dvdjunkie32

I love westerns, and these series like Gunsmoke and The Virginian were well before my time. I really enjoy owning these series.

Well, October will be the greatest month ever for westerns on dvd. Here is a rundown of what is coming out:


Tales of Wells Fargo S1 and S2 in tin case

The Men from Shiloh - tin case

Wagon Train Season 4 - tin case

Gunsmoke S5 vol. 1

Bonanza S2 vol. 2

The Virginian S5 tin case


I'm not a big fan of the tin cases, but I like that the packaging is consistent with these releases.

Ash Ketchum

I watched a lot of TV westerns growing up, including these series:

The Rifleman
Maverick
Bat Masterson
Wyatt Earp
Wild Bill Hickok
The Roy Rogers Show
Sky King (modern western)
Cheyenne
Sugarfoot
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Jim Bowie
Annie Oakley
Kit Carson

and a bunch of others I'm forgetting. Most of the above were half-hour westerns, which were better for the attention span of a small child.

For some reason, I don't recall ever watching Gunsmoke, Bonanza or The Virginian in our house. I don't know why. I'm pretty sure we watched Wagon Train and Rawhide, on occasion, although I don't have clear memories of them. Have Gun Will Travel came on after Perry Mason on Saturday nights, but my parents usually scooted us off to bed by then.

The one series from that era that I wish I'd been allowed to stay up and watch was a non-western, but with just as much shooting and killing: "The Untouchables." I had to catch up with it on syndication years later as a college kid.

The TV western from that era that I've most enjoyed as an adult, but which I never saw as a child, is "Stories of the Century," a syndicated western from Republic Pictures that ran from 1954-55 and focused on a different outlaw every week, from Joaquin Murietta to Quantrill to Tom Horn--a period of 50 years, with the same detective investigating EVERY case! It used a lot of stock footage from Republic westerns, so there was lots of action in every episode. E.g., the Quantrill episode used footage from DARK COMMAND (1940), a John Wayne/Claire Trevor/Roy Rogers(!) western about Quantrill (played by Walter Pidgeon). I managed to borrow a p.d. box set of these to watch for the TV on DVD Challenge here on this board back in January.

I haven't revisited a lot of TV westerns, though. I've watched some on the Western Channel over the years, including Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, and Maverick, and I tended to find them overly talky. I have to say I prefer catching up on western movies I've never seen, esp. B-Westerns from the '30s and '40s, which offer a lot of major discoveries for me. During the B-movie and Historical challenges on this board (April and June), I watched a few B-westerns from the 1930s and '40s and was very impressed with what I saw, including five made at RKO starring Tim Holt, which had good scripts and decent production values.

Ky-Fi

I was largely unfamiliar with any 50's western tv shows prior to the dvd age, but I've since gotten seasons of Have Gun Will Travel and Wanted: Dead or Alive. I've been really impressed with the quality of these productions on every level---very entertaining. I'm sure this is related to the fact that with so many Hollywood westerns having been made, and also a ton of western tv shows at the time, there were a ton of people involved in these shows who had a lot of experience in every aspect of putting westerns on the screen.

Also, I've come to really like the format of a half-hour adventure show. The stories, action and characterization have to be very economical, and there's no room for padding. I think it's too bad that that format has largely disappeared.

Rexxriot

The TV western might soon make a comeback. There are a few in development for next season. And next month AMC debuts Hell On Wheels which looks pretty good.

dvdjunkie32

I'm really excited about Hell on Wheels. Just about anything AMC does is top notch. Also Blackthorn hits theaters and looks action packed.

bsmith

I have many of those mentioned so far, but lets not forget, Big Valley.

I really enjoyed Wyatt Earp and Restless Gun and wish they would get more releases. Another I am enjoying is Range Rider, an early half hour show with Jack Mahoney. I am going to try a bit of Gene Autry Show next.

While I grew up in the 60's I don't really recall western's being prominently syndicated during that time (some Big Valley and a little Rifleman but that is all I recall). Or I just missed them.

Time Warrior

I love the TV westerns of the 1950s and 1960s specifically.

In recent months I have been watching a lot of The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train and Zane Grey Theater (my favourite). I really need to get some copies of Have Gun Will Travel and Bonanza (which I have not seen in at least twenty years.)

Television of that period tended to have really good scripting and a lot of actors with substantial film careers behind them.

JOE29

I'm a fan of westerns also. One that I would like to see released was the TV series called Hondo. I'm also a big Western movie fan. Where there are plenty of movies that haven't even been released yet.