BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!

Subject: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: olddude
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 12:27 PM

RTN station on my dish has old old episodes of "Wagon Train"
anyone remeber that show .. It was my favorite growing up

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 02:22 PM

Hey olddude, I just bought a two buck CD, two Wagon Train episodes at an off-price store. One episode guest starred Theo Bikel; the other, Franchot Tone. Unfortunately, neither featured Ward Bond. Picture quality was a little better than fair

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 02:34 PM

Oh we always enjoyed it, along with Rawhide, Gunsmoke, and Have Gun, Will Travel and the Rifleman. That's neat, they are running it, again!

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 02:38 PM

Ya'll forgot The Virgninian and Bonanza!

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:01 PM

Flint McCullough, Charlie Wooster, Seth Adams........

Wagons Roll!......

It was a sort of picaresque adventure. The ones like Gunsmoke and Wyatt Earp situated in some sort of frontier town were much more glum in nature. before long there was always a lynching party cos everybody was SO bored with the story.

On Wagon Train, the Indians could always be relied on to liven things up a bit with a surprise attack. Later in the series the stories got very silly. One week they nicked the entire plot of Great Expectations.

After about five years they got really desperate and rebooted the format, called it Riverboat with Darren McGavin - and the stories took place on a Riverboat instead of a wagon train. However to the trained eye, the narratives had the same static quality.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:04 PM

Overland Trail
Riverboat
Maverick
Shy Anne
The Deputy
The Guns of Will Sonnet
Cimmeron Strip
The Big Valley
Stagecoach West -- Bud and Travis did the theme song
The Rebel
Branded
Sugerfoot
High Chapparel
Black Saddle
Tombstone Territory
Wyatt Earp
Bat Masterson
Wanted Dead or Alive

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Janie
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:42 PM

Wagan Train and Death Valley Days were my two very favorite shows as a young kid.

John - don't forget "Laramie."

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: bobad
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:43 PM

And "Yancey Derringer" too.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: pdq
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 03:58 PM

The show Texas John Slaughter may deserve the obscurity in which it resides. The theme song has the line "Texas John Slaughter made 'em do what they oughter coz if they didn't they'd die". Thank you Stan Jones, that is just awful. {he did better with (Ghost) Riders In The Sky}

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 04:52 PM

Some of those '50s and '60s western series may be of questionable theatrical merit, but most of their theme songs sure do make good guitar pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: olddude
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 05:10 PM

Are you kidding, the acting of Ward Bond

whoooooo feller .... the best acting ever ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: dwditty
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 05:16 PM

I watched Wagon Train, but The Range Rider was my favorite. Jock Mahoney. I even saw him break is arm in a saloon fight that was part of a rodeo at Boston Garden. He finished the show!

dw

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: pdq
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 05:18 PM

About the theme music making good guitar music, Guy Van Duser beat ya to it. I have an LP from about 1977 with "Great Western TV Medley" which was a staple on the great KFAT radio in Gilroy, California. It seems to be part of a newer CD with 19 cuts, Rounder, about 1988.

As far as Ward Bond's acting, John Ford tried to have a small part for him in most of Ford's movies. John Ford considered him one of our greatest actors, and his opinion carries some weight.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: DougR
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 05:32 PM

26 Men

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 06:57 PM

How could I forget Yancy Derringer...it was one of my faves. I'm not sure if it qualifies as a western. Most of the stories took place in post-civil war New Orleans, and along the Mississippi; a few in the took place further west. And, of course, he did have a faithful Indian companion!

I exchange a few pleasantries with Mr. Mahoney in a TV shop in Carlsbad, Cal. around 1980. Only after he left was I informed it was he...he had added perhaps 75 lbs to his Tarzan trim, and had steel gray hair. Good thing too, I'd've embarrassed myself gushing over the YD program.

Here's some more come to mind (not kid shows, tho'):

Tales of the Texas Rangers
The Alaskans
Hondo
Frontier Doctor
Laredo
Stories of the Century - Jim Davis beat a famous outlaw each week.
Here Come the Brides
Lancer
Stoney Burke

BTW, Johnny Cash sang the theme song for The Rebel which I mentioned in a previous post.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: bobad
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 07:25 PM

I remember this theme song very well, never knew it was Johnny Cash singing it though:

The Rebel Lyrics

Away, away, away rode the rebel, Johnny Yuma.

Johnny Yuma, was a rebel,
He roamed, through the west.
And Johnny Yuma, was a rebel,
He wandered alone.

He got fightin' mad,
This rebel lad,
He packed his star as he wandered far
Where the only law was a hook and a draw, the rebel.

(Away, away, away rode the rebel.)

Johnny Yuma, was a rebel,
He roamed, through the west.
And Johnny Yuma, was a rebel,
He wandered alone.

He searched the land,
This restless lad,
He was panther quick and leather tough
Cause he had figured that he'd been pushed enough, the rebel.

(Away, away, away rode the rebel.)
Johnny Yuma.

Johnny Yuma, was a rebel,
He roamed, through the west.
And Johnny Yuma, the rebel,
He wandered alone.

He was fightin' mad,
This rebel lad,
With a dream he would hold until his dying breath
He would search his soul and gamble with death.

Away, away, away rode the rebel, Johnny Yuma.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: pdq
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 07:33 PM

The theme song about Paladin was sung by Johnny Western, and the theme song for Rawhide was Frankie Laine.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: olddude
Date: 07 Sep 08 - 07:58 PM

remember them all very well, my granpa was a western junkie
we would watch them all. I loved every minute of them

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 12:13 AM

I love the songs of Gene Autrey's western show. I never saw them until a few years ago as we didn't have a tv back then.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Art Thieme
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 12:59 AM

I saw Gene at the Oriental Theater in Chicago when I was a kid. He did a stage show in between the showings of the film. Champion, his horse was there too. The movie was called "Strawberry Roan" and it starred both of them.



Art

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Claymore
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 02:56 AM

And nobody remembers Leonard Slye (opps! Roy Rodgers)? Leonard stared in the original Sons of the Pioneers album, but picked up Dale, Trigger, and Nelliebelle by the second album.

Also in the Washington DC area, there was a cowboy show called "Pick Temple" which was closer to Cowboy Bob and Hoody Doody than an "adult western".

Finally a memory... I once saw Hugh O'Brian (who played Wyatt Earp) give a quick draw exibition at a grocery store opening in Long Beach CA around 1955, and to a kid he was pretty quick, and the sound of a 45 blank round was damn loud.

Fast foreward to 1964 when my high school senior play was "Rebel without a Cause". My role was a bit piece as "Officer 1", who shoots Plato as he runs from the planetarium. (See the movie, imagine the play).

This was in Hawaii, and the only gun the class propmaster could find was from a local Wild West show down near Waikiki, which held shoot out reinactments a couple of times a week. (Go figure). So there I was, armed with a Ned Buntline Special (12 inch barrel) and only two .45 cal. blanks, which were to serve for the two shows we were giving. Prior to that time, I had used a cap pistol during reheasals to fire my shots. So now I stuck this thing in my "uniform" pants and prepared for the show.

At the end of the play, I had two lines; "Stop or I'll shoot" (Bang!) and then " Get an ambulance!". And, as the kid who was playing Plato was running in front of the cardboard scenery that depicted a planetarium, I dutifully declared my first lines, as I hauled out a total of about fifteen inches of pistol at the end of my 34 inch arms, which almost reached under the chin of "Plato", and pulled the trigger.

Nowadays plays have signs as you enter the theater that state, "A Firearm Will Be Discharged During This Play, Do Not Be Alarmed"

No such luck... The power of a .45 caliber blank left a blue flame some three feet long, blew a five foot hole in the scenery, while deafening everyone in the theater, and putting Plato flat on his back, sneakers in the air, shrieking, while unbelieveable smoke filled the air.

This was all to the good, as my next line was an unscripted, "Holy Shit!"   And to make matters worse, this .45 replica was double action, and as I tried to put the gun back down my pants, I looked up to see a cast member behind the scenes looking out through the hole in the scenery, and the gun went off a second time.

No, dear reader, I had not actually gotten the gun in my pants, but I did accomplish several things.

Since my back was to the audience, it allowed those persons who had not fainted the first time to fall amonst those who did. Several people, including the kid playing Plato, thought I was really out to kill him as the blast struck near the other side of his face. And several of the cast members actually thought I had blown my balls off as recompense for the ensuing chaos, and thought "Plato's" screams were my own in the second welter of smoke.

In the end the James Dean father character gives a denoument about trusting your kids to make the right choices etc. etc. etc. (yeah yeah yeah) but was weeping through the clearing smoke to men standing over their splayed out wives fanning the air while the younger kids ran amoke to the theater.

The only thing worse was that in the end, my Navy Commander father ran out back behind the theater to find me smoking...

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 03:13 AM

A poster above mentioned the TV western series Yancey Derringer. That series never made it over to the UK, but the star of the show, Jock Mahoney, was, of course, also The Range Rider. I used to love the way he swung on his horse in the opening credits. He also made lots of guest appearances in other westerns. I remember he beating up Gil Favor in an episode of Rawhide, and he appeared as "The fastest fist in the west" in an episode of Wagon Train. He went on to play Tarzan in a couple of early 60s movies.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Teribus
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 03:15 AM

The "Range Rider" was the first "western" I ever saw on television. "Wagon Train" was my Dad's favourite along with another that hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet - "Wells Fargo"

Bonanza was first western on TV that I saw in colour.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: akenaton
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 03:27 AM

I just knew you'd be a "Western" fan T........:0)

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 07:39 AM

I've just found this Youtube clip. As I said previously, as a kid, I loved the way Jock Mahoney swung on to his horse - and spun it around in one fluid movement. Jock had been a top stuntman, and that's him mounting the runaway stagecoach in the opening credits.

The Range Rider clip

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 08:11 AM

Back to Wagon Train - the best thing was the way that, no matter how far west they'd managed to travel, they always camped in the same spot every night.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 09:32 AM

I seem to remember Ward Bond was in The Maltese Falcon with Bogart.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 09:56 AM

Early in his career, Ward Bond always seemed to play a villian. One tv western series that I liked - and nobody else seems to remember - was The Restless Gun with John Payne.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: GUEST,Rog Peek
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 10:13 AM

Flint McCullough was played, if I remember correctly by Robert Horten. Remember him being on the Royal Variety performence one year when Wagon Train and he were at the height of their fame.

Rog

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 11:22 AM

Aaaahh, happy days (or do I mean daze?)!

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 02:04 PM

When I was a child, Twenty Mule team Borax sponsored "Death Valley Days" on the radio. I pestered my parents until they ordered the model mule team that the sponsors offered.
Later I got a larger one for Christmas, with wagons I could fill with little 'treasures.'

The 1936 broadcast, "The Burro That Had No Name," is on line, complete with Boraxo commercial, and the Old Ranger.
Death Valley

Haven't heard a burrow 'sing' for many a year.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: pdq
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 02:27 PM

Death Valley Scotty lived until early 1954. The real Death Valley days were not far in the past when those shows Q mentioned were broadcast in 1936.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Sep 08 - 04:00 PM

Well over 100 channels available here, but one is needed to re-run the old TV westerns.
Seems I heard long ago that someone was thinking about doing it, but I guess the idea died (sob).
Some are showing up on DVD, but that can be expensive.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 02:26 AM

Bronco, with Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne.
Sugarfoot, with Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster.

The Cisco Kid with Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carillo.

And in my opinion, Jock Mahoney (he was called "Jack" Mahoney in the opening credits - real name: Jacques O' Mahoney) was the best stunt-fighter in TV westerns.
He also appeared in some early 3 Stooges movies in bit parts.

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 10:12 AM

Do you remember Range Rider had really long hair and it all fell in his face when he was fighting?

And his young friend Dick West - something funny going on there if you ask me!

There were also a couple of episodes kicking about of the black clad hero - Lash Larue. Whose name (it has to be said) promised more than it could deliver.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 01:03 PM

weelittledrummer: How dare you suggest that The Range Rider and Dick West might have been an item!! That is a slight on one of the great heroes of the west; infact, I would go as far as to say that the USA would not the power it is today if it were not for the efforts of The Range Rider!! On a less fantastical note, Jock Mahoney was Sally Anne Fields step-father - not a lot of people know that!

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: olddude
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 01:07 PM

I agree with weelittledrummer. It is an anti-American slur
how dare you

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 01:35 PM

If the Range Rider and Dick West (played by Dick Jones, former child star, expert horseman and stuntman and star of Buffalo Bill, Jr.) were an item, then what about Batman & Robin, Green Arrow and Speedy, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Wild Bill Hickok & Jingles (oohh, that's an ugly visual!), the Cisco Kid & Pancho, Gene Autry & Gabby Hayes, or just about ANY western star and Gabby Hayes for that matter, Red Ryder & Little Beaver (Robert Blake)?

Seamus

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: bobad
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 01:48 PM

I always wondered about Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 02:19 PM

Little Beaver...if another man regards you as his Little Beaver, he's trying to say something. Perhaps it was a name the Indians gave him, as the village tart.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 06:13 AM

Red Ryder and Little Beaver weren't all that big in England. There were a few comic books in the newsagents in town. And I really got to know them when I got a full length novel from Woolworths, which my folks had to read to me.

I remember the book had quite sickening violence in it. My grandma was conscripted to read a bit to me, and I vivdly remember her saying, such things shouldn't be allowed for children!

In the story, Red Ryder took a terrible sadistic thrashing from a baddy called Ace Hanlon. As I remember Hanlon had his comeuppance when Little Beaver, tied him up - suspended him and thrashed him with a branch of some kind.

Still you've got wonder.....

Nice beaver....?

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 06:35 AM

John's list includes "Shy Anne"
I hope that is a joke.
Would Mr. Body share it?

My sister was a fan of Robert Horton.
I have an EP somewhere of him doing some western songs, includind Shanendoah.
He later took the title role in a show of that name.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: pdq
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 09:28 AM

Here is Robert Horton's biography. Hard to tell that he dad red hair on a black'n'white TV. He and wife (married in 1960) live in Encino:

                        http://roberthorton.com/biography.htm

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 10:54 AM

Yes, Kent, 'Shy Anne' was writ with tongue in cheek, if not fingers on keyboard. I expected some comment about about that spelling long ago.

But it also could be apt. To the best of my recollection, the title character never had (a hint of) a relationship with the opposite sex. I would guess that makes him pretty shy.

                   -----------------------------

For those of you who are not from California, following up pdq's last post, Encino is a tony suburb in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of
Los Angeles downtown.

Subject: RE: BS: OMG They are running Wagon Train!
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 03:06 PM

I used to love the "lone cowboy" type of tv western, as opposed to the - what I call- "domestic" westerns. High Chapperal, Wagon Train and Bonanza all dealt with families to a degree. In Wagon Train most episodes centred on one family/group travelling with the Wagon Train. My favourite episodes of Wagon Train were where Flint would go off from the train and get involved in some sort of adventure. BTW, I hope we can all sing the themes to all these westerns. Just type "tv western themes" into the Youtube search box and grab a dose of nostalga.