Favorite episodes from other western shows?

Hi Jack. I was never a fan of westerns... Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick... all westerns too clean to be believable. Gunsmoke is the exception. They talked about injustice, alcoholism, child abuse, rape, poverty, etc... All In the Family was the show that took opened up to those necessary issues.

I enjoyed season #1 of Wild Wild West (the black and white issues) because it had a James Bond angle to it. The most memorable episode from the Wild Wild West for me was The Night of The Puppeteer. The story of The Phantom of The Opera always haunted me when I was a kid, and this story reminded me of it.





Smoke me a kipper. I'll be back for breakfast

I occasionally watch other Westerns; H&I shows a lot of them. Laramie (not to be confused with Laredo) is a generally lame actioner; it's amazing it lasted as long as it did. Of course, it had Robert Fuller, who doubtless attracted many female viewers.

Have Gun -- Will Travel is arguably the most-highbrow Western. Paladin is a hopelessly overeducated intellectual who knows everything about everything, and doesn't hesitate to share his knowledge. (He likely died from starvation induced by a dislocated jaw.)

"Trial at Tablerock" is a model for screenwriters. (The fine script is by Gene Roddenberry. Those who claim he couldn't write should watch it.) It has an ending that follows the rule of "surprising but logical" magnificently.

Lochinvar (Sir Walter Scott)

The MAD Treasury of Unknown Poetry, volume III
Tom Koch MAD #54, July 1961 p15

Oh, young Paladin has come out of the West;
Of all the horse operas, his show's watched the best.
The weapon he carries: a neat business card;
And with its sharp edges, many crooks have been scarred.
When ads are concluded, and stories begin
There ne'er was a hero like young Paladin.

He knows table manners; politely he bows;
He even quotes Shakespeare to some of the cows.
When he faces the camera, all smiling, of course
There's even a smile on the face of his horse.
The crooks skulk around, but they can't hide chagrin
At the guff they must take from this dude, Paladin.

He spouts off to rustlers Keats, Shelly, and such,
But they're always too busy to listen to much;
No one on the networks gets quite such a bang
Out of quoting long sonnets to men while they hang.
Some day he will get what's been long due to him;
The bad guys will shut up the smug Paladin.

This has probably been mentioned before, but Justified is a modern version of Gunsmoke, with Timothy Olyphant playing Matt Dillon. The parallel isn't absolutely exact, but it's close enough to be obvious.

I didn't start watching westerns until about 5 years ago. I have not seen that many. Of the ones I have seen, my favorite is Lawman (1958). I have watched all 4 seasons now.

Of the episodes, one of my favorites was The Long Gun (1962). In it, a veteran lawman is going to ambush a couple of gun thugs that killed a family. The main character, Marshal Dan Troop, talks him out of it. This shows the burnout lawmen of that era faced (a characteristic that still affects modern lawmen and women).

The show took on some issues as well, such as serving on a jury, why citizen involvement matters, and why citizens being able to defend themselves with guns is important. There were some lighthearted bits as well between Matt and Lily- a Kitty-like saloon owner.

I really liked Justified (2010), which is a/k/a Lawman.

I also enjoyed Have Gun - Will Travel (1957) and Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958). Gunsmoke (1955) is OK, but I see Dillon and Chester do some dumb stuff on occasion. I like Festus more as a sidekick.

Ignoring politics doesn't mean politics will ignore you.
-Pericles paraphrased in <100 characters

Have Gun - Will Travel: "The Man Who Lost"
The Wild Wild West: "The Night of the Surreal McCoy"
Trackdown: "A Matter of Justice"
Cheyenne: "The Bounty Killers"
Bonanza: The one where the sons think Ben has been killed and they follow three separate trails looking for revenge.


Je suis Charlie Hebdo.

I got a really big kick out of discovering Laramie a couple years ago. I liked the charisma of Smith and Fuller and the playfulness of their relationship. They seemed to kid each other a lot. And not only were they always sticking up for the wronged and down-trodden, doing the right thing, but the series seemed well photographed and choreographed.
I thought Fuller especially translated well. He was a little rowdy by reputation, and some episodes show him losing his cool, but when he gets his righteous indignation up, he's literally spitting mad. I haven't looked up the episode, but Harry Stanton kills someone and it gets pinned on the wrong guy, who gets hanged before they can catch the real killer. At first Fuller is mad at Slim (Smith) for not catching him sooner, like he let them get away with it, (even though Smith obviously is beat up), but when Jess (Fuller) finally delivers Stanton to the Lynch mob, he is so livid, so angry, it just pops off the screen. I love that scene.

Pretty sure it's called Dark Verdict, first season.

I'm not a woman much less Deanna Durbin, but the old-time glam-shot appeals to me.