The Best TV Western Series

[Will Killem]

What do y'all think was the best TV western series?
My top picks are 1: Gunsmoke 2: Rawhide 3: The High Chaparal.

[Santee]

Will, I agree with your list. But I'd put High Chaparral in front of Rawhide.

[Ed Sullens]

What about Laramie?? With John Smith as Slim Sherman and Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, it ran from 1959-1963. One of the best hour long western series on t.v. Unfortunately, it appears that the 35mm masters were burned up in the fire at N.B.C/Universal a couple of years ago and the 16mm prints that are still out there are in pretty bad shape!! Timeless Media did their best to reproduce them to dvd but they leave a lot to be desired!!

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

I met Robert Fuller a couple of years back in Tombstone. Really nice guy. NRA life member, too. I also met the guy who played Flint McCullough on Wagon Train.
That was in Willcox, Arizona. Pretty nice guy when sober, but not often sober.

[Flying R]

I made Robert Fuller a Bola Tie. He told me the story about the horse he rode on the TV series. And you are right, he is a very nice man...

[Laura]

My favorites were Have Gun, Will Travel - Gunsmoke - Wagon Train - and...Deadwood!
I loved all the old westerns back then (50s and early 60s). For one thing, it was an hour or so in the evening that I got to spend with my Dad watching shows we both liked. For another, they were just good stories, with horses, with pretty country, and the good guys won.
One of the best things about many of these shows, IMO, were the themes. I can still remember the words (or most of them) and melodies from those shows. I've attached a picture of my father and I from the early 1950s. Picture taken in Norway, Maine.

[Ed Sullens]

Howdy Charley and Flying R!!

I'm glad to hear that about Robert Fuller. The lady on his unofficial website was at Kanab Utah a couple of years ago, when they inducted him into the walk of fame and said the same thing about him. The fella that played Flint McCullough was Robert Horton and as I recollect, he left Wagon Train to appear on Broadway. I'm sorry to hear that about him. After Laramie was cancelled, Fuller went on to play Cooper Smith on Wagon Train.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

I met Bob Fuller in Tombstone a few years back.  He is a real nice guy--and an NRA life member, which is probably the reason we don't see him on TV much.  I met Robert Horton a couple of year earlier in Willcox, Arizona.  I was there 3 days & never saw him sober.

[frank battaglia]

Gunsmoke was/is still the greatest for me. Still watch it every evening on the Western Channel. Great producers, costumes, stories, sets, actors (Doc never slipped character) and Arness as Matt-- what a tough Son Of A Gun.

Don't forget Death Valley Days and Sons of Will Sonnett (Brennan always great)

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Glen Strange, who played Sam the bartender on GUNSMOKE, actually played the Frankenstein monster 3 times.  1st was House of Frankenstein in 1945, then Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein in1948, and in a haunted house skit on Colgate Comedy Hour with Lou Costello in the '50s.  The guy was a singer, a musician, a talented actor--and the best 3rd villain in B Westerns.  Incidentally, he stood 6'5" in his socks--an inch taller than James Arness.  He was born in New Mexico when it was still a territory, but he grew up on a ranch in Brown County, Texas.

 

I got to talk to him one time when he & Amanda Blake were doing a personal-appearance tour.  He was a really nice guy.  He told me the best-paid actors in the B movies were the bad guys.  The heroes were all under contract to the various studios on pretty-much fixed salaries, but the guys who played villains weren't under studio contract. They could work in 5 or 6 films in a week & get paid scale for every one of 'em.  He said he averaged about $400 a week in the '40s, usually playing 3rd baddie behind Charles King.  Most of the 'stars' were working for anywhere from $75 to $125 a week on contract.

 

 

 

[David Lambert]

I really enjoyed Peckinpah's short lived series, THE WESTERNER.

[Dave McGowan]

"Only fiction" ?? Fiction is the best thing available to exercise your mind.

 For me, 1. High Chaparal 2. Gunsmoke 3. Bonanza 4. Have Gun Will Travel, followed by a list of more great entertainment mentioned in other replies. I didn't notice, "The Rebel" (Johnny Yuma) or "Wanted Dead or Alive".

Absolute worst piece of cr** that should never have seen a writer, actor or screen time? "Border Town"

[anthony martin]

  I don't even recall Border Town.Anyone here remember a lame 1960's series called Dirty Sally?If a show starts with an especially annoying theme song then look out Charley!

   I was very fond of The Rebel and enjoyed the run of The Virginian as well.Ialso noticed that Stan had mentioned Temple Houston with Jeff Hunter quite some time back.Interesting that Houston died of a cerebral hemorrage at 45 and the same thing got Jeff Hunter at 43 in 1969!