Rawhide (TV series)
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Rawhide is a television western series which aired on the American network CBS from 1959 to 1966. The show starred Eric Fleming and launched the career of Clint Eastwood.
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[edit] The series
The series ran for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 episodes, all filmed and broadcast in black and white. It was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. Warren based Rawhide on the movie Cattle Empire that he directed in 1958 and for which Endre Bohem was a screenwriter and Paul Brinegar, Steve Raines and Rocky Shahan were actors; all also worked in Rawhide. Its premiere episode reached the top 20 in the Nielsen Ratings. It rose steadily in popularity until, towards the end of the series run, it was one of America's top ten shows[citation needed]. Rawhide was the fourth longest-running American TV western, beaten only by nine years of The Virginian and Wagon Train, fourteen years of Bonanza, and twenty years of Gunsmoke.
[edit] The plot
In the ninth episode, it was given that there were twenty riders looking after 3,000 head of cattle. Probably average figures for a cattle drive. The typical Rawhide story involved drovers, portrayed by Eric Fleming (Trail Boss Gil Favor) and Clint Eastwood (ramrod Rowdy Yates), coming upon people on the trail and getting drawn into solving whatever problem they presented or were confronting. Sometimes one of the members of the cattle drive or some of the others would venture into a nearby town and encounter some trouble or other from which they needed to be rescued. Some of the stories were obviously easier in production terms but the peak form of the show was convincing and naturalistic, and sometimes brutal. Its situations could range from parched plains to anthrax, ghostly riders to wolves, cattle raiding, bandits, murderers, and so forth. In some ways it was similar to the TV series Wagon Train that debuted in 1957.
[edit] Cameos and regular cast members
Regular cast members included:
- Paul Brinegar as the cook, George Washington Wishbone
- Robert Cabal as the wrangler, Jesús "Hey Soos" Patines
- James Murdock as the cook's assistant, Harkness "Mushy" Mushgrove
- Steve Raines as rider Jim Quince
- Rocky Shahan as rider Joe Scarlet
- Sheb Wooley as scout Pete Nolan
- John Ireland as Jed Colby
- Raymond St. Jacques as rider Simon Blake.
Guest stars included: Claude Akins, Eddie Albert, Michael Ansara, Mary Astor, Frankie Avalon, John Drew Barrymore, James Best, Charles Bronson, McDonald Carey, Lon Chaney, Jr., Elisha Cook, Jr., Broderick Crawford, Linda Cristal, Robert Culp, Royal Dano, Troy Donahue, Brian Donlevy, Dan Duryea, Buddy Ebsen, Barbara Eden, Leif Erickson, Beverly Garland, Charles Herbert, Earl Holliman, Alan Hale, Jr., Dwayne Hickman, Rick Jason, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Ruta Lee, Jack Lord, Jock Mahoney, Mercedes McCambridge, Burgess Meredith, Robert Middleton, Vera Miles, Martin Milner, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Oates, Susan Oliver, J. Pat O'Malley, Cesar Romero, Marion Ross, Harry Dean Stanton, Barbara Stanwyck, Bob Steele, Woody Strode, Lee Van Cleef, Chill Wills, Ed Wynn, & Dick York.
[edit] Theme song
The theme song's lyrics were written by Ned Washington in 1958. It was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and sung by pop singer Frankie Laine. The theme song became very popular. It was covered several times and parts of the song also appear in more recent movies like The Blues Brothers and Shrek.
[edit] Clint Eastwood's career
As stated earlier, Rawhide launched the career of Clint Eastwood, who went on to star in many feature films and also become an Oscar-winning director and producer. Eastwood began the "Dollars Trilogy" western movie series (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) in 1964 while on summer hiatus from Rawhide, bringing the same boots, shirt and gun grips with him that he wore on the series. He got the role after practically every other cowboy actor in Hollywood had turned it down.[citation needed]
[edit] Fleming's career
Eric Fleming (real name Edward Heddy, July 4, 1925 - September 28, 1966) drowned while filming the adventure series High Jungle for MGM-TV in Peru [1].
[edit] Popularity after the fact
Rawhide gained some unusual popularity following the release of the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd movie The Blues Brothers. The show's theme song was performed by the blues band at a country bar instead of a blues club.
[edit] DVD Releases
Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing Rawhide on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Thus far they have released the first 2 seasons, Season 3, Volume 1 will be released on May 27, 2008.
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 23 | July 25, 2006 |
| Season 2, Volume 1 | 16 | May 29, 2007 |
| Season 2, Volume 2 | 16 | December 18, 2007 |
| Season 3, Volume 1 | 15 | May 27, 2008 |
[edit] External links
- Rawhide at the Internet Movie Database
- Rawhide at FiftiesWeb.com
- Rawhide at TV.com
