I miss them, and I'm trying to think, what was the last one, and when?

Too old ta remember

Encore Westerns runs the best ones:

Gunsmoke
Marshall Dillon
Rawhide
Wagon Train
Bat Masterson
Laredo
Bonanza
How the West Was Won
Have Gun Will Travel - Paladin
The Rifleman
Maverick

Sure, all those good ones.
The last I can come up with off the top of my head is the "Outlaws". That was on for a short time in 1986, staring Rod Taylor.

Dallas was of course a soap opera.

A couple weeks ago we watched an old Hopalong Cassidy show. I'd forgotten just how corny some of them were.

Bought collections of old westerns for when the grand kids come to visit. Got em cheap at Walmart. Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Annie Oakley, Hoppalong and many more. Amazingly they love em!!! Especially the singing cowboys!!!

Eddie Dean!

Last one this OLD man can remember was the TV Show
based on Lonesome Dove
It had Newt McCall at the center of it.

There was Big Valley with Barbara Stanwyck, that was in the late 60's. The Guns of Will Sonnett was also in the late 60's.

Gunsmoke lasted through 1975.

Little House on the Prairie and Medicine Woman and Kung Fu were more or less westerns since they were set in the Old West but I'm sure the topic is good old shoot'em up cowboy Westerns, so I can't think of a real Western TV series beyond Gunsmoke.

Hell on Wheels...............

http://www.amctv.com/shows/hell-on-wheels

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/11/14/hell-on-wheels-4th-season/

Deadwood was great! Ole Raylan again.

Deadwood was in a league of it's own. It had it all......

I always liked the Desperado series. I always felt sorry for his horse with him packing all that gear.

Forgot about those cable series - they really added a new dimension to the old G rated Westerns. Deadwood was a terrific show for the first two seasons and even the last one was still great.

Lawman with John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop 1958-1962.
One of the best �Gunsmoke� type westerns.

IMHO John Russell was one of the most underutilized western actors in Hollywood.

He was the bad guy in Rio Bravo that John Wayne calls out�Nathan! Nathan Burdette!
Stole every scene he was in.

Did the same thing years later as the bad guy in Pale Rider.

When a kid I love Lawman, Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, and Sugarfoot!!!

Yup---the entire Lawman series runs on Encore Westerns as well. Arness and Russell were 2 of the best lawmen

Peter Brown went onto Laredo to play a Texas Ranger with Reese.

I was in my twenties with my own little kids, but those were 4 of the best.

Trivia - which Western ran 90 minutes?

The Virginian--that's why it contained so many early big named stars.

And I forgot! I never missed "Death Valley Days". The one hosted by "The Old Ranger"..

Excellent!

James Drury was an a-hole to us kids at the fat stock show in Ft. Worth! Ken Curtis and Fess Parker on the other and were awesome!! Signing autographs and shaking our hands!! I remember when I stood before Parker!!! WOW! What a guy!!

The Virginian

Anyone know what happened to Chester's leg? Always wondered.

I know Arness had a real injury from either falling from or jumping on his horse. Developed a limp as Zeb Macahan and in Gunsmoke movies.

But never could figure out what happened to Chester!

You mean Chester Proudfoot??? Dunno?

Ken Curtis was a dandy...mean that in a good way.

Chester's limp was feigned, IIRC.

More trivia---Who initially turned down the role of Matt Dillon in favor of the big screen??

The Duke

Ding!

Peter Graves or John Wayne would be my guesses.....

The Duke used to joke that he wanted Arness to move to TV so that there would be no one bigger than himself in his movies.

I saw the Arness reply; Taller maybe, but not bigger...

Anyone mention Deadwood yet?

Sweetwater was the last western movie.

If I'm not mistaken James Arness got his leg injury in the Korean War. Was shot up pretty badly I think.

I believe you're right. Where's leanwolf when we need him??!

Arness was severly wounded at Anzio, Italy, WWII.

I saw Richard Kiel ("Jaws" from James Bond, Pale Rider, and Longest Yard fame) roughing up Chuck Connors in the Rifleman this morning. Big fella. About the size of Shaq O'Neill 7'1 1/2" and 340 lbs.......

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

Yup. Chester Goode was played by Dennis Weaver. He later played McCloud and many other roles - never with a limp.

On a related subject, I've been watching Pale Rider on AMC today.

Getting towards the end. Great!

Young riders

James Arness leg injury was the result of being wounded at Anzio during WW2.

John Russel had sever emphysema. He died before that show was released.

Great stuff!

Thank god for the westerns channel, when I was a kid I saw them all, the Rifleman was my favorite.

No, Jim Arness did not hurt his leg falling off a horse. He was badly wounded as an infantryman at the invasion of Anzio, Italy, in WW II. His limp was genuine. Over the years, it grew worse until he could barely ride a horse. Toward the last of Gunsmoke, he'd mount his horse and then a cutaway would show "him" riding. But it was his stunt double doing the riding.

Same in the McCahans.

I seem to recall that Chester got his limp from being shot in the Civil War... but I'm not sure if that is correct.

L.W.

I read all the posts and recognize many of the tv shows. I grew up in Roswell,NM and the only tv station was an independent.....KSWS-TV Channel 8.
The transmitter was on Commanche Hill (or Caprock) and at one time was the world's tallest man-made structure til an ice storm brought it down.
The owner used to provide tv service for most of central and south eastern NM and well into west Texas. He would select the programming and did he love westerns!
My favorite was 26 MEN -(1957-1959). About the Arizona Rangers. Had a great theme song....(roughly) "ride on,ride on......this is the story of 26 MEN,Who rode the Arizona Territory".....
Another was CIMMARON CITY.....then WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE (Steve
McQueen)......HAVE GUN,WILL TRAVEL (Richard Boone) another great theme
song!......OVERLAND TRAIL (Doug McClure & William Bendix)......of course Roy Rogers,Gene Autry,the Lone Ranger.....even the Cisco Kid!

How can i recall this when i can't even find my truck keys?

Was Bonanza on anyone's list?

"How can i recall this when i can't even find my truck keys?"



You got that right! Same for me...

I googled it and he didn't die until 1991. Pale Rider was released in 1985.

I stand corrected. I was going by when I saw the movie in '92.

That's what it was. I knew he had some difficulties on and off a horse and thought I read that he had fallen off once. Thanks for clearing that up LW. My mistake Mister Arness. RIP!

Someone mentioned Cimmaron City, which was always fun to watch on a Friday or Saturday night. Always, thought George Montgomery was going to fall off his horse in the closing credits.

Wild wild West was a fun modern day series. James West was uber-cool.

Another tidbit about Arness is that his real name was James Aursnes. He's a Minneapolis born Norwegian.

He's listed as the tallest leading man ever in a series, supposedly 6'7".

I'd run home from school for Jim Bowie!

Not many know that Ken Curtis (Festus) was a damn fine singer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWR6FLnPack

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvl8_RZ8CS0

He started with the Dorsey brothers.

James Arness...don't forget that his brother is Peter Graves. Their real last name was Aurness. James just dropped the U while Peter completely changed his.

My two favorites were "Wanted Dead or Alive" with Steve McQueen and "The Rebel" with Nick Adams.

I dvr'ed The Wild bunch last night, and am watching it now. It is seldom on tv.

Rawhide, Palidin, wagon train, Bonanza, Maverick, The Virginian.

Chester Goode of "Gunsmoke" limped due to having been wounded as a Confederate soldier at the battle of "Pitsburg Landing"(Shiloh), Tennessee. BTW -- Marshall Dillon had been a soldier under Confederate Gen. Sterling Price.

Me TV still has most of them on. Watched The Rifleman couple nights ago.

was that a part of any Gunsmoke episode? Think I've darn near seen them all and I sure do not recall.

I remember Festus being introduced as a wolf hunter/skinner.

Thanks

I used to strap on my Mattel Fanner 50 and try to outdraw Matt Dillion at the start of every show.

Years ago we had a field guy working in west Texas who shot out the tv in his motel room with a Ruger super single six trying to out draw Matthew. Did I mention his revolver was "unloaded"? . Think it was in Ft. Stockton.

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

The history of Chester's wound was in an early episode. I do not recall personaly seeing it, but I read this somewhere about TV trivia. I did see many years ago the episode where Matt Dillon mentioned that he had served with Gen. Sterling Price. If I recall correctly, it was casually mentioned, not a major theme of the episode.

It seems to me that even though there was interaction with soldiers from time to time on the show, it was rare that any mention of military service of the main characters was ever mentioned on Gunsmoke. However, in most all westerns some aspect of the war would come up from time to time. This would have been realistic. For instance Lucas McCain - AKA The Rifleman - had been a Yankee cavalry officer, from Indiana, I think. One of the Barkley brothers on The Big Valley had been a Yankee officer. Obviously, Johnny Yuma of The Rebel was a Confederate veteran. Several episodes of Bonanza would feature former Confederates, but none of the regular cast characters were veterans. Several characters of Rawhide were former veterans, some Yankee and some Confederate. There was a show about Jesse and Frank James, I cannot recall the name of it, but they had been Confederate soldiers as they really had been. I cannot remember about Wagon Train or Maverick. It seems to me that Paladin from Have Gun Will Travel was a Yankee veteran, but I am not sure on this. I am sure there were others. As my wife would say, I don't know why I use my rather limited brain cells to remember such trivia.

A couple weeks ago I watched 6 "B" movies on Encore Westerns.
The star was Al "Lash" Larue. All were made in 1947. Many of the actors appeared in different roles/characters. The studios used to punch these movies out in 6 weeks or less and the actors were under contract to the studios as a weekly job. Better entertainment then the garbage today. Lash was a true bullwhip performer, too.

That really brings back some memories. Believe Borax was the sponsor. I remember siting in front of our floor mounted Philco radio & listening to The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, & The Old Ranger. Those were the days.

Yes, he got drummed out of the Army as I recall, branded as a coward and "the one who ran".

Ward Bond's character in Wagon Train had been a union officer.

When I lived and worked in Tulsa during the late 1980's, I visited most of the local gun shows each year. I remember seeing Lash Larue at one of the shows.

He was dressed in black and visited with everyone who wanted to meet him. (I just looked up his biography and he died in 1996.)

During an October 1988 Tulsa gun show, I met Bill Jordan in person and bought his new book, "Mostly Huntin'." He was sitting at a table so I didn't see him at his full 6'6" height. After I shook his hand I was amazed he could shoot so quickly and accurately from a paw that huge!

Growing up I spent a lot of enjoyable time reading stories written by Bill Jordan, Jack O'Connor and Elmer Keith.

That was another show called "Branded" that also starred Chuck Conners. His character in "The Rifleman" had servered honorably.

Yes, I know, hence the knowing wink icon.

Death Valley Days brought to you by Twenty Mule Team Borax.

Prior to the well known old series like Roy Rogers, etc. There was Tom Mix, Lash Larue, Red Rider and Little Beaver, Flaming Arrow.


Audie Murphy played in many early western movies.

When The Lone Ranger and Tonto were in the peak, you could get games and trivia from the card board dividers in Nabisco Shredded wheat boxes.

When the milk was delivered to your door step in glass bottles, the little card board seals on top had pictures of well known western stars on the inside that kids collected.

In the very early TV days there was The Range Rider.

Anybody mention Annie Oakley with Gail Davis, who also was in a bunch of Gene Autrey episodes.

The character of "Festus" played by Ken Curtiss on Gunsmoke, was originally a character in an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel. Both shows were owned by CBS so "Festus" migrated from one show to the other where he became a regular and favorite of the audience.

L.W.

Pogs!

I watched Gunsmoke from the time I could watch tv around 1959 to is final broadcast in 1975. Westerns pretty much have died out. Clint Eastwood's Outlaw Josey Wales and Pale Rider are pretty much the last of the big screen westerns. The Westerns were our countries heroic myths if you would. The post civil war era 1865 to 1900 or so was about the rebuilding and making the 20th century an American one. The people who run entertainment from the 1960's on do nothing more that to diminish the nation in the entertainment is produces. After all it was a pretty independent rugged bunch that settled the west, and they didn't take an bull crap from anybody either. Even the Cop shows are well crap compared to what it was in years passed, Last good one was Hill Street Blues and that is 30 years ago.

Great trivia.
Thanks.

General Sterling Price was from Keytesville, Missouri, where my mother went to school. I grew up about 20 miles from there, the Chariton County seat. Most of my family still lives in the area.

FWIW, Marshal Rooster Cogburn also rode with Sterling Price, if you recall your "True Grit"

Just for fun, google up Chariton County MO, and read some of the goings-on that happened there during the War of Northern Aggression, Chariton County and Macon County had themselves a regular little border war amongst themselves.....

I used to watch Sky King - it combined two of my favorite themes, westerns and flying.

One of my favorite tv western series was High Chapparal. It was a bit of a knock-off of Bonanza but was grittier, and had somewhat more realistic storylines.

drover

Bonanza was crap. Watch it now, and it's just not-too-well-disguised liberal BS. We didn't know any different when we were kids, but watching it now makes me retch.

And Penny!!!! Loved that show!

I think James Arness also had a leg injury at Anzio in WWII.

Rooster Cogburn's cat was named General Sterling Price.

your right .... that was a great ending.