BS: Favourite TV cowboy

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: clueless don
Date: 14 Dec 17 - 08:25 AM

Vashta Nerada, following up on your comment about Star Trek: When Gene Roddenberry was pitching Star Trek to the networks, he described it as "Wagon Train to the stars".

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 13 Dec 17 - 11:10 AM

Digging out a few under-represented in this list:

Annie Oakley totally fictional, but a woman.

The High Chaparral had a more representative vaquero cast for the region where it was set.

I'm seeing some argument for Little House on the Prairie as a western - but it was actually upper midwest and they were homesteading farmers. Animal husbandry went with that territory. Cow folks? Someone over at IMDb curated a list of "the greatest TV westerns of all-time" and it's fairly near the top. (I will note that if that list maker can get away with putting Firefly on the list, then the original Star Trek also belongs there - it was often was plotted as if they wore black hats or white hats.)

Oh, and one I actually watched fairly often and could even stand Ronald Reagan in: Death Valley Days. They were supposedly actual true stories - massaged by Hollywood.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Dec 17 - 07:34 PM

Gene Autry - 1st to sing Frosty the Snowman

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: gillymor
Date: 12 Dec 17 - 08:30 AM

I don't remember the main hero's name but I was keen on the Australian series "The Man From Snowy River" which was based on the Banjo Patterson poem. It even had a proto-feminist female newspaper publisher if I remember correctly.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: clueless don
Date: 12 Dec 17 - 08:06 AM

As a young boy, I think my favorite was Roy Rogers, though Hopalong Cassidy was definitely a favorite as well. I always preferred Roy Rogers to Gene Autry - de gustibus ...

I can't really pick a favorite from when I was older, but I'll mention two - I don't remember the name of the character, but he was the marshal on Lawman (wikipedia says it was Marshal Dan Troop.) The other one was Marshal Jack Craddock, from the short-lived series Bordertown.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Dec 17 - 08:48 PM

Grrr. Again:

"Patel and Co., painters and decorators - You've tried the cowboys, now try the Indians."

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 11 Dec 17 - 04:35 PM

Did anyone mention the children's shows? My Friend Flicka had cowboys of the best sort, though I can't remember a single plot it has been so many years since I saw that program.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 17 - 10:15 AM

I haven't seen Deadwood, but again, just because a program is set in the Old West, doesn't mean all of the characters are "cowboys." (I like Ian McShane in just about any role he approaches, though, so I agree with that part of the sentiment.)

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Bugsy
Date: 09 Dec 17 - 09:56 AM

Ian Mcshane in "Deadwood"

Cheers

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 07 Dec 17 - 12:33 PM

Also Acme, Tattie.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 06 Dec 17 - 01:38 PM

...and I will have you know that us Gnomes are free of the gender issues that plague you humans.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 06 Dec 17 - 01:31 PM

Sorry I missed you and Ranger1, ChanteyLass!

Ha ha to Big Al - "like a streak of lightning flashing down the stairs"?

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 06 Dec 17 - 06:36 AM

of course there animal cowboys like Rin Tin Tin and Champion the Wonder Horse.

When I was a child, it was important after having a shit, to run down the stairs singing Champion the Wonder Horse very loudly before the lavatory stopped flushing ....otherwise the ghost in the lavatory would get me , and the consequences might well have been quite serious.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 05 Dec 17 - 07:19 PM

Tattie, I was the 4th poster on this thread, and I'm definitely a lass. I've met ranger1, the 6th poster, and she, too, is a woman. I'm not sure about everyone else. My choice was tv's Annie Oakley, played by Gail Davis. Some of those episodes are on YouTube, and there's some info on Wikipedia and here. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046578/

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 05 Dec 17 - 03:21 PM

My wife likes westerns, but it depends on her mood , and who the lead actors are,
if she'll sit still and watch one.

Westerns have always been my favourite movie & TV genre.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 05 Dec 17 - 03:13 PM

Am I right in thinking that every poster so far is male? So, from the female perspective....
I didn't really like Westerns per se, but would watch every episode of Bronco, just to see the delectable Ty Hardin! And Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwoo) in Wagon Train was a close second, oh and pretty well all of them in Bonanza!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: gillymor
Date: 03 Dec 17 - 06:03 AM

Forgot about Lonesome Dove, Robert Duvall as Gus McCray (sp?) might be my favorite TVC. That's one instance where I found the TV adaption as entertaining as the book.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 03 Dec 17 - 02:05 AM

Lots of great films.

I love Kevin Costners Wyatt Earp.

The sheer ordinariness of the moral decisions and yet some of the shots are composed like Remington painting. Its like the characters have no choice other than to in an epic tale. Plus the music from James Newton Howard - brilliant. Sounds like Aron Copeland in places.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 02 Dec 17 - 01:22 PM

2 recent mini series definitely worth a watch...

"Hatfields & McCoys"

"Texas Rising"

I still haven't got round to catching up on all the "Lonesome Dove" mini series [what's the plural for series...???]

..And there's enough of 'em..

Return to Lonesome Dove
Streets of Laredo
Dead Man's Walk
Comanche Moon

again.. no spoilers please...

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 02 Dec 17 - 12:34 PM

In recent times the best TV series has been "Hell on Wheels"..

But I've not watched the final series yet, so no spoilers please....

Notable for a solid charismatic anti-hero, proper dastardly villains, plus a prominent black ex slave character...

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Dec 17 - 12:25 PM

My bad, making the switch. But I saw those films on TV, if that makes any difference.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Dec 17 - 12:09 PM

Finished watching Godless last night. I cannot recommend it too much. Some 'Buffalo Soldiers' in that and it was a mini TV series but I don't know if that counts. Back in the heyday of TV westerns I suppose the TV industry was not well know for its equal opportunities policy :-(

Out of interest though I did Google black actors in TV westerns and there do seem to be some. The most interesting being 'The Outcasts' which ran for one series 1968-69. It co-stared Otis Young as a former slave turned bounty hunter who teams up with actor Don Murray, a former Confederate officer and former slave owner who had lost everything during the Civil War. Never saw it but it looks interesting.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 05:47 PM

The discussion was on TV cowboys. All those mentioned featuring black protagonists were films.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: gillymor
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 11:44 AM

As for film stars Joel Mcrea and Randolph Scott having one last go-round as couple of aging cowpokes in "Ride the High Country", Karl Malden, Marlin Brando and Ben Johnson in "One Eyed Jacks" and John Wayne giving fine performances at the opposite ends of his career in "Stagecoach" and "True Grit".

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: pdq
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 11:28 AM

Herb Jeffries is best known for his monster hit song "Flamingo" from 1941, but from 1937-9 he made several low-budget Westerns aimed at Black audiences. Yes, he was a "singing cowboy" when Roy Rogers was still Leonard Sly.

In Herb Jeffries' movies both the good guys and the bad guys were Black.

He also qualifies as a TV Western cowboy (well, sorta) (ex Wiki):

             "Jeffries went on to make other films, starring in the title film role of Calypso Joe co-starring Angie Dickinson in Calypso Joe (1957). In 1968, Jeffries appeared in the long-running western TV series The Virginian playing a gunslinger who intimidated the town. In the 1970s he appeared on episodes of I Dream of Jeannie and Hawaii Five-0. He later directed and produced Mundo Depravados, a cult film starring his wife, Tempest Storm."

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 11:26 AM

If we are doing films too, all the John Ford Cavalry westerns.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 10:15 AM

Lee Marvin as Monte Walsh, Kirk Douglas as Jack Burns in Lonely Are the Brave.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 10:08 AM

I am also told that the concertina and fiddle were the preferred instruments as they are much more portable than a guitar but you don't see many of those either!

Django unchained was good BTW.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Greg F.
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 09:59 AM

Well, there was Blazing Saddles......

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 01 Dec 17 - 09:36 AM

Strange how white all these programmes were.

My understanding is that at least 25-30% of cowboys were black, but they seem to be totally absent from these old TV series. You get a few Hispanics, but that's about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 29 Nov 17 - 03:34 PM

..now before any self appointed forum thread busy bodies get their knickers in a twist...

yes I know exactly what I did wrong there.. oops...

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 29 Nov 17 - 03:31 PM

This where it could get really weird regarding conspiracy theories about secret lives of the royals...

what if 'arry's ginger gene was passed down from... Fergie...!!!!!!?????

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Nov 17 - 03:18 PM

Ward Bond was good. i seem to remember he was in The Maltese Facon , as well as Wagon Train.

Charlie Wooster was the cook, I think. Little man with a beard. Very memorable, unlike the names of the english royal family.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Mr Red
Date: 29 Nov 17 - 03:42 AM

"the Man from Laramie"
and wasn't there one called "Sugarfoot" renamed Tenderfoot in the UK to avoid advertising/product placement.

the Two Ronnies often did spoofs.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 01:44 PM

Keith - yeah... but... "Carry on Cowboy" has been on telly so often anyone under 40 would think it's always been a TV show...

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 09:49 AM

The Milky Bars are on me.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 06:02 AM

Gun law had the real characters Matt Dillon and Doc Holliday.
Not historically accurate I suppose.
I read that someone just identified an old photo as showing both Billy the Kid and Pat Garret who later killed him. Worth millions.

Carry On Cowboy mentioned above. Not TV but had a great song.

All my favourites already mentioned, except A Man Called Shenandoah which had a version of Oh Shenandoah written for it. He was played by Robert Horton who also played Flint McCullough, the scout on Wagon Train mentioned above.
There was an Australian "Western" called Whiplash that also had a good song.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 05:00 AM

A father of an ex-girlfriend used to answer any question about Cowboy movies with

"Tom Mix on the Trail of the Tattooed Maggot"

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 04:50 AM

Real-life cowboy, wrangler, stunt man and rodeo star Ben Johnson could play good guys (Wagon Master) and bad guys (One-Eyed Jacks) with equal facility.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Bugsy
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 01:07 AM

Tex Ritter, and the Range Rider.

Bugsy

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: meself
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 01:01 AM

Kwai Chang Kane.

As my father explained to my brother, who hadn't been anywhere near a TV for a couple of years: 'Kung Fu' was "about a Chinese monk who wanders the Old West, living a life of peace and meditation - and by the end of each episode, he's had to tear someone's lungs out.'

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 28 Nov 17 - 12:24 AM

The Rumpo Kid - "Carry on Cowboy"

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 05:03 PM

Anyone want the small stand up card board promotion for Deadwood?
Gunsmoke's Chester and Doc were good eggs.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 04:50 PM

Jack Elam - Toothy Thompson

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 11:16 AM

Started to watch Godless last night. That has a lot of of promise.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: gillymor
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 11:13 AM

Right, Deadwood was a mining town but it was a great series with some world class
profanity. It's hero, Seth Bullock, and anti-hero, Al Swearingen were actual historical figures and were among my
favorite "TV Cowboys" but there were lots of memorable characters (and story lines) in that show.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 10:44 AM

Stu I second third and fourth Deadwood characters although it was not cattle country.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 10:41 AM

Bronco Lane

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stu
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 09:52 AM

Any and all the cowboys in Deadwood.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 09:18 AM

We didn't have tv when I was a boy but listened to Riders of the Range and Guunsmoke on radio. However, I always thought Jack Elam in films and later on tv looked how I imagined a real cowboy looked, rather than the pretty boys.
RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 09:07 AM

cow boy

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Nov 17 - 12:08 AM

The Virginian was a novel first, and Trampas was a bad guy. (More useless information for Dave.)

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 11:55 PM

The original trio on The Virginian, working cowboys all: The Virginian (Jamess Drury), Steve (Gary Clarke), and, especially devil-take-hindmost Trampas (Doug McClure). Drury and Clarke are still around in their mid-eighties. McClure, who was also a fine artist of cowboy scenes, died of cancer some years back.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 06:49 PM

Cowboys did not exit until the 1870's. It required the railroad to be built first. They did not drive cattle all the way to Chicago and NY before then.

The blood shed against Natives did not begin in earnest until after the Civil War. Experienced killers were abundant.

The war against the buffalo by shooting them from trains was to take the food source away from Indians. Buffalo skulls were piled over 100 feet high.

Any Cowboy that treated Natives as true human beings were good in my book.

There were few of those on TV

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 05:51 PM

Tex Tucker, Four Feather Falls. Come ON!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: EBarnacle
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 05:49 PM

I met Hopalong once when he did a publicity show up. Very nice man. He chatted with me and was pleased that I was a fan. Not as rich as Autry but definitely had a "good manner."

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 05:35 PM

Pat Brady, Roy Rogers' sidekick. He was funnier than Roy or Dale and he drove a Jeep instead of riding a horse. The Jeep's name was "Nellybelle".

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 01:02 PM

Paladin from 'Have Gun Will Travel'. He was so cool. Not strictly a cowboy of course but I don't think any of the others mentioned were either!

Bit of trivia - Gene Rodenberry of 'Star Trek' fame won an award for writing one of the episodes and DeForest Kelly appeared in one.

I'm full of useless information.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Greg F.
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 11:14 AM

Strictly speaking, you're absolutely correct. So I'll go with Tom Tyler.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 10:03 AM

Bart and Bret Maverick may have ridden horses as the conveyance of the day, but they weren't cowboys. They were gamblers.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: banjoman
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 07:04 AM

Cisco Kid and Pancho. The only man I ever saw who could shoot a gun so well he could cut a mans braces and make his pants fall down

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: gillymor
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 06:04 AM

For me it was The Rifleman, played by Chuck Connors. The character was a ranching widower who was bringing up a young son, teaching him tolerance, generosity of spirit and how to be a good citizen as well as a good rancher. The music was great, the writing was generally good and best of all Lucas McCain would often gun down 1-4 deserving villians in the last few frames with his rapid-firing Winchester.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Nov 17 - 04:25 AM

A bit of folklore for you - a phrase that was doing the rounds among UK kids at the time:

Don't be a twerp like Wyatt Erp, be a man like Cheyenne

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 07:28 PM

Rowdy Yates before he went right-wing. Yeah, Gil Favor, a moral man unjustly pock-marked. Hoss, Adam and Little Joe Cartwright. That bloke who was the cook on Wagon Train. I love a man whose cooking can make thirty other men fart like troopers. What a shame thst the phenomenon wasn't made public until Blazing Saddles.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 05:57 PM

The woman next door to us used to go on about Flint McCullough, the scout on Wagon Train being really handsome.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 05:23 PM

Maverick. Bret, that is.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: ranger1
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 05:07 PM

Cheyenne, closely followed by Gil Favor.

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 04:48 PM

Roy Rogers was the best but I quite liked the Lone Ranger. I didn't reckon much to Hopalong Cassidy - his hat was too big.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 04:22 PM

How about a cowgirl? Annie Oakley, of course!

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 04:09 PM

Most of the cowboys Sam Elliot played. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 03:33 PM

The Lone Ranger. No contest.

Subject: BS: Favourite TV cowboy
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 Nov 17 - 12:27 PM

I used to like Hopalong Cassidy played by William Boyd. He gad a white horse called Topper, and he finished every episode with a hearty laugh.