Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Rawhide
- Commentary: Under construction.
Rawhide was not a show I, personally, watched when it was first run TV. During almost it's entire run (minus episodes in Season 1 shot in 1959) I lived outside of the U.S. It wasn't until I was in late high school and college that TV was a thing where I lived and, even then, we were exposed to nothing like the full array of what had been available to U.S. denizens for years and years. I can't even remember if this series ever even aired on our TV "network". It may not have.
I'm not sure what possessed me but a bit less than a year ago I decided to type the name into my search engine and, low and behold, it came up on Amazon. For free viewing. So, I settled in and found myself surprised by not only the stories but the production values. I was so pleased with its quality that I even contacted one of my sisters to tell her how much I was enjoying the show. I didn't binge. Somehow, I assumed it would be available forever. Wrong. When I went back to it after maybe four or five episodes, it had switched to a streaming service not available to me (I subscribe to almost no streaming services, especially if they require a fee for access). So, off and on, when I think of it, I've been checking to see if it's appearing on any of the very few services to which I have access. I have also been periodically checking for a reasonably priced full-season set of the show. Once again, this afternoon, I was checking and discovered that the series was coming up on Amazon at the same price, check after check, that it had been since I started looking. So, I decided, well, the price isn't dropping, but it isn't rising, either, so, yeah, I think I'll order it. It will be arriving soon.
I remember, when I contacted my sister after watching a few free episodes I told her that I thought serious (i.e., not comedy) story telling appeared to be much better, in the writing, acting and production, when we were kids than it seems to be, now. Of course, I was not exposed to much TV in my youth, since it mostly wasn't available at home. So, I wasn't really "trained" in any style of TV storytelling. Which is probably why I collect movies, almost exclusively. I was exposed to more movies (and even of those, not many) than I was TV shows, at least enough to "learn the language" of movie watching. So, this show, and many others, fell through the cracks for me. I'm not of the mind to collect any more shows that I might have watched had I not been located elsewhere than the U.S. I find it interesting, though, that perhaps the quality of television story telling was quite a bit better in my youth than it is now. But, then again, I don't watch much TV now, either.
Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Actor Role Eric Fleming Gil Favor Clint Eastwood Rowdy Yates Sheb Wooley Pete Nolan Paul Brinegar George Washington "Wishbone" Haggerty Robert Cabal Hey Soos Patines James Murdock Harkness "Mushy" Mushgrove III Steve Raines Jim Quince Rocky Shahan Joe Scarlet
The only actors listed above are regulars. Even then, I listed less than half of them. I didn't even try to set up a list of guest stars, as everyone and their dogs (likely) who were actors at some point guest starred in this series. It is a bit of low-brow fun, in fact, to watch episode after episode and notice yet another familiar face playing an isolated role in an episode.
Here's a link to the Wikipedia write-up of the film.
Release Date: 1/59 - 12/65
Directed by Various.
Labels: clint-eastwood, TV3, western
