Rate the long running Western series

[bencasey]

I'm not that big a fan of the genre but I've been watching Have Gun Will Travel lately and it's a really great show. So, leaving out the "kiddie" westerns, like Lone Ranger and the like, how about some fans rating the long-running (5 seasons or more) westerns in TV history. Here's a list:

Bonanza
Gunsmoke
Tales of Wells Fargo
Have Gun Will Travel
Rawhide
The Virginian
Wagon Train
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
Maverick
Cheyenne
The Rifleman
Zane Grey Theater
Death Valley Days

The only ones I've seen much of are HGWT (great), Gunsmoke (also great) and Bonanza (pretty bad). Curious to hear what fans of westerns think.

[alexpop]

Tales OF Wells Fargo -Dale Robertson ..have not seen it in yonks rating 5 out of 10
Maverick- James Garner..Roger Moore ..rating 6
Wagon Train-Ward Bond best trail master w/Rober Horton/R Fulton rating 4
Rawhide- rating 3

High Chaparral was great ..Buck (Cameron Mitchell) & Blueboy (Mark Slade) rating 7/8

[Drawer L]

What about "Big Valley"?

[Jackson]

''The Wild Wild West'' is missing from that list.

[The Wanderer]

Bat Masterson?

[bencasey]

Big Valley and WWW ran 4 seasons, Bat ran 3.

[bencasey]

High Chaparral was great ..Buck (Cameron Mitchell) & Blueboy (Mark Slade) rating 7/8


Several very knowledgeable people have told me this was a very boring, very dull show. Like a an even poorer version of Bonanza, which itself isn't a very good show.

[alexpop]

Several very knowledgeable people have told me this was a very boring, very dull show. Like a an even poorer version of Bonanza, which itself isn't a very good show.

Where is your list ?

[The Wanderer]

Many of these episodic westerns are most interesting for the guest appearances.

(BTW, I don't know how many seasons anything ran - how do you know?)

How about The Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy?

'Kiddie' westerns?

See, at the time, 'Have Gun Will Travel' and "The Rifleman' (w/Johnny Crawford) were a big hit with the kids.

Met Richard Boone, even got some of his cool 'business' cards.

[alexpop]

Where is your list ?

Oh ..er..just found it :D

[wayneklein]

''The Wild Wild West'' is missing from that list.

Since he stated 5 years, it's out. It only ran four seasons before being cancelled.

[alexpop]

Several very knowledgeable people have told me this was a very boring, very dull show. Like a an even poorer version of Bonanza, which itself isn't a very good show.

Boring ???

If you managed to get pass Big John ..there was the lovely Victoria (Linda Cristal) :righton:

[PreciousRicky]

Is Kung Fu considered a Western? Great show. Well it was short-lived so it wouldn't qualify as long running. But I never watched any of the ones listed except a few episodes of Maverick, which I found unwatchable. Another short-lived Western I liked was Alias Smith and Jones. I'm a child of the 70's and 80's, so the genre had become extinct by then except in reruns.

[wayneklein]

Actually my favorite westerns are (with the exception of "Have Gun Will Travel") are all short running--"Kung Fu", "The Wild, Wild West","Alias Smith and Jones", "Brisco" were also hybrid shows combining the western with other genres.

[Michael]

Is Kung Fu considered a Western?

...well it takes place in the western times so I'd call it a western fur sure...:D

[Michael]

"Kung Fu"

too bad they never corrected the fake widescreen mishap!:mad:

[guy incognito]

My favorite Western series are radio, not TV: "The Six Shooter", "Tales of the Texas Rangers", "Frontier Gentleman", and the (IMO far superior) William Conrad version of "Gunsmoke".

[The Wanderer]

Were we to include short-lived 'westerns', we could relive some fond memories like "Alias Smith & Jones', for example.

Speaking of William Conrad, I rhink we need a detective thread too.

[jacksondownunda]

"Laramie" seems to be one of the grandaddy's of TV westerns running from Sep 59-Sep 63. I remember most of the others listed above, but stumbled across their website when trying to bring up a pic of an obscure actor.
Hoagy Carmichael was one of the regulars.
The show was a veritable breeding ground for future famous actors playing bit guest spots (and faces you've seen a hundred times and never put a name to), JUST OF FEW of which were;
Eddie Albert
Ernest Borgnine
Edgar Buchanon
Ryan O'Neall
James Coburn
Brian Keith
Ross Martin
Alan Hale Jr
Lloyd Nolan
Lee Van Cleef
Robert Vaughn
Adam West
Cloris Leachman
Nanette Fabray
Gena Rowlands
to name but a few.
Check out this website (google Laramie western guest stars)
http://www.geocities.com/laramierelaystation/OurFavoriteLaramieStuff/topgueststars.html
It'll blow your mind how many faces you'll recognize.

[The Wanderer]

Hey, where's Dub Taylor?

[CusBlues]

My favorites from the list are Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel and The Rifleman. My overall favorite though was way too short lived. Deadwood.

[wayneklein]

I would add the Chuck Conner's series "Branded" (although it was too short as well) to the list. "The Big Valley" misses the cut off by a year but the show still holds up amazingly well.

[-Alan]

My favorite Western series are radio, not TV: "The Six Shooter", "Tales of the Texas Rangers", "Frontier Gentleman", and the (IMO far superior) William Conrad version of "Gunsmoke".

Agreed, and I'd add Have Gun Will Travel which started as a television series but became a radio series starring Richard Boone, then John Dehner as Paladin.

[stumpy]

A couple of years ago, The Starz Western Channel aired all the b&w episodes of Gunsmoke in pristine condition. That moved the show into the number one spot for me, although I never cared for the later color versions - something about Miss Kitty's hair. :sigh:

[RetroSmith]

The Big Valley was one of the best written AND best acted Westerns ever.
The plots were well thought out and the direction was a cut above the rest.

Filmed entirely in color from 65-69 and there are a couple of seasons on DVD, well worth getting. I just wish they would release the rest of the series for the fans. Apparantly it did not sell well.