Rawhide: A TV show you should watch

[Colonel_Reb]

I bought my Dad the first season DVD of Rawhide for his birthday, and after watching a few episodes, was hooked. This show came out in January 1959 with Eric Fleming playing the strong lead character alongside a still young and "Rowdy" Clint Eastwood. This show not only has and portrays strong white men, but it is good for action too. Check it out sometime if you get a chance.

 

[sport historian]

I used to watch this show when it was on originally. It is a lot different from what is on the networks today. Younger people tell me that they don't like to watch anything that was filmed in black and white. It would be nice if they watch a show like Rawhide.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Well sport, I'm 28 and I like it fine, but I know a lot of people who don't, just like what you are saying. Black and white seems to take everything back to a much better time, and it also parallels the move in our society from things being cut and dry, right and wrong, black and white, etc.; to everything being shades of gray, situational, and relative. I think the old shows look cool though. Andy Griffith is one of if not my favorite show.

 

[sport historian]

I have some nephews who say that the only thing they like in black and white is the Andy Griffith Show. By the way Colonel Reb, do you like the so-called film noir movies of the 1940's and 1950's? TCM shows them often. In those days, they were called "crime" or "mystery stories."

 

[Bear-Arms]

Rollin', rollin', rollin'
Though the streams are swollen
Keep them doggies rollin'
Rawhide!

I used to watched the show with my parents. I have the whole series on VHS. It's a lot better than the stuff on regular TV. I'm actually appalled by some of the stuff ABC puts on its family channel. I put it on block so my nephew can't see it. I'm younger than Colonel Reb by the way.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I'm not into those stories a whole lot, but I like some of the movies from that era and earlier. I also like watching any of the early black and white TV shows.

 

[Gary]

Rawhide is a good program.So is Bonanza.When I was a young boy we had lots of good programs with tough White men for the White youth of America.The Rifleman,The Rebel,Bat Masterson,Maverick,The Lone Ranger,The Range Rider,The Lawman,Kit Carson,Daniel Boone plus many others.Whole Sports teams had all-White line ups-The Yankees in Baseball,The Packers under Vince Lombardi were very good and very White.The Heavyweight Boxing Champion was a handsome Swede named Ingemar Johansson.Top pro wrestlers were men like Buddy Rogers,Lou Thesz and Bruno Sammartino.We saw tough White Men in sports,televison and movies-John Wayne,Clint Walker,Steve Reeves,etc.We still had living real life war hero's like Audie Murphy and Sgt.York.That is why the jock sniffers can't brainwash me with this modern PC trash.I grew up when White Men were tough.Some still are,we need more men like Matt Hughes,Dan Severn,Mark Coleman,Brett Favre,Etc.

 

[Gary]

Colonel Reb-I forgot a few other programs from that time period.Davy Crockett,Have Gun Will Travel,Wyatt Earp,Jim Bowie and ask your dad if he remembers Cheyenne?Cheyenne was played by Clint Walker 6'6 235lbs the biggest and strongest of the cowboys{with the possible exception of Dan Blocker who played Hoss Cartwright.Hoss was 6'4 290.I hope your dad likes his Rawhide tapes!! It seems to me that he has a pretty good son to!!

 

[sport historian]

Cheyenne was my favorite of the Westerns. I don't have it yet, but I think it is being put on DVD as well.

 

[screamingeagle]

Rawhide! I love this show! I was too young when the show was first on. In those days, westerns were written for adults, so as a younster, I ignored them. When I was finally old enough to understand, the western had road off into the sunset.
A few years ago, I saw an episode of Rawhide. It had Barbara Stanwick as the wife of a army officer. When ever they needed a woman to play the role of a domineering wife, it always went to Ms. Stanwick. She mocks her husband for not getting a promotion so that they could be transfered to Washington DC. She tells him if he was more aggressive against the indians, the promotion would come sooner.
Later in the episode, the husband is out on patrol. Stanwick organizes the soldiers to attack the indians and is ambushed. Gil Favor (The star of the show, played by Eric Fleming) manages to rescue her, but not before she is motally wounded. In her dying words, she admits that her husband's tactics against the indians was right. Imagine a show today in which a woman admits that men know what they are doing! It is not politically Correct! BTY, the promotion to Washinton arrives.
The first season is out on DVD and at $40, it is a bargain.
Other shows. I hesitate on Have Gun Will Travel. It seems like a politicall correct show before that term was invented.
I recommend the Whirlybirds, especially for children. Two guys in a helicopter rescuing people. Also any movie that Audie Murphy was in.

 

[Gary]

Just a question-How was Have Gun Will Travel a PC program? Paladin[White man] was a West Point graduate who was very smart and used his brain and gun to help people out[for cash!!].He had a Chinese bellhop named Hey Boy who was a regular on the show. How was Paladin PC?

 

[sport historian]

I used to watch Have Gun Will Travel when a child. It was one of the most popular TV shows of the late 1950's. Below is from The Complete Directory of TV Shows:

"Richard Boone,as Paladin, was a man of culture, who enjoyed fancy meals and literate company, except when on assignment. Then, dressed in black, he became a very intimidating figure indeed. Despite his somewhat violent profession, he had a sense of ethics that dictated what he would do and would not do; it occasionally led him to seek out the very people who had hired him if they in fact were the guilty parties."

I don't think there was anything PC in this show. It was what people wanted to see in the late 50's.

 

[screamingeagle]

I have told people that, at the beginning of an episode of Have gun will travel, a character quotes from the bible or shows that he is Christian, by the end of the episode Paladin will be filling him with lead. I think this show was produced by atheists.
Here are some exaamples of what I seen.
1) Paladin protects a chinese merchant from white bigots
2) He protects a woman doctor from a religious fanatic
3) Paladin rescues a black man from a lynch mob, to bring him to trial knowing full well the black man is guilty beyond all doubt.
4) Helps a indian tribe find the man who cheated them.
By modern standards, this might be considered politically correct. I have been told that all westerns on TV and in the movies at this time dealt with issues of bigotry and conflict between cultures and races. The west was a place where people from different cultures encountered each other and there would be conflict. Maybe these western dealt with these issues more realistically then today's preachy, feel good, stories.
I like HGWT, and recommemend it to everyone.

 

[Gary]

Colonel Reb-The Rifleman was a very good program-I got some DVD's from the library and watched them with my two youngest sons.Chuck Conners was a pro baseball player and I think he played pro basketball also.Single dad[his wife died]bringing up his son in New Mexico.Not only good with his rifle but also packs a mean right cross.I recommend The Rifleman to dad's and there son's.The Youth of America need role models of tough,honest,hardworking,fair minded MEN.

 

[Colonel_Reb]

I have seen the Rifleman many times, and have heard of several of the shows that have been mentioned in this thread. I hope they release more of these old shows on DVD.