerns. I was never much of a Duke fan, thought Stagecoach was good and also True Grit and the one where he is dying but doesn't want anyone to know.

Louis L' Amour and Zane Grey are my favorite western authors, but then they are also the only ones I've read. :)

Georgia,Sci Fi is my favorite too. However, I loved westerns when I was much younger. I enjoyed Maverick. James Garner was so good in that role. I loved Wanted Dead or Alive because of Steven McQueen. He was the King of Cool back then. I enjoyed The Magnificent Seven very much. I really enjoyed Silverado. There were so many good actors in that flick.ie Kevin Cosner,Kevin Kline, Scott GlennJeff Goldbloom,Brian Denahy,Linda Hunt and others I can't remember.Recently, Appaloosa was great.So was Viggo!

Have you seen Firefly? it's western Sci-Fi!

I also love High Noon and My Darling Clementine.

Has anybody but me ever seen "Terror in Tiny Town"? An entire western filmed with midget actors and shetland ponies.

When the bad guy stalks into the saloon below the swinging doors, I fall off the couch.

It's really a turkey, but a personal favorite. I can still hear Lee's hoots of laughter.

#9: Drat! My cable company has changed it to a premium channel. :-(

Any votes for "Blazing Saddles"?

Of course. Blazing Saddles is a masterpiece!

As we were talking about classic tv westerns, I'd vote for Paladin. A dark, brooding, mysterious man, with an air of danger and an unknown but possibly amazing past. *sigh*

I also grew up with "Wild Bill Hickcock," "The Lone Ranger," "Roy Rogers and Dale Evans," "Cheyenne," "The Rifleman," and "Sugarfoot." I remember Lash LaRue and Gene Autry. It was a great time in the history of television.

I even remember Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates in Rawhide..........how embarrassing is that? I always watch The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven and El Dorado whenever the chance arises, but Silverado is one of the more modern westerns with a great cast. Incident at Twenty Mile is the only western written by Trevanian but it's a good story.

MerryMary,

Paladin was cool. (Or maybe "hot & sexy." LOL) You left out a few (dozen) such as "Broken Arrow" (Loved Michael Ansara) --- "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" --- "The Lawman" --- "Wagon Train" --- "Bat Masterson" --- "Tombstone Territory" --- "Tales of the Texas Rangers"

What was the later show with Barbara Stanwyck?

imager,

"Rawhide" was worth watching just to hear Frankie Laine do the theme song. But who played Rowdy's boss? (Hint: he drowned while filming a movie in South America.) I once won movie tickets for knowing that answer. :-)

I remember Barbara Stanwyck in her leather culottes getting ready to ride, ride, ride. She was the matriarch of some huge ranch, I think. I don't remember the name either.

What was the name of the show with the "Chinese" hero? Flashbacks to China showing him being instructed by a wise man who called him grasshopper. You know! I know you know! Actor is still very active and still practices one of the martial arts.

Ah. Blazing Saddles. That was my parents first date.

Love watching the good westerns. We were watching one last night (I don't remember the name) and I noticed the women's clothing was a bit off. Skirts were too short, dresses a little too riskay, etc.. I made a comment that it was a 60's western and sure enough it was made in the 60's. It just didn't look right.

maggie1944,

Was the "Chinese" show the one with Carradine? "Caine"?

Carradine is correct. Was it Caine? or one preceding it? Somehow that does not "ring the bell" but I am not sure. ETA: It was Kung Fu and he was cast as the lead in 1972. He began to study martial arts at that time. Google is my friend.

#21

Maybe Caine was the name of the character?

Kwai Chang Caine. Spelling may be off, but I'm pretty sure that was the character's name.

yup, I think we got it!

#17 myshelves, I didn't even have to think twice for the answer to that one - Eric Fleming (I have to live with the tag "movie trivia queen" in my family,lol).
I do get a kick out of hearing the "Rawhide" theme too.....especially in The Blues Brothers movie.

imager,

I'm lucky you weren't dialing in when I won that contest. I barely recognize the names of most current or recent screen idols, so won't be winning any more tickets. OTOH, I do know the lyrics to the theme songs from most of the tv westerns that have been listed. Very useful knowledge. :-)

myshelves - I think Frankie Lane is a big part of why I love High Noon as well. That and Gary Cooper. :)

Maggie, the show was called The Big Valley. The one with Barbara and her skorts.
Lee Majors was in it. I still loved Wanted Dead or Alive(Steve was it back then)

At my daughter's house, I can only get on the computer at night; so you've answered all the questions I knew. (Big Valley, Eric Fleming)

Myshelves - you're right. I have no excuse for missing all those great shows - I watched them all. Thought of another one: The Virginian. (Is that the one with Neville Brand? Man, I loved his voice.)

David Carradine was in "Kung Fu."

ETA: Just checked. Neville Brand was in Laredo. Also excellent.

Broken Arrow was probably my favourite western series when I was growing up, other than Rawhide but if there are any other Trek fans, who knows what character Michael Ansara played in TOS and then reprised the role in both Deep Space 9 and Voyager (sorry myshelves, no prize movie tickets)? I doubt that many will remember a couple of other old series either:
Sugarfoot with Will Hutchins and a very young Kurt Russell, and Daniel Boone with Fess Parker.

Broken Arrow was my early favorite, too. Eisenhower kept preempting it for press conferences, probably the origin of my dislike of politicians. :-) And since this is LT, I'll toss in a mention of the novel Blood Brother on which it was based. Ansara played a Klingon war leader, but the name escapes me.

Fess Parker as Dan'l, ok, but the memorable one was Ed Ames (Mingo), who showed Johnny Carson how to throw a tomahawk. That was some of the best television I've ever seen.

How about "Colt 45," "Yancy Derringer," "Bronco," "26 Men," "Laramie," "Johnny Yuma" ?

Extra points: translate "Pahoo-Ka-Ta-Wah."

I don't want to have to cheat & look it up, but this is bugging me. Didn't Robert Culp have a Western series in the late 50s or early 60s? Before "I Spy." He was a bounty hunter, maybe?

#8, #10 et al You can of course combine SciFi and Westerns in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It isn't particularly horror like some of his work.

I'm not always a fan of remakes but I was impressed with the remake of "3:10 to Yuma". I must admit to having only vague memories of the original and perhaps the remake pales in comparison, but I liked it.

myshelves

Well done on Ansara as the Klingon called Kang. I think I had a crush on Mingo (along with Ilya Kuryakin in The Man From UNCLE). I do remember Robert Culp in an early western but my mind's a complete blank on the title, so no movie tickets for me either :o)

33 - Or, you know, Firefly... The Postman sort of fits into that as well.

Some SF authors wrote westerns. There's Sturgeon's West. He also wrote the novelization of The Rare Breed. Lee Hoffman's The Valdez Horses won the Spur Award. A couple of her western novels are wickedly funny.

imager, I very well remember Daniel Boone played by Fess Parker. Good TV in those "early days" when TV shows, well, they were TV shows!

I can still sing the theme song of "Johnny Yuma." Also "Rawhide." And "Paladin." (And "Mr Ed." but that's another story.)

I can't sing, but I know 'em. :-)

"Mr. Ed" is indeed another story. But that reminds me of "My Friend Flicka." And wasn't there a boy & horse one called "Fury"? But I think that was modern. And there's "Rin Tin Tin." Cavalry troop, so must count as a western.

Yup.

Sky King( Do any of you remember that series?
How about Appoloosa?Recent western on the big screen.Has anyone seen it?

I remember Sky King. Based on the King Ranch in Texas. Yesterday, I saw a pick up truck at Costco gasoline with a King Ranch logo on it. Very curious.

Any way, it was all about ranching and using a small airplane to get around your ranch. LOL

Not an old fashioned Western in my book.

I also remember Fury, as well as My Friend Flicka

Ah, the joys of childhood. I spent summers on a wheat ranch in Idaho and for at least one summer I had an old horse I got to ride around. Fun, fun, fun.

There have been scholarly studies done on the question of why early adolescent girls love horses. Even city girls who have never seen a horse for real. I should look for one to see what they decided was the reason. I only know I was one of those city girls who named her bicycle Golden Palomino.

I loved "The Big Valley" from the 60's and in the 70's "How the West Was Won" (The Macahans).

I loved The High Chaparral especially Henry Darrow's character Manolito

And Blue had the most incredible eyes!

I can't exactly explain, but I get the most lovely warm memories from just seeing the names of these wonderful shows from my childhood. Just the names. I love it.

Another name. :-)

I gave up & googled Robert Culp. His western series (1957-59) was "Trackdown". He was Hoby Gilman, a Texas Ranger. The web page says the show used actual case files, and that Culp wrote some of the episodes. Steve McQueen's character on "Wanted: Dead or Alive" was introduced on "Trackdown."

Back to SF: Culp starred in some of my favorite episodes of "Outer Limits."

Blue Boy. Oh yea he did have the bluest eyes. I forgot to mention the theme song to The High Chaparral was really cool too.

Hey, JPB, are you getting some ideas of Westerns to track down?

I loved Sky King, but the ones I remember best are the spoofs: F-Troop and Wild, Wild West. When I was a college student in Italy, one of the TV shows I remember watching was Fury, dubbed in Italian. Talk about a Spaghetti Western!

#47 If we're going back to SF then how about Westworld with Yul Brynner looking just the way he did in The Magnificent Seven.

I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood's early westerns- The Man With No Name trilogy, Hang 'Em High, and High Plains Drifter. I also like High Noon and the remake of 3:10 to Yuma.

Not yet mentioned:

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - one of Ford's best
Cat Ballou - not many funny westerns
One-Eyed Jacks - Brando's only film as director
Bad Day at Black Rock - wrong clothes and jeeps but otherwise western through and through.

and The Wild Bunch and The Professionals and.....

Is this just movies and TV westerns, or can books jump in?

I have more westerns than almost anything else in my library, mostly left over from the 1970s when I was either in or just out of the Navy.

If you just collect every Louis L'Amour book and short story collection you can get over 100 westerns right there. Then there's Luke Short, who was very prolific, and the gloppy and sentimental Zane Grey; both of those were mid-20th century authors.

Those are the paperback bestsellers, of course. Shane, The Virginian, and The Oregon Trail are classics.

Frank O'Rourke wrote some really interesting westerns. Donald Hamilton of Matt Helm fame wrote a few, too.

When I started working at Sandhills High School, 26 years ago, I found 2 whole shelves of L'Amour books. I thought I ought to read one or two so I could discuss them intelligently with my students. Well, I've read all of them, some several times, and when I retired, there were nearly 4 shelves full of Louie!

I own quite a few of my own, now. I also own Shane, The Virginian, and The Oregon Trail. Another good one is Smoky, the Cowhorse.

Has anyone mentioned The Ox-Bow Incident?

An excellent story, myshelves!

There's non-fiction: I'm reading Shadows at Dawn by Karl Jacoby right now. Also on my shelves: Ordeal by Hunger, George Stewart's story of the Donner Party, and The World Rushed In, J.S. Holliday's story of the California Gold Rush in diary form from one of the participants.

Linkmeister - You make me happy mentioning some of my favorite stories. :)