Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh DUH DUNH DUNH! Every Sunday evening. My cousin had a crush on Michael Landon. She was a teenager, a young teenager, but a teenager. She NEVER missed Bonanza. I suppose I watched it, but I don’t remember anything about it except the opening. I don’t know why. Maybe we had to go to bed right after Disney or maybe my parents didn’t like it or?
Bonanza definitely romanticizes life in the wild and wooly west.
Our TV watching was limited, severely in comparison to that of my friends. I have dim memories of The Lone Ranger, but I never saw Gunsmoke, or most of the other westerns that were on tv in the fifties and sixties with the exception of Bat Masterson. I don’t know why we watched that (Friday night, after the Flintstones) except maybe my mom had a crush on Gene Barry who played the leading role. The real life Bat Masterson was a gambler, army scout, law man and sports writer. He was a dashing character in life and in the TV show. There were — and are — so many westerns out there. A few years ago, between realities (when I moved out here and still didn’t have a place to live) I was hooked on Longmire.
My Swiss friend’s father (from southeastern Italy) LOVED American westerns (and spaghetti westerns, too), and when he came from Zürich to visit us, we took him to Tucson and then to his dream, Tombstone. In a way, the journey was disillusioning for him, and the emptiness of the desert truly frightened him, but seeing the OK Corral? WOW.
I’m not a fan of western movies, but I have a favorite, Electric Horseman. It has great lines in it such as, when Jane Fonda asks if she should pet Rising Star (horse) Robert Redford answers, “Do what you like. He ain’t no dog.”
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/02/03/rdp-wednesday-bonanza/
Ah, Oaters. Craig Johnson’s Longmire books are wonderful. I’ve read ’em all and will continue that until he decides to stop. The show was good too.
I liked the show a lot. It wasn’t totally predictable.
Back in the day, I also loved Maverick. Made me a James Garner fan for life.
Best Maverick line: “If brains were leather, you couldn’t saddle a bug.”
That is beautiful.
Me, too! I was a Bret Maverick girl. Not a fan of Bart Maverick so much.
My Aunt Jo named the four steers my cousins were raising for FFA “Bret, Bart. Hobart and Festus.” I thought they were “Bret, Bart, Hobie and Chester.” I didn’t know until I was 50 something what their correct names were.
💝 garner too!
For me, it was High Chaparral! And of course, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly which Kevin and I rewatched over Christmas.
I watched some of High Chaparral. I only dimly remember it, though.
Fun post! My dad loves Bonanza, even now he watches all the repeats when he can find them.
A friend just told me there’s a channel on cable (?) where all those old westerns play 24/7
ITV4 or the Western Channel if you pay for it I reckon.
Probably.
Sunday night, without fail, Bonanza was on our TV. That, Gunsmoke, and Maverick were the westerns of choice in my house. And now they are on TV during the day. My crush is Chuck Connors in the Rifleman. The way he looks at the camera in the opening scene….! My husband calls me and says, “Your guy is on TV.” 😄
That’s cute. 🙂
Ya pulled it off! Jajaja Bonanza!🙏🐕♒️🇺🇸❤️🇩🇴🥳😀
In the early 70s, there was a rock band that had a local hit with the Bonanza theme (as well as Richard Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra”). Also in the 70s, The Rifleman” was a neighborhood favorite. We met at the corner bar to watch it at midnight
That sounds like fun. I used to go to the student union at 4 when I was a grad student and a teaching assistant to watch Star Trek with my students.
My husband watches The Rifleman on TV now–reruns live forever. The way Chuck fires that gun and squints into the camera at the beginning of the show…..gets me every time!
Dead Kennedy’s did a cover of Rawhide
My favorite western of the time was “Have Gun Will Travel.”
Bonanza was great; I loved Hoss. Gunsmoke not so much. Loved the Rifleman and had a crush on Chuck Connors.
And Wild Wild West – probably the moved-loved by me and my brothers, but that might have been influenced by the fact it was on Friday nights, which is our house was candy night (the only time we were allowed to eat candy; Mom would buy us any type we wanted). Both Robert Conrad and Ross Martin were eye candy to me 🙂
Best western movie of all time, in my humble options: Blazing Saddles.
My brother and I loved the Wild, Wild West too. And yes, Blazing Saddles. 😀
My dad liked Bonanza and Gunsmoke but I preferred Wild Wild West… I suppose it was more “sciencey” than a regular western – the western version of MacGyver!
I loved Electric Horseman too.
I love western movies and James Garner is a favorite along with Walter Matthau!🙏🐕♒️🥳