Pioneers of Television

[Lzcutter]

If you are of a certain age, this series is for you!

Mr. Cutter and I watched the first season of The Pioneers of Television on PBS about a year and a half ago. The other night, they debuted the first of four more shows. This one focused on Science Fiction and television with some terrific interviews with the stars of Star Trek (Nichelle Nichols looks great, btw), Lost in Space and Twilight Zone. The show includes vintage interviews with Rod Serling as well as interviews with Peter Graves, Lee Meriwether and others who have since passed on. The TV Academy's Legacy Program was utilized in both the last season as well as this episode.

They have a website where you can watch some of the interviews from their Legacy Program: http://www.emmytvlegends.org/

I'd of settled for a few fewer re-enactments and more classic photos and film footage but the rest of the episode was just terrific.

Next week they look back at Westerns and Television with Crime Dramas and Kids Shows in coming weeks.

I hope it is as good!

[movieman1957]

I have seen the show dealing with comedy. That was really good. I was never a big Sci Fi fan but I'd like to the see the westerns.

[MissGoddess]

I haven't seen any of these...I hope I can find the one on Westerns on my local schedule. I don't always keep up with what's on PBS lately.

There is a ton of stuff in vintage television that has yet to be re-discovered.

[moira finnie]

The Pioneers of Television episode devoted to the early years of The Western is on PBS in most spots around the country tonight at 8pm. You can see some info about it here.

Henry Darrow is on it!!! Johnny Crawford is on it!! The Rifleman music is playing!

I hope you get to see it, Miss G.

[MissGoddess]

The Pioneers of Television episode devoted to the early years of The Western is on PBS in most spots around the country tonight at 8pm. You can see some info about it here.

Henry Darrow is on it!!! Johnny Crawford is on it!! The Rifleman music is playing!

I hope you get to see it, Miss G.

I'm watching and enjoying it now!

[moira finnie]

Cool. Didn't you love what Linda Evans said about Barbara Stanwyck being so tough on the outside to keep anyone from knowing her? I loved the way she talked about their mother-daughter vibe too.

There is more video for this particular program here:
http://www.pbs.org/opb/pioneersoftelevision/pioneering-programs/westerns/

[MissGoddess]

I did like that insight into Stanwyck, and I totally believe it. Robert Wagner said as much in his autobiography, when he covered his relationship with her.

I enjoyed it as a saunter down the past of Television westerns. I had hoped for something deeper, too, but it was fun. I was hoping for at least a mention of "Have Gun Will Travel" and some of the others, but this is a television show about television shows....maybe that makes the quality of writing once removed?

I learned about the impact of "Davy Crocket" and "Daniel Boone". I never watched the shows so had no idea of their impact. I believe it, though, when you think about how many little boys in the movies in those days were shown wearing a coon skin cap.

I was very touched to see James Arness. He may not be with us much longer and of course, we just lost his brother, Peter Graves, so it was a real joy to see them and listen to what they had to say. As always, they spoke positively, low key and with zero angst or attitude. How refreshing. Loved seeing Ernie Borgnine, of course, as always.

P.S. I can't imagine why Peckinpah was upset at the direction "The Rifleman" took, because I think the show did just what he set out to do: depict the growing up of a young boy in the old west, with its often painful and harsh life lessons. Maybe he objected to any trace of sentimentality, but heck, it's a father and son story so shouldn't there be some heart? I think he should have been proud of it.

[movieman1957]

I watched it and thought it kind of light weigh as well. However, I was struck by how many people who were interviewed have died in the past year or so. Graves, Cannell, Parker and Culp. It was nice that they dug up footage with Dennis Weaver and Buddy Ebsen.

I guess an hour can't really do it justice. No mention of "The Virginian" or "Cheyenne." "Cheyenne" must be one of the earliest. How do you leave out Roy Rogers or "The Lone Ranger"? I think the world of James Garner but was "Maverick" that big? (I don't want that to sound belittling but I am curious.)

And as much as we love "Have Gun Will Travel" it is odd there was no mention considering it ran 6 years.

I haven't thought of "Daniel Boone" in a long time. They mentioned in 1959 there were 30 westerns shows on. That is almost too much to comprehend. I can't imagine there are enough story lines.

Sorry to sound critical as I did enjoy it but it, like other episodes, might have been even better at two hours.

[ChiO]

Chris asked:
How do you leave out Roy Rogers or "The Lone Ranger"?

Not having seen the program, this could be belied by TV shows it did cover, but here's my guess: given the relative brevity of the program, the creators decided to focus on TV shows and eliminated those shows that were popular on other media before coming to TV. So, The Roy Rogers Show gets cut because he was a movie stalwart and The Lone Ranger gets cut because of the popularity of the radio program. They may have been early TV shows, but they were not pioneering TV shows (based on my assumed criterion).

And as much as we love "Have Gun Will Travel" it is odd there was no mention considering it ran 6 years.

I can't think of a rational explanation for that. Couldn't get rights clearance?

[movieman1957]

Thanks for the response. I was thinking when they mentioned "Davy Crockett" and how the impact it had on kids and I thought of Rogers and "Ranger" and how they were so popular but you are quite right. Maybe those 30 shows in 1959 hardly qualify as pioneering either.

[moira finnie]

I also thought that the show was too tantalizingly brief, but PBS could easily have spent a 13 part series on The Western on television and its impact on and reflection of society to do this subject justice.

I don't think we watched Daniel Boone alot, but I do remember liking Ed Ames' erudite Native American, and Rosie Grier was a near mythic figure in our house as a football player/needlepointer/the man who tried to shield Robert Kennedy from Sirhan Sirhan in 1968. I had no idea that Rafer Johnson had been on that show. He used to explain the Olympic competitions on the Wide World of Sports by demonstrating each sporting event himself and was one of the most wondrously graceful athletes I've ever seen. Since Disney's influence on the Western was mentioned via Daniel Boone, why was Guy Williams turn playing Zorro forgotten, as well as the Disney show Elfego Baca, with the glorious character actor Robert Loggia?

I wanted more about The Rifleman and agree with Miss G. that the enduring power and heart of that show is the ying yang between father and son and the threat posed by the violent world around them. That program had such soul in their relationship and in the unusual acknowledgment that things were far from perfect for the McCains. Things go awry in life and may never be the same--but that love endures--as does violence in the world, though it was secondary to the sometimes strained family relationships which grew to include several people who were not blood relatives, like Micah (Paul Fix).

I would have liked much more about forgotten programs that I first loved as a little kid seeing them in reruns. Some of the missing were Zane Grey Theater (1956-1961), Death Valley Days (which ran from 1952-1975) The Westerner, which only had one year but the 13 epis were directed by Peckinpah (who was also the creator), and Andre de Toth. Other Westerns that were MIA but were staple fare round the clock in reruns for years were Sugar Foot (4 year run) as well as such "modern day" Westerns aimed at kids, Fury (which was on for 11 years!), Sky King (it ran for 7 years), Annie Oakley (which ran for 4 years).

[movieman1957]

On a purely subjective and pointless level "The Rifleman" had the coolest sounding gun and one of the best theme songs around. Those French Horns blasting that theme was enough to get you going.

[Sue Sue Applegate]

Moira, Movieman, and Miss G, enjoyed and agreed with all your comments.

Guy Williams (My Mom took me to see him when he came to Houston to promote Zorro), was hugely popular. And the fact that Richard Boone was actually related to Daniel Boone was a trivia sidebar at the end. (I don't know how a sidebar can be at the conclusion, but we are mixing media here... I just felt Paladin deserved more screen time. And Sugarfoot with Will Hutchins?

I also adored Ed Ames. I couldn't believe it when I found some sheet music for The Fantasticks with his photo on the cover of "Try To Remember." I never missed Daniel Boone.

Sky King? A faithful fan, and Gail Davis as Annie Oakley always did the right thing and girls need role models! I also wish more time had been devoted to Paul Fix and his contribution to the McCain family, but Roy, Dale, Pat, Gabby, Bullitt, Buttermilk, Nellybelle, and Trigger will have to have their own show!
I was happy that there were so many interviews and glad to hear about the wonderful relationship Linda Evans had with her onscreen Mom, Miss Stanwyck.

Lot of aspects of our past to love about that show, but I just want more. It was a delicious hors d'ouevre! But I'm sitting at the table with my napkin in my lap waiting for the entree now.

The pioneers of television was an abbreviation of our boomer past. And this baby needed more!

[Lzcutter]

I suspect one reason why this episode focused on the shows it did (as well as the Sci-fi episode last week) was because they are appealing to those of us of a certain age (baby boomers in their mid-to-late 50s who remember the shows when they were first broadcast (as opposed to in reruns).

Why? Because we are the target market for PBS fund raising. Sorry to be cynical but I noticed it last week with the Sci-Fi shows and the focus on Star Trek and Lost in Space.

As for Davy Crockett, the three-part series was a smash hit that hit the zeitgeist at just right the moment. Walt Disney filmed them in color despite the fact that television back in the mid-1950s was a black and white market. This allowed Walt to release the three episodes cut together for a theatrical and was a smash box office hit. Why? Because Americans wanted to see it in color and were willing to pay for the opportunity.

I tivo'd the show and will be watching it tomorrow. I had forgotten that Johnny Crawford started out as a Mouseketeer the first season of the Mickey Mouse Club.

As for Sam Peckinpah, I suspect he wanted to do harder-edged stories and got into a conflict with the network (which is kind of the story of Sam's life- art vs authority).

[MissGoddess]

Why? Because we are the target market for PBS fund raising. Sorry to be cynical but I noticed it last week with the Sci-Fi shows and the focus on Star Trek and Lost in Space.

I believe you, Lynn.