Ah, yes, I remember them well. Well, almost all of them.
OK, High Chaparral, Laredo, and Cimarron Strip fall in the not-so-rare category, and get rerun a lot (Cimarron City used a lot of stories out of OK history, and Strip redid just about all of them).
The Dakotas was actually a remake of Lawman with Larry Ward and Jack Elam (who really made his mark on the show) doing the John Russell part and Chad Everett and Michael Greene as the durned fool kid, Peter Brown and filled in the last half of the last season of Cheyenne.
2 of the regulars on Klondike were a couple of young guys named Charlie Bronson and Jim Coburn.
And Custer was hated by the Lefty critics, but regarded in the biz as a "noble failure". It died at mid season because it was up against The Virginian and Lost In Space, but really tried to do something different by making it less a Western than a war show like Combat!. Really very well done, its time frame ('67) not ideal to try something like that.
You made me smile again, Troop. These are nice little Christmas presents.
I watched "The Guns of Will Sonnett" in prime time. That's how come I can do a Walter Brennan voice.
Tarantino and Ang Lee took stabs at making modern Westerns with "Django Unchained" and "Brokeback Mountain" respectively (I've seen neither to completion); these were the only updated forms deemed palatable to modern audiences. There are intrinsic problems with the genre: (I) Unsatisfactory roles for women and minorities who must be typecast as whores, slaves and coolies. (2) While sensitive roles for Native Americans were pioneered by Dustbin Hoffman and perfected by Kevin Costner, the audiences just weren't there. There is the PETA problem because not only are horses and cattle conscripted against their will, the former are actually ridden by people -- mostly white men, while the latter are herded like Auschwitz victims. (3) Westerns glorify guns, period.
I should amend my point (1) above to include latinos and latinas -- they are too often portrayed as just banditos -- though Salma Hayek was able to bust a few stereotypes. Too bad about her politics.
4 comments:
Ah, yes, I remember them well. Well, almost all of them.
OK, High Chaparral, Laredo, and Cimarron Strip fall in the not-so-rare category, and get rerun a lot (Cimarron City used a lot of stories out of OK history, and Strip redid just about all of them).
The Dakotas was actually a remake of Lawman with Larry Ward and Jack Elam (who really made his mark on the show) doing the John Russell part and Chad Everett and Michael Greene as the durned fool kid, Peter Brown and filled in the last half of the last season of Cheyenne.
2 of the regulars on Klondike were a couple of young guys named Charlie Bronson and Jim Coburn.
And Custer was hated by the Lefty critics, but regarded in the biz as a "noble failure". It died at mid season because it was up against The Virginian and Lost In Space, but really tried to do something different by making it less a Western than a war show like Combat!. Really very well done, its time frame ('67) not ideal to try something like that.
You made me smile again, Troop. These are nice little Christmas presents.
I watched "The Guns of Will Sonnett" in prime time. That's how come I can do a Walter Brennan voice.
Tarantino and Ang Lee took stabs at making modern Westerns with "Django Unchained" and "Brokeback Mountain" respectively (I've seen neither to completion); these were the only updated forms deemed palatable to modern audiences. There are intrinsic problems with the genre: (I) Unsatisfactory roles for women and minorities who must be typecast as whores, slaves and coolies. (2) While sensitive roles for Native Americans were pioneered by Dustbin Hoffman and perfected by Kevin Costner, the audiences just weren't there. There is the PETA problem because not only are horses and cattle conscripted against their will, the former are actually ridden by people -- mostly white men, while the latter are herded like Auschwitz victims. (3) Westerns glorify guns, period.
I could go on.
Plus Charlie Manson effectively killed the modern Western with his little drama at the Spahn Ranch.
I should amend my point (1) above to include latinos and latinas -- they are too often portrayed as just banditos -- though Salma Hayek was able to bust a few stereotypes. Too bad about her politics.
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