This Western Series Changed Network TV Forever

With regards to traditional Western tv, it is arduous to pinpoint precisely which collection was probably the most influential on the ever-expanding style. Gunsmoke was the longest-running, adopted shortly by Bonanza, however even these have been predated by The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, which had a formidable six-season run of its personal. However there’s one Western tv traditional price revisiting attributable to its standing as the primary hour-long Western program. The truth is, many contemplate this to be the primary hour-long drama of any type to run greater than a single season! That is proper, we’re speaking about ABC’s 1955 collection, Cheyenne, which starred Clint Walker within the title function as Cheyenne Bodie, wandering cowboy extraordinaire!

‘Cheyenne’ Is the Definition of a Conventional Tv Western

Earlier than Rod Serling tried his hand at the genre with The Loner within the Sixties or Clint Eastwood grew to become generally known as the Man With No Title, Cheyenne took its main man and set him on a course throughout the American West. A wandering hero with no place to name his house, Cheyenne Bodie was a person’s man. He was a hulking determine with a deep voice and an honorable ethical code extra akin to the style’s conventional values earlier than it bought extra “revisionist” within the ’70s. Although exhibits just like the anthology Death Valley Days existed earlier than Cheyenne, this ABC Western was the primary of its type. Cheyenne, very loosely based mostly on the 1947 Western of the identical identify, used its hour-long episodes to discover the intricacies of human existence and inform longer, self-contained tales that caught with you lengthy afterward.

Almost each style trope related to Westerns might be present in Cheyenne, from fabulous gunfights with the quickest draw within the West to hardcore villains with a chip on their shoulders and even daring romances with ladies who swoon over the titular character. Cheyenne himself was all the time endeavor totally different Western jobs, similar to ranch foreman, wagon practice scout, and even lawman (a job he usually discovered himself doing even with out a badge). He simply fell into new vocations with every new episode. The character was connected to the Cheyenne Indian tribe after whom he was named, although the present is fuzzy on the precise particulars. The present’s first episode, “Mountain Fortress,” reveals that Cheyenne’s mother and father have been murdered when he was only a boy, and after the very fact, the Cheyenne took him in. Later that season, “West of the River” notes that he stayed with the tribe from 12 till 18. Nevertheless, Season 5’s “The Lone Rope” introduces the household who apparently raised the Western hero, they usually’re definitely not Cheyenne.

Regardless of slight continuity errors, Cheyenne labored as a brand new, long-form tackle a well-recognized style and managed to inform some fairly thrilling tales alongside the way in which. In accordance with Tim Brooks and Earle F. Marsh of their guide, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present, the present itself was a part of the Warner Bros. Presents tv initiative, which was the film studio’s first foray into tv. It was the most well-liked of the three exhibits that made up Warner Bros.’ trinity of packages, together with Casablanca and King’s Row (every based mostly on in style movies), and sometimes rotated with these and later different exhibits like Sugarfoot and Battle. Brooks and Marsh be aware that Cheyenne was so tough to supply as an hour-long interval drama that the present not often ran each week. As a substitute, an episode or two can be broadcast every month throughout its first 5 seasons till it discovered its footing close to the top.

Clint Walker Was the Solely Lead Character on ‘Cheyenne’

After all, the true draw for Cheyenne was Clint Walker himself. A six-foot-something burly cowboy with mushy options and a tricky demeanor, Cheyenne Bodie was the type of hero you could easily root for. The truth is, he was the one character who appeared in all however one episode, which is sensible, contemplating the present was named after him. Nevertheless, one different character appeared in a small handful of episodes in the course of the first season as Cheyenne’s sidekick, and that was Smitty. Performed by L.Q. Jones, Smitty solely confirmed up in “Boarder Showdown,” “Julesburg,” and the collection premiere “Mountain Fortress,” the place he labored alongside the titular cowboy hero. For no matter purpose, Jones was dropped from Cheyenne early on and was by no means seen once more within the present’s seven-season run.

Apart from L.Q. Jones, a bunch of different actors appeared in a number of episodes of Cheyenne, although, not like Jones, they by no means confirmed up as the identical characters twice. Clyde Howdy appeared in 49 episodes of the present (usually going uncredited) as numerous aspect characters, and actors like Chuck Hicks, Lane Chandler, Mickey Simpson, and Jack Mower confirmed up anyplace from 9 to fifteen instances. Due to the tough nature of manufacturing an nearly feature-length tv episode, it is not stunning that Cheyenne continued to reuse lots of the identical actors in minor or supporting roles. In any case, Cheyenne was sure to fulfill related of us throughout the West as he wandered out and in of each new city and county.

As beforehand talked about, Clint Walker solely appeared in all however one in every of Cheyenne‘s 108 episodes. That is as a result of Cheyenne‘s Season 6 finale, “A Man Named Ragan,” follows, nicely, a person named Marshall Frank Ragan (performed by Larry Ward). If that identify sounds acquainted, it is likely to be as a result of this episode was truly the pilot for the 1962 Western collection The Dakotas, which, for some purpose, was aired as an episode of Cheyenne initially. The Dakotas solely ran one season, and sadly, we by no means bought to see Cheyenne Bodie and Frank Ragan work collectively on the American frontier. Perhaps in cowboy heaven, that crossover is a actuality.

‘Cheyenne’ Spun-off Into ‘Bronco’ After a Main Pay Dispute

Talking of crossover, The Dakotas wasn’t the one present that spun off from Cheyenne throughout its in style run. The Western series usually ranked within the Prime 20 of all tv broadcasts on the time (particularly throughout its center seasons), and due to its consistency in viewership, Warner Bros. and ABC have been capable of launch a brand-new collection beneath the Cheyenne banner—although the circumstances behind mentioned launch weren’t too nice. In 1959, simply earlier than Cheyenne‘s third season, Clint Walker grew to become disillusioned along with his contract (the studio was forcing him to sit back half of his in-person look earnings to them) and left Warner Bros. It was a daring transfer, particularly since this identical contract prevented the Western star from working elsewhere, and ultimately, in 1959, he returned to Cheyenne. “I’m like a caged animal,” he told the media. It wasn’t however a couple of extra years earlier than Walker was freed, and Cheyenne ended after seven seasons.

However throughout Clint Walker’s absence, Warner Bros. was pressured to maintain the present going, they usually did so by launching Bronco. Ty Hardin starred because the titular Bronco Layne, a former Accomplice who wandered about the Old West in the identical approach Cheyenne Bodie did. Underneath the Cheyenne banner, Bronco did nicely for itself, even with out Clint Walker taking part in the unique title function. For some time, Hardin’s Bronco adventures have been technically episodes of Cheyenne, however when Walker returned to his authentic collection, the community and studio retroactively made Bronco its personal entity. It wasn’t lengthy after that earlier than ABC opted to show Cheyenne right into a Western franchise, making The Cheyenne Present an anthology-ish collection that both adopted Walker’s Cheyenne Bodie, Hardin’s Bronco Layne, or Will Hutchins‘ Tom “Sugarfoot” Brewster of Sugarfoot fame. Solely as soon as did all three seem on digital camera on the identical time, and that was within the Cheyenne episode “Duel at Judas Basin,” the place the three Western heroes teamed as much as cease a dealer from promoting firearms to an area Indian tribe. Nevertheless, we should always be aware that Bronco and Sugarfoot reunited for the Bronco episode “Yankee Twister” a couple of months later, they usually had labored collectively twice earlier than on Sugarfoot.

Unusually sufficient, lengthy earlier than cinematic universes have been a serious deal in Hollywood, the Cheyenne model prolonged past simply these three exhibits and The Dakotas. Walker’s Cheyenne, Hardin’s Bronco, and Hutchins’ Sugarfoot all appeared within the 1960 Maverick episode “Hadley’s Hunters,” which additionally featured characters from Lawman, 77 Sundown Strip, and even referenced exhibits like Colt .45 and The Insurgent. Plus, an episode of Bronco (“Freeze-Out”) ties The Virginian into the canon as nicely. This makes a complete of ten Western tv productions that technically exist throughout the identical historic geography (extra should you rely all of the productions that tied to The Virginian in some unspecified time in the future, similar to its spin-off Laredo). If solely we might get trendy Westerns like Longmire, Justified, Joe Pickett, and even perhaps Yellowstone to do one thing related today…

Clint Walker Returned as Cheyenne Bodie for a Few Events

On December 17, 1962, simply earlier than Christmas, Cheyenne Bodie appeared for the ultimate time within the Cheyenne episode “Showdown at Oxbend.” A regular Cheyenne hour, our hero throws himself between two sides of a spread battle and helps resolve this battle the one approach he is aware of how. When the episode concludes, Cheyenne rides out of city, waving goodbye to each the folks of the Outdated West and the viewers who watched him for the higher a part of a decade. “So lengthy, of us,” he cries as he rides out on his wagon. However one way or the other, even this wasn’t the top for good previous Cheyenne Bodie. Almost thirty years later, Clint Walker returned to the display as Cheyenne for the Kenny Rogers made-for-TV film The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw.

Different Western TV stars, similar to Hugh O’Mind‘s conventional tackle Wyatt Earp from The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford (taking part in Lucas and Mark McCain) from The Rifleman, James Drury and Doug McClure (taking part in the Virginian and Trampas) from The Virginian and even David Carradine‘s Kwai Chang Caine from Kung Fu all made appearances additionally. Likewise, Have Gun-Will Travel is referenced within the movie, thus increasing this Western world even additional. To make issues even weirder, Kung Fu was revived within the Nineties via the sequel collection Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. Whereas the unique Kung Fu occurred within the 1800s American West, the sequel collection was a recent manufacturing. So, how does Cheyenne match into all this? Two phrases that would fit better in a Weird Western than a conventional one: time journey. Within the 1995 Season 3 episode “Gunfighters,” Kwai Chang Caine (nonetheless performed by Carradine) works with an older Cheyenne Bodie to defeat a person terrorizing their city earlier than he swaps locations along with his future grandson (additionally named Kwai Chang Caine), who then does the Back to the Future Part III factor prior to now with Cheyenne.

Although Cheyenne Bodie, who remains to be as booming and mild as ever, is not a lot concerned with the time journey side, it is enjoyable to see Clint Walker again within the saddle. This could find yourself being Walker’s ultimate on-screen function as an actor earlier than retirement (although he voiced Nick Nitro in Small Troopers), which is a really becoming finish to a longstanding profession as a Western icon. Whereas Cheyenne won’t be as nicely generally known as many different Western TV classics, it’s influential. The community and studios’ courageous determination to make a daily hour-long Western drama led to lots of our favorites right this moment.

Cheyenne might be bought on DVD by way of Amazon.

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