Those Old Tv Westerns and their Themes
 

Okay, now if you know any of this stuff, you are really showing your age, but I sure hope someone out there remembers these shows-

How many of you remember tuning into a different Western every night of the week? Not stuff like Gunsmoke or Bonanza. I could never get into those. I loved shows like Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel, Jim Bowie, Bat Masterson, Twenty Six men-any of those ring a bell?

While they were all spread out across different networks and in syndication, they all shared a great common trait-a manly opening ballad for the theme song. I used to play out on the swingset in our backyard and sing those songs to myself for what felt like hours sometimes-and to this day I remember the lyrics to all of them. Gotta love Johnny Western's Ballad of Palladin, for instance:

"Have Gun Will Travel reads the card of a man.
A knight without armor in a savage land.

His fast gun for hire head's the calling wind.
A soldier of fortune is the man called Paladin.

Paladin, Paladin
Where do you roam?
Paladin, Paladin,
Far, far from home."

Anyone got any others?

TV Westerns, yes. Themes, not so much.
 

Greetings, leadlike. I just signed on here and am posting from one county north of you. We did grow up with a cornucopia of TV westerns to choose from. I never got heavily into the one-hour shows except for WAGON TRAIN, CHEYENNE and BRONCO LANE. I never watched a MAVERICK show the whole way through, but the show was my first exposure to a British actor named Roger Moore. The half-hour shows better suited my short attention span, and of them I remember sampling ANNIE OAKLEY, WYATT EARP, THE CISCO KID, ROY ROGERS, WILD BILL HICKOCK, and of course, THE LONE RANGER. WILD BILL HICKOCK was a troubling show as both Guy Madison and deputy Andy Divine both wore their six-guns backwards. I tried that setup with my cap guns and thought it was an extremely inefficient way to be a quick drawin' western hero. Perhaps you remember Saturday morning's Covered Wagon Theater. Have you ever run across a TV movie called EVIL ROY SLADE? Though called a movie it plays like a collection of four episodes of a western sit-com. John Astin (The Addams Family) stars, so you can imagine what kind of silliness he can bring to such a production.

It's amazing how Westerns dominated our society in the 50's and 60's. My dad ( Sterling Hayden ) made over 30 western films from 1950-58...The Iron Sheriff, Terror in a Texas Town, The Last Command and many others. He thought they were junk, but the pay was good !

I have many of the lobby cards from these western movies....the art work is very creative.

rawhide, rifleman, wyett earp, gunsmoke, lone ranger, range rider, and all the others. remember them all well. sat morn adventuretime theater with westerns from the 30/40s. my childhood dream was to be a cowboy like gene autry or RR, or Lone ranger. didn't come true tho.

Born in '48, I grew up with all the TV Westerns ... there are several CDs that have a lot of the songs ... Rhino's Songs of the West Vol. 4 is a good one ... unfortunately, it's long OOP and pretty pricey unless you just run across a copy "in the wild" ... here's the tracl list ...

1. Magnificent Seven - Al Caiola
2. Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra
3. High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me) - Tex Ritter
4. Gunsmoke - CBS Orchestra
5. Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Hugo Montenegro
6. Lone Ranger (William Tell Overture) - ABC Orchestra
7. South of the Border - Gene Autry
8. Rawhide - Frankie Laine
9. On the Old Spanish Trail - Spade Cooley & His Western Swing Band, Spade Cooley, Roy Rogers
10. Wagon Train - NBC Orchestra
11. Ballad of the Alamo - Marty Robbins
12. Maverick - Orchestra & Chorus conducted by David Buttolph
13. Don't Fence Me In - Roy Rogers
14. Rebel - Johnny Yuma - Johnny Cash, Johnny Yuma
15. Ballad of Paladin - Johnny Western
16. Legend of Wyatt Earp - Ken Darby Male Chorus, Hugh O'Brian
17. Rifleman - ABC Orchestra
18. Ballad of Davy Crockett - Bill Hayes
19. Changing Channels

I remember each and every one of these and others which may have not had a theme...
Jim Bowie..Jim Bowie He Was A Bold Adventerous Man..Jim Bowie Jim Bowie______etc
These Are The Tales Of Twenty Six Men Who Rode The Arizona Territory_______etc.
PBS many moons ago had a series Western Hero's hosted by Sunset Carson (anyone)
that ran all the 30's 40's western's,Lash Larue,Tom Mix,Bob Steele,etc.etc.etc.
Chip mentions Red Ryder who was (I Think) in the old Republic Serials with Bobby Blake as Little Beaver.
anden:Your dad was a man's man in his movies,is there a biography?? Johnny Guitar and 50 others but his character in Dr.Strangelove and of course Suddenly speak for themselves.

There is as I hear it another remake Of The Lone Ranger in the works....Johnny Depp as Tonto..their hoping for George Clooney for the masked man.Don't know if this has come to fruition.

Gunsmoke is one of my all time favorite western TV shows. Rifleman IMO is the best father/son TV show or movie of all time. It is a true reminder for us that a single parent home can still be a successful one.

How about these for your memory:

Branded
Death Valley Days
F Troop
Guns of Will Sonnett
High Chaparral

Rome

When I was a kid, I was stupid: I mainly paid attention to cartoons, not westerns. Only now that I'm older do I truly appreciate the western genre.
As for a theme song, the one that stuck in my mind was the theme from Rawhide.
Your dad was Sterling Hayden?! Oh, man! I looked him up on wikipedia... what a body of work!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hayden

Tom

ec1st- welcome to the forum-I DO remember Covered Wagon Theater, and I believe we may have some of that material on VHS somewhere around here. I'll have to ask my Dad, as I know that is how he spent his Saturdays. You must really be local as I think that was how WGAL-8 packaged their Westerns.

Anden-so cool that you dad's Sterling Hayden! We have quite a bit of his movies and enjoy many of them. Did the Western Channel ever do a Six Gun Salute for your dad?

Diddlybopper-I don't remember the Sunset Carson hosted stuff, but I remember seeing Roy Rogers and Dale hosting a similar thing on what I thought was PBS in the 80s. How could they make a Lone Ranger movie again? Didn't they learn anything from the horrors of the 1980 one? I'd think that the people of today would find the LR's sense of values and fair play laughable.

You guys have mentioned some great shows. Keep 'em coming!

Leadlike---I curse the day you started this thread....I made a mistake,the PBS show was called "Six Gun Hero's" and ran for quite a spell approx 10 yrs ago?But Sunset did host it.I have an Autographed pic and a badge of him somewhere.Badge says I'm a member of the Sunset Do Gooder Club or some silly thing like that.Now I'll have to spend the rest of my life looking for it.

Rome....Branded Chuch Connors...He Was Branded........The rest will come to me.

I also have the TV episodes of "Duncan Renaldos" THE CISCO KID
Theme song went...The Cisco Kid He Was A Friend Of Mine (repeat)
He Drank Whisky Pancho Drank The Wine ...etc

Actually his show had a intro.. but no music.

Stoney Burke...Jack Lord
Sugar Foot....Will Smith

Didn't The Sons Of The Pioneers The Singing Croup host a western movies show.
Autry did along with his sidekick for awhile....Pat Butram ??
Autry as we all know was a millionaire many times over.After his movie career was finished and the old westerns became a thing of the past he bought the rights to his movies..Flying Circle........?Productions.Then western movies came back in the 50's,well we know what happened.
All This Trivia And No One To Share It With........

anden-- your dad was AWESOME in Dr. Strangelove. completely unhinged. one of the great character performances of his era.

This thread has really brought back the memories!:yes:

Of course, growing up in the 50's, westerns on TV was a big thing. Of course, everyone remembers Gunsmoke and Bonaza, along with Have Gun-Will Travel and Wagon Train and Rawhide.

My cousins and I used to go to our grandparent's on the weekends and recall watching Maverick and Sugar Foot.

When I was about four, I got a genuine Palladin outfit, including guns and holster, hat, vest and a supply of the "Have Gun Will Travel" business cards.

Those were the days!:yes:

Of course, everyone remembers your Dad in Dr. Strangelove and the Godfather.

I saw him last week on TCM in "Johnny Guitar". Great movie!:thmbsp:

Anyone remember "The Dakotas"?

I have to agree. He's the first actor that comes to mind when I think of that film over Peter Sellers & George C. Scott. It's likely because his character seemed real and not a caricature vs. the other performances. Great stuff!