New Cycle on the Western Channel

[mrsl]

I believe each cycle runs about 4 or 5 months with maybe 4 or 5 new movies thrown in each cycle. The rest is re-runs from the previous cycle or two.

This one has been a pleasure so far. I'm thoroughly enjoying Cheyenne. It is a little more bloody than some others, but I like the show. Moira sees remakes of old stories in the series, but I don't look that deeply, I just enjoy the cowboy do's and don'ts. Unless it hits me in the face, remakes are not too obvious to me. I watched a 60's movie recently more than half way through before I realized it was a remake of a 40's film. (Can't recall names right now, Senior moment).

There are several movies coming on that should be good - Vera Cruz with Lancaster and G. Cooper, The Wonderful Country w/ R. Mitchum, Comes a Horseman has been on before but is definitely worth watching as it teams Jane Fonda and James Caan, in a 'drifter helps widow' type of movie. Maverick is always good for a break although I prefer James Garner episodes over Jack Kelly. Garner has that cute sneaky little imp about him that Kelly lacks. There are several more movies but my brain is fried right now and I can't recall names. It does look like a couple of good months ahead. The good thing is, you can always watch TCM or something else, because you know The Western Channel is going to repeat sooner or later.

Anne

[MissGoddess]

I was happily astonished to wake up to MY DARLING CLEMENTINE on Sunday morning---on ENCORE!!

It's extremely rare for Fox to let out their more prestige titles, and
to Encore!!

[ken123]

Miss Goddess
I believe that encore Western channel show the official Zanuck approved version on My Darling Clementine, I would have preferred the Ford veriosn which IMHO is the better of the two, luckily the Ford version is on DVD> Linda Darnell & Cathy Downs are excellent in thier roles, which again proves that Ford COULD direct woman.

[MissGoddess]

I agree with you, Kenny, all the way.

I think he was one of the best directors of actresses around.

[MissGoddess]

I was drooling over Rod Taylor today on "Cheyenne"!!! Yayy!

For you Anne, this is too cute:

[youtube][/youtube]

(Don't know what the "tag" on the end is about, just ignore it)

[coopsgirl]

Since they aren’t showing The Big Valley anymore I bought all that was available on dvd (the first 45 episodes). I’m enjoying it much more watching it in order than I did just watching the random eps on TV. At first I started watching it b/c of Barbara Stanwyck but now I’m hooked on it b/c it was a great show. I found the rest of the episodes on ioffer.com so I went ahead and ordered them too.

Peter Breck, who played Nick Barkley, was also in one of the movies that my fave show Mystery Science Theater used in one of their episodes where they would make fun of bad movies. It was called The Beatniks and in it he plays a homicidal maniac named Mooney. He threatens to stab people except he says he’s gonna moon them instead of stab them. At one point, just when the cops are closing in on him he yells out all crazy like “I killed that fat barkeep!!”, in reference to an earlier murder. It was so over the top and crazy that it became a catch phrase for the show popping up in several more episodes. I was stunned to see him in this show but what surprised me even more is that I totally have a crush on him now and he’s my fave character. He was much better suited to playing a rugged, tough rancher than a crazy beatnik .

[MissGoddess]

My favorite Barkley is Richard Long's "Jared" but Nick is very cute.
I didn't like him at first but now I think he's sweet and feisty. He stirs
things up.

I ordered "The High Chaparral", the complete series, on iOffer but
I haven't had time to sit and watch it. I' can't wait. Angie, you were
the first to tell me about that site and since then I have found two
things I was searching for FOREVER. Thank you.

[moira finnie]

I hope that you'll post more about The High Chaparral once you have a chance to see the dvds, Miss G.

It's funny that you should mention The Big Valley.

My primary fascination on that program is not with the guys, who generally seemed rather dull to me, but it is with the hair and makeup of Barbara Stanwyck and Linda Evans, (who knew that they had teased hair, blue eye shadow and false eyelashes on the frontier?). I also find it amusing that noir tough guy writer A.I. Bezzirides was a creator of this show, which seems so far off his beaten path through the urban working man's streets.

I was talking to a friend about the good actors who popped up on the program recently--among others Fritz Weaver, Paul Fix, L.Q. Jones and Bert Freed--who make the show more interesting too. My favorite aspect of the odd family western was undoubtedly the repeated appearances of the ubiquitous character actor James Gregory as a suitor/nemesis of Barbara Stanwyck. The actor, who did a lot of time on tv westerns, (Bonanza, Gunsmoke, High Chaparral, Lancer, Cimarron Strip & even the wonderfully loopy F Troop), used to pop up and menace Babs (and occasionally others) with his honey-dripping voice, full of malevolence and--by the sounds of things--a good amount of scotch and cigarettes.

He always seemed so incongruous in the Old West, particularly when he mounted a horse. Somehow, the querulous guy looked so much more at home on the set of Barney Miller as the snake-like Frank Luger, or, in one of his best roles, as the cat's paw consort of Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate.

[MissGoddess]

Hi Moira!

THC is my favorite western show so I'm VERY excited to
see it again for the first time in years. Linda Crystal was
like a heroine to me growing up.

Audra and Victoria were very advanced fashion wise, weren't
they? lol. My aunt actually named my cousin after Audra.

I was astonished when I first saw A.I. Bezzerides name attached
the to show. I wonder if he'd had a very different conception
originally than what was eventually produced, lol. Something
rawer and grittier than he got, I imagine. Still, they did pull
in some great guest stars. One of the most interesting to me
was Milton Berle playing of all things a meek sheep rancher. He
was really quite moving!

But I've really fallen for Richard Long, and looking up his bio
recently I learned he died, sadly rather young of multiple
heart attacks (in his late forties, I believe) and his first wife died on
him, too.

[movieman1957]

Hi Moira!

THC is my favorite western show so I'm VERY excited to
see it again for the first time in years. Linda Crystal was
like a heroine to me growing up.

Audra and Victoria were very advanced fashion wise, weren't
they? lol. My aunt actually named my cousin after Audra.

I'm amazed they could find such fine tailors out there. No big deal for the boys as they wore almost the same clothes all the time. They certainly did in "Bonanza." I have to believe that was a continuity thing and may have shot several parts of different episodes at the same time.

[MissGoddess]

The best was were when Barbara Stanwyck would put on
her Forty Guns -style, all-black trouser outfit and carry a riding crop, lol!

[coopsgirl]

I’m glad you found some stuff you were looking for on ioffer. It’s a great site and I have found lots of rare stuff there including one of my stepdad’s fave films, Night of the Grizzly, which he hasn’t seen since he was a kid. His birthday is coming up later this month so I ordered it for him. He’s gonna be so surprised!

A couple of years ago when I got more into old movies and started watching them religiously my mom kept commenting on how this person or that was in High Chapparal. So it has becoming a running joke now that every time she sees someone who looks familiar we joke they were in HC.

I guess the general store in Stockton had a steady supply of blue eyeshadow, teasing combs, and pink lipstick for Babs and Linda to choose from . At least in the first season, Barbara’s hair looks a little more old timey that it did later on. I do like it later though when she kept it shorter, it was cute even if it didn’t look much like an old West hairdo. From what I read it was quite controversial that she and Linda’s characters didn’t act like shrinking violets (and didn’t always ride side saddle either).

I was watching one episode the other day titled The Invaders about a family of rawhiders who shot Heath and then tried to act like they found him and saved him to get a reward from his mother. I knew it was gonna end badly for John Dehner who was the leader of the family and sure enough Babs shot him at the end . That guy seemed familiar and I thought he was in one of Gary’s movies but I couldn’t place him so I had to cheat and look him up. He played Claude in Man of the West. I thought it was funny that he got shot by both Gary and Barbara, two of my faves .

Richard Long is in one of my fave horror films, The House on Haunted Hill. As Jarrod though, he’s a little too stuffy for me.

I was 12 eps into it when I realized I had the hots for Nick. In the ep Night of the Wolf, Nick and Heath are out with the cattle at night and Nick gets bitten by a rabid wolf. He makes Heath promise not to tell the family b/c he doesn’t want them to worry about him and he tells them he’s going to a horse sale in some other town and he takes off. The doctor told him if he’s still alive after 60 days he’ll probably make it since they carterized the wound right after he was bitten.

So he’s just killing time in another town and one night after he starts showing symptoms he goes to a saloon and gets drunk. He wanders over to this house and passes out in their swing (he’s imagining that it’s the house of one of his old girlfriends) and a couple guys try to mug him but the woman who lives there runs them off. She’s a single mother (Ron Howard plays her illegitimate son) and she takes him in and takes care of him. He gets pretty attached to her son and he feels the same way about Nick. Since they think he’s dying the woman (who played Fred MacMurray’s wife in the flubber movies) asks him if he’ll marry her so her son will have a real name. She’s been trying to save enough money to go back home to Massachusetts where he can get a better education. He says he can’t do it though. So weeks go by and one night he goes to the laundry where she works to walk back home with her since it’s dark and they get mugged and she gets shot. He changes his mind and marries her, then she dies. A couple days later Heath shows up to check on him b/c the 60 days are over. Nick is overjoyed and he tells Opie (ha!) that he will take him back home.

It was a very sweet episode and even thought Nick can be too hot tempered sometimes, he’s my fave. It doesn't hurt that he's also tall, handsome and rugged - yummy!!! Peter Breck is still alive too and will turn 80 this year. He's been married to the same woman (his only marriage) since 1960 and they only had one child who died when he was 2 from leukemia which is terribly sad. He seemed to have a pretty normal, scandal free life which is cool.

[moira finnie]

The best was were when Barbara Stanwyck would put on
her Forty Guns -style, all-black trouser outfit and carry a riding crop, lol!

I think that exposure to this sort of movie as a kid and her toughness in that role put me off Stanwyck in Westerns--though I like her fine in modern day roles.

I'm amazed they could find such fine tailors out there. No big deal for the boys as they wore almost the same clothes all the time. They certainly did in "Bonanza." I have to believe that was a continuity thing and may have shot several parts of different episodes at the same time.

I guess the general store in Stockton had a steady supply of blue eyeshadow, teasing combs, and pink lipstick for Babs and Linda to choose from Laughing . At least in the first season, Barbara’s hair looks a little more old timey that it did later on. I do like it later though when she kept it shorter, it was cute even if it didn’t look much like an old West hairdo. From what I read it was quite controversial that she and Linda’s characters didn’t act like shrinking violets (and didn’t always ride side saddle either).

I was watching one episode the other day titled The Invaders about a family of rawhiders who shot Heath and then tried to act like they found him and saved him to get a reward from his mother. I knew it was gonna end badly for John Dehner who was the leader of the family and sure enough Babs shot him at the end Surprised . That guy seemed familiar and I thought he was in one of Gary’s movies but I couldn’t place him so I had to cheat and look him up. He played Claude in Man of the West. I thought it was funny that he got shot by both Gary and Barbara, two of my faves

I think John Dehner died on all the tv shows and all movies in which he appeared. It was usually a richly deserved death too. I also like the lack of passivity and the spunk shown by the Big Valley gals, though Audra seemed more doll-like than necessary. Besides, why in heck wasn't a beautiful babe like her married or more interested in guys? Though she had a bit of fire at the beginning of the series, she always seemed to be the one who was pursued, and she only reluctantly gave a guest star a nod. Thinking about it, I'm reminded that most of the guys who liked her turned out to be nutjobs (Adam West was the best one of those as a cracked Civil War vet with a thirst for blood), men with ulterior motives, or lads with interfering parents who resent the land-rich Barkleys and regard her as Princess Audra, or as one resentful parent put it in one episode, she acted like "little Miss Soap and Starch Country-girl, don't know a from b or which from what". Man, poor Linda Evans just seemed to rub people the wrong way, no?

And, if anyone actually had a requited affair of the heart, that guest star, male or female, was d-o-o-m-e-d!

Speaking of grooming on the Westerns, I thought that the boys, particularly Peter Breck and Richard Long were pretty snazzy dressers. When it came to hair on the Westerns, The Big Valley guys seemed to use a lot of bear grease on their hair and in certain episodes Lee Majors was almost a platinum blond! On shows such as Bonanza, wasn't the toupee on Lorne Greene and the discreet combover on Pernell Roberts (who was a big heartthrob for my older sis) pretty obvious? Marshall Dillon (James Arness) sure looked realistic by comparison.

One of the most interesting to me
was Milton Berle playing of all things a meek sheep rancher. He
was really quite moving!

This I gotta see--though it can't be as amusing as when Buddy Hackett (!) showed up on The Big Valley as Lee Majors' alleged long-lost father. Come on, Gregor Mendel wouldn't have bet on that genetic crap shoot.

But I've really fallen for Richard Long, and looking up his bio recently I learned he died, sadly rather young of multiple heart attacks (in his late forties, I believe) and his first wife died on him, too.

From what I've read, he was a great guy. Though he was married to Lucille Ball's niece, actress Suzan Ball for less than a year before her untimely death, he had a long marriage to Mara Corday, with whom he had 3 kids prior to his premature death, (of course, that would have been more amazing if he'd had them after his death, huh?)

As an actor, I liked him very much in And Now Tomorrow, The Stranger and, peasant that I am, the Ma and Pa Kettle movies. I loathed Nanny and the Professor as a kid, but don't blame him for the cloyingly saccharine show. On The Big Valley he seemed to be constantly trapped into a one note theme that involved his having to prove that he wasn't a sissy, even though he had a heap o' book learnin'.

[coopsgirl]

This I gotta see--though it can't be as amusing as when Buddy Hackett (!) showed up on The Big Valley as Lee Majors' alleged long-lost father. Come on, Gregor Mendel wouldn't have bet on that genetic crap shoot.


You’re cracking me up!! Lee Majors hair is so awful!! I’m not particularly attracted to him but he was nice looking so it’s a shame about the hair. In the Big Valley he looks a lot like 50s Elvis (except for the nasty blondish hair). I’d never noticed this before b/c I’m used to seeing him a little older like during The Fall Guy or Six Million Dollar Man. I’m expecting him to start singing Love Me Tender any minute!

I think it’s hilarious that after the first season they just wrote out younger brother Eugene. He was pretty unnecessary though.

I’d read somewhere else where someone pointed out that nearly all the people who got romantically involved with the Barkleys met tragic ends. I’ve only seen about half of the first season so far but it’s definitely true. In one ep, Nick meets a fancy city girl and they get engaged then when he brings her home and they go on a camping trip, she hates it and has a change of heart. She did get away scott free but Nick fell and landed on a big rock injuring his back. So I guess in the rare instance the love interest lives to love another day, they do something bad to one of the Barkleys instead .

I haven’t seen that much of Bonanza but I thought Lorne’s hair was okay. However I do completely agree with you about Pernell; that was not a good look.

I’ve only seen John Dehner in a couple of things (Man of the West and Big Valley) but he definitely made a good bad guy. His character in this ep of Big Valley was especially nasty. His name was “Daddy” Cade and it really creeped me out when he kept asking everybody to call him “Daddy”. Barbara just looked at him like he was crazy every time he would say it. At one point in the episode he proposes to her and you can tell how disgusted she is about the idea but she has to lead him on so she can get away from him. It was just an icky, but very good and dramatic episode.

[mrsl]

I always thought of The Big Valley as the female contemporary of Bonanza because of the matriarch replacing the patriarch. I loved the black trouser outfit, and for her age you have to give her the credit she deserves for looking better than a lot of 20 somethings would look in it.

As for writing Eugene out, at least in later episodes he is mentioned as being at school in the East, before they dropped him altogether. When Adam left Bonanza, he was never mentioned at all - like he never existed.

John Dehner was in loads of Rifleman shows as well as all the other Warner Bros. TV westerns, and he was usually the bad guy - at least 90% of the time.

Anne