Television Programs You Must Watch – The Western

The ‘Western’ was a catch-all term for television serials based in the ‘Old West’, roughly between 1840 and 1890. This period of American history with it’s cowboys, the wars with the native Americans, (called Indians), with its gun fighters and saloons, it’s horses and imagery was the centre of gravity.

Beginning in 1949 with the Lone Ranger, the Westerns dominated television until the 1960s.  At the end of the 1960s, attention had shifted and other programmes dominated.

During the 1950s almost every other programme was a Western.  One station began at 7 pm with Bonanza then went to The Tall Man, then The Deputy, then Have Gun, Will Travel, and ended the evening with Gunsmoke.

One station ran Westerns back to back, because people wanted to see them.

To get a flavour of what people watched, what people thought of themselves and their society, one should view three of these shows; Bonanza, Have Gun, Will Travel and Gunsmoke.  All three had a strong impact on society.

The first, Bonanza  was a father and three sons living near Reno, in the far west of America.  The second was a gun man, who was for hire, who traveled from place to place.  As the theme went; “Have Gun Will Travel is the Card of a man, a knight without armour in a savage land…”  

The third is the most famous, Gunsmoke,  which was the story of Matt Dillion, a Marshall who was to keep peace.   It was the longest running Prime Time Drama of all time.  It ran from 1955 to 1975, although towards the end, it’s popularity faded.

I would suggest taking a glance at these shows, as well as ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive“, which had no less than Steve McQueen as its bounty hunter, and also, take in a few episodes of Wagon Train, the story of how the West was settled.

In all of the stories there is the main cast and various guest stars, recurrent characters, and beyond the ‘two parters’  they are all episodic, meaning one doesn’t have to go in order to get the plots and the points.

America has a certain romantic view of the ‘Cowboy’ era, certain biases and ideals, many which, if you do your research, are not really true.