The Virginian

[Lzcutter]

Okay, one problem with watching The Virginian five days a week in order (or tivo during the week and watch on the weekends, like me) you noticed the plot problems the writers created over the years.

Case in point, Emmett Ryker.

When we first meet Ryker he is a gunslinger who knows Sheriff Mark Abbott. Abbott tells Ryker that being a gun for hire is not a job with any security. By the end of the episode, Ryker has decided that Mark Abbott is correct and he signs on as a deputy.

Later in that season, we meet Lloyd Nolan, the man who raised Ryker. Nolan and his clan are on the wrong side of the law and Ryker must make the choice between family and the law. There's a great deal of talk about how Nolan raised Ryker and mentored him.

Over the next two seasons, Ryker goes back and forth between being the sheriff and the deputy of Medicine Bow. But from time to time we see him and Mark Abbott together and they have a great father/son rapport.

In the Laramie Road episode in 1965, the Sheriff is John Brannan and he gets killed by two grifters. Ryker goes into tailspin over his grief of his mentor and the man who taught him the difference between right, wrong and the law. It's because of Brannan he became a lawman.

But it wasn't Sheriff Brannan that did that, it was Sheriff Mark Abbott who did all that. And Abbott isn't dead, he will return in the 1966 season.

And then there is Trampas' backstory. Early in the beginning of the second season, we get a whole episode devoted to Trampas' backstory with his nefarious father (Sonny Tufts). His father dies at the hand of Judge Garth while Trampas is away (the Judge had to draw and kill Pa Trampas or die). Trampas discovers the truth when he recognizes the gun the Judge carries.

Over the next two seasons, the story of Trampas' father's death, takes a couple of different twists and turns, none of them in accordance to the episode in the second season.

Guess that is why series now have bibles so that mistakes like this don't happen.

But, all that aside, I am enjoying The Virginian, especially the guest stars who graced that show over the years. After watching Lee J. Cobb too much, you start to realize how unhappy he was on the show. The man rarely smiles and looks like he spends too much time sucking lemons.

Thankfully James Drury and Doug McClure (and the others) all look like they enjoy being on the show. This despite the fact that anytime either Drury or McClure falls in love, the woman is killed. We're only four seasons in and I've lost count how many woman have died or left town rather than marry the Virginian or Trampas.

And as much as I love Clu Gulager when I was a kid (and oh, I loved him) watching this show and even now, his method acting is in stark contrast to Drury and McClure's more naturalistic approach and too often tends to draw attention to himself in a way actors don't necessarily want. But, then, he has that voice and that smile that makes you put up with all that method acting. McClure has a great smile but Trampas was never a bad boy. Ryker, he oozed being a bad boy with his very being.

And young girls, we loved bad boys.

And by season 4, I actually find myself missing Beldon (LQ Jones) but by then, he was off making movies with Sam Peckinpah.

When it comes to riding a horse, McClure is probably the best horseman on the series.

My San Fran roommate probably thinks I'm crazy watching five episodes of this show over a weekend (MrCutter would say I'm definitely crazy) but I do appreciate the Western Channel running them in series order.

I loved Judge Garth when I was a kid and wished I had a grandpa like him. Now, I'm ready for him to get himself promoted to territorial governor and for Morgan Starr to show up because I am tired of seeing Cobb scowl through every episode he's in.

Funny what a difference almost 50 years can make in that regard.

[klondike]

. . . newly wed to a much younger actor by 20-yrs Michael Conrad, who went on to play the first Sargeant in Hill Street Blues in the 1980s.

Speaking of actor Michael Conrad, just caught him today as a cold-war sniper on I Spy . . relaxed & athletic looking, except he should've gotten some closer direction, or better prop instruction, because he kept adjusting his range-finders for long-shots before dropping the shooter's cap on the rear of his rifle scope . .

[mrsl]

.
SHADES OF NO NAME ON THE BULLET

Watching today's episode of the Virginian, I kept saying to myself, "What is this?", and within 5 minutes it hit me, a take off on No Name on the Bullet. There was a little more action in this one, but the story was basically the same. Half the people in town thought this gunman was here looking for each of them for one reason or another; and they never said why the one storekeeper and his wife thought he was after them. The buildup of suspense was more acute in the movie, and the love/hate friendship between the gunman and the doctor was more intriguing than this one between the Virginian and the gunman - the one thing I can never accept is why they never gave him a name. It's so awkward when he is introduced, or runs into an old friend, but who am I to question? ? ? ? It's not very often the writers do this. The stories are usually new and not taken from other shows or movies. They are often familiar, but have enough differences to make it feel like a whole new plot. There were no big name guest stars in this although a lot of familiar faces, but it was a good one. Of course I love the plot of No Name on the Bullet.

[pvitari]

The important thing for me about "Stopover" -- the episode with the mysterious gunman -- is that said gunman was played by *Herb Jeffries* -- the Bronze Buckaroo himself! It was a thrill to see him, especially since just the other week I watched 1938 two movies on TCM from his youthful days as a singing cowboy. Now here he was 30 years later and at age 56, he was still looking mighty fine, I have to say. (He still looks great at age 97!)

Given the casting, and the way everyone reacted to Hammel (Jeffries' character), and some lines of dialogue ("we don't want someone like him in here") I thought at first they were going to make Hammel's occupation (gunfighter) into some kind of metaphor for his being African American (this was 1969 after all and TV was full of stories about race at the time) but it didn't work out that way. The various people in Medicine Bow were nervous about him because they all had some back-story reason to think a gunfighter was after them, so their anxiety stemmed from a genuine fear rather than a blanket prejudice about gunfighters. Once they realized he wasn't after them, then they treated Hammel like anyone else -- or in the case of old busybody Clem, like he was a big celebrity. :)

Trivia: there is an episode of The Rifleman also called "Stopover," which was directed by Budd Boetticher!

[Lzcutter]

It looks like The Virginian is fast coming up on the end of season 8 which is the last one before it became Men From Shiloh. I don't think Encore Western runs the Men from Shiloh episodes.

It has certainly been fun watching this show in chronological order though I suspect that my Tivo will be glad to have the space back (5 episodes a week takes up space unless you are quick to watch them).

It looks like Don Stroud, Kiel Martin (Hill Street Blues), Harrison Ford, Ben Murphy Alias Smith and Jones were all frequent guest stars the last couple of seasons. Pete Duel, Murphy's costar in Smith and Jones even showed up as an outlaw a couple of weeks back.

Interesting that Encore tends to drop an episode every now and then, case in point, Storm Over Shiloh an episode I was actually looking forward to didn't air.

I had forgotten that the Irish Rovers were added in the 7th season as a singing group at the local saloon.

I've got a long plane trip in my very near future and I think that book on the show that Moira suggested will make great reading on my Kindle.