: TV WESTERNS – PT24

TV WESTERNS – PT24

March 1, 2022 Alan Royle 0

  LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (1974-83) 204 EPISODES                         This long-running dramatic series was based (very loosely) on the books written by real life pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder. She was born in 1867 and passed away in 1957. Her […]

.TV WESTERNS – PT23

TV WESTERNS – PT23

January 27, 2022 Alan Royle 0

    THE LEGEND OF JESSE JAMES (1965-66) 34 EPISODES       This series was shot in black and white by 20th Century Fox and released on the ABC network. It received an unprecedented volume of fan mail, most of it directed at the charismatic Christopher Jones, who starred as the […]

TV WESTERNS – PT22

TV WESTERNS – PT22

December 31, 2021 Alan Royle 6

  (L to R) Neville Brand, Peter Brown, William Smith, Philip Carey LAREDO (1965-7) 56 EPISODES                 Laredo pretty much transposed the three British soldiers from the hit movie Gunga Din (1939) to the American West and turned them into Texas Rangers. In fact, the producers wanted the series to […]

TV WESTERNS – PT21

TV WESTERNS – PT21

December 16, 2021 Alan Royle 4

  KUNG FU (1972-5) 63 EPISODES                          Every once in a while some ‘genius’ comes up with a concept in the entertainment industry that goes against all expectations and becomes a hit. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one such […]

TV WESTERNS – PT20

TV WESTERNS – PT20

October 29, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  JUDGE ROY BEAN (1955-6) 39 EPISODES        Like many western series, this one is based on the life of a real person of the American Wild West, and liberally mixes fact with fiction. Phantly Roy Bean Jr (1825-1903) was a saloon keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde […]

‘TV WESTERNS – PT19’

‘TV WESTERNS – PT19’

September 29, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  IRON HORSE (1966-8) 48 EPISODES                                                            Dale Robertson portrays Ben Calhoun, a fictional gambler who turns into a railroad baron after […]

‘TV WESTERNS’ – PT18

‘TV WESTERNS’ – PT18

September 14, 2021 Alan Royle 2

  HOTEL DE PAREE (1959-60) 33 EPISODES       It is odd that this series did not go into a second season, because it was certainly a western with a difference. The main problem, of course, was that saturation point for the western genre had been well and truly reached […]

TV WESTERNS – PT17.

TV WESTERNS – PT17.

August 21, 2021 Alan Royle 2

  THE HIGH CHAPARRAL (1967-71) 97 EPISODES                                The series was created by David Dortort, the man who had previously created Bonanza for NBC. Big John Cannon (Leif Erickson) runs the family’s High Chaparral Ranch in Arizona Territory in the 1870s, aided by his brother Buck (Cameron Mitchell) and son […]

TV WESTERNS – PT16

TV WESTERNS – PT16

August 3, 2021 Alan Royle 5

  HAWKEYE & THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1957) 39 episodes                              This was yet another short-lived western series from the 1950s, one that lasted just a single season although, by most accounts, it probably deserved a better fate. Its star was a charismatic actor named John Hart (1917-2009), who […]

TV WESTERNS – PT15

TV WESTERNS – PT15

June 16, 2021 Alan Royle 0

  GUNSMOKE (1955-75) 635 EPISODES (L to R) – Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake, James Arness & Milburn Stone                         James Arness almost did not take the Marshal Matt Dillon role in Gunsmoke after people in the industry warned him that […]