I've decided to watch the entire runs of two somewhat similar shows from the classic era of TV westerns: Wagon train, (1957-65) and Rawhide 1959-66). Unfortunately, the Wagon Train DVDs I've sent for don't include seasons.5 & 6. I'm going to alternate watching a DVD of episodes from one series and a DVD of episodes from the other. I'll be traveling north from Texas to Missouri on the cattle drive and west from Missouri to California. To make sure my text is of the required length, I will review the entire DVD each time.
Wagon Train and Rawhide were both about journeys across the west and the people and incidents that the heroes encountered. The big difference was that Seth Adams' Wagon Train carried people across the plains and they brought their stories with them. Each episode was "The (somebody) Story". Gil Favor's drovers were herding cattle. That provides some challenges and stories but much of the drama concerned the people they would encounter as they moved north. Each episode was "Incident (at or of) Something". The difficulty was to credibly get the drovers involved with the problems of the people they encountered when they would hardly have time to do so while trying to get their herd to market on time.
I think that, like Wagon Train, the premiere episode wasn't the first made. In fact, I think may have bene the third made. Incident at Alabaster Plain opens with Gil Favor introducing himself and describing his job and then we see individual shots of Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, Paul Brinnegar as Wishbone, the cook with James Murdock as Mushy, his assistant, the Sheb Wooley and Steve Raines as drovers. It's an obvious introduction to main regulars. Incident with an Executioner starts with some of the same shots but less verbiage. Incident of the Tumbleweed doesn't open with those shots at all, suggesting that it was the third filmed episode of the series.
All three episodes are strong ones. In the first one, a "Tumbleweed Wagon" - a prison on wheels - cuts across the path of the drive. They are invited to dine with the drovers but a rebellion of the prisoners results in one deputy being killed and the sheriff being badly wounded. The drovers recapture the convicts and now Favor and Yates decide they have to take over for the lawmen - with an outlaw gang on their trail. Would they have really done that? As they cross a stream Tom Conway, playing one of the prisoners, suggests they could drown and says "Drowning isn't the most pleasant death." Favor replies: "Sure wouldn't want to see anybody die and unpleasant death." Seven years later, Eric Fleming would drown in the Amazon River while making a film in South America.
In the second one, a friend of Rowdy's played by Troy Donahue, is getting married. The drovers attend the wedding, which is interrupted by Pete Mark Richmond as a bitterly angry gunman who had designs on the bride and how hates his wealthy stepfather, whom he beats to death and robs. Rowdy and Troy want to go after him. Mr. Favor tells Rowdy his priority is the herd but he will understand if Rowdy catches up with them later. Favor doesn't want to admit it but he cares enough for Rowdy to go after him and make sure he isn't killed. It winds up with a dramatic shoot out in a church. Richmond uses a gun with a snake design on it, similar to what Eastwood would use in his Spaghetti westerns in the next decade. Eastwood isn't playing the taciturn "Man With No Name" in this show: Rowdy Yates is a bit wet behind the ears and Favor rides him hard. Even Wishbone calls him a "Young Whelp". That's the character but it's my theory that Eastwood learned his tight-lipped acting style from watching Fleming play Gil Favor on Rawhide.
It's the third one that is the most memorable. A stagecoach comes barreling down a grade and crashes. The passengers are an odd lot, united in their fear of a lone figure that appears on the horizon. It's a gunman played by Dan Duryea who is after one of them - but they don't know which. James Drury plays a cocky young gunman who takes him on and comes out second best. The ending is a bit melodramatic, with Duryea being exposed as a man who really wants to die so he keeps taking on jobs as an assassin knowing the will be second best someday, but the dark atmosphere of this one is hard to forget.
Wagon Train and Rawhide were both about journeys across the west and the people and incidents that the heroes encountered. The big difference was that Seth Adams' Wagon Train carried people across the plains and they brought their stories with them. Each episode was "The (somebody) Story". Gil Favor's drovers were herding cattle. That provides some challenges and stories but much of the drama concerned the people they would encounter as they moved north. Each episode was "Incident (at or of) Something". The difficulty was to credibly get the drovers involved with the problems of the people they encountered when they would hardly have time to do so while trying to get their herd to market on time.
I think that, like Wagon Train, the premiere episode wasn't the first made. In fact, I think may have bene the third made. Incident at Alabaster Plain opens with Gil Favor introducing himself and describing his job and then we see individual shots of Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, Paul Brinnegar as Wishbone, the cook with James Murdock as Mushy, his assistant, the Sheb Wooley and Steve Raines as drovers. It's an obvious introduction to main regulars. Incident with an Executioner starts with some of the same shots but less verbiage. Incident of the Tumbleweed doesn't open with those shots at all, suggesting that it was the third filmed episode of the series.
All three episodes are strong ones. In the first one, a "Tumbleweed Wagon" - a prison on wheels - cuts across the path of the drive. They are invited to dine with the drovers but a rebellion of the prisoners results in one deputy being killed and the sheriff being badly wounded. The drovers recapture the convicts and now Favor and Yates decide they have to take over for the lawmen - with an outlaw gang on their trail. Would they have really done that? As they cross a stream Tom Conway, playing one of the prisoners, suggests they could drown and says "Drowning isn't the most pleasant death." Favor replies: "Sure wouldn't want to see anybody die and unpleasant death." Seven years later, Eric Fleming would drown in the Amazon River while making a film in South America.
In the second one, a friend of Rowdy's played by Troy Donahue, is getting married. The drovers attend the wedding, which is interrupted by Pete Mark Richmond as a bitterly angry gunman who had designs on the bride and how hates his wealthy stepfather, whom he beats to death and robs. Rowdy and Troy want to go after him. Mr. Favor tells Rowdy his priority is the herd but he will understand if Rowdy catches up with them later. Favor doesn't want to admit it but he cares enough for Rowdy to go after him and make sure he isn't killed. It winds up with a dramatic shoot out in a church. Richmond uses a gun with a snake design on it, similar to what Eastwood would use in his Spaghetti westerns in the next decade. Eastwood isn't playing the taciturn "Man With No Name" in this show: Rowdy Yates is a bit wet behind the ears and Favor rides him hard. Even Wishbone calls him a "Young Whelp". That's the character but it's my theory that Eastwood learned his tight-lipped acting style from watching Fleming play Gil Favor on Rawhide.
It's the third one that is the most memorable. A stagecoach comes barreling down a grade and crashes. The passengers are an odd lot, united in their fear of a lone figure that appears on the horizon. It's a gunman played by Dan Duryea who is after one of them - but they don't know which. James Drury plays a cocky young gunman who takes him on and comes out second best. The ending is a bit melodramatic, with Duryea being exposed as a man who really wants to die so he keeps taking on jobs as an assassin knowing the will be second best someday, but the dark atmosphere of this one is hard to forget.