RAWHIDE - S3 ? (1 Viewer)

[michael_ks]

Indeed it is! I've been nervous ever since HGWT was abandoned. After what you wrote in this thread earlier about the Charles Marquis Warren years (S1-3) it's great to know that we'll at the very least be getting all of the ones he produced. (And "Incident at Dragoon Crossing" is in this set!).

The timing of the release is welcome too--just before the annual June "Deep Discount" sale.

I'm still savoring S2 vol. 2 and just viewed the excellent "Incident of the Silent Web". First episode where someone other than Mr. Fleming, who was absent in this segment barks the familiar line at the tag of the show: "Head 'em up...move 'em out!" (But it just didn't have the same effect when Rowdy did it).

 

[Gary OS]

Fantastic news! Like Michael, I was definitely worried about the status of RAWHIDE. This has been such a great series for me to revisit, almost being a blind buy because I hadn't watched it since the early 70's when I was a wee lad. The writing and acting have been top notch. And the atmosphere this show generates with it's cinematography is truly unbelievable. I highly recommend this western series to any and all vintage television fans.

Gary "counting down the days till this release" O.

 

[michael_ks]

Just thought I'd relay a roster of some notables that appear in this 15 episode set:

Julie London, Michael Pate, Harold J. Stone, Peter Lorre, Agnes Moorehead, Albert Salmi, Mercedes McCambridge, Vic Perrin, Dick York, E.G. Marshall, Robert Culp, Paul Carr, Stafford Repp, Dabs Greer and... “Rawhide” theme singer Frankie Laine, no less.

Always nice to see Robert Culp and Albert Salmi in guest spots, two exceptionally talented actors that have given me much enjoyment over the years. Vic Perrin is the voice of "Outer Limits", Dabs Greer played a great snarky cop in "The Fugitive" ('Fear in a Desert City') and Stafford Repp played 'Chief O' Hara' in "Batman".

Too bad "Derwood" doesn't appear in the same episode with Ms. Moorehead. ("Endora, this cattle drive just isn't big enough for the two of us...!")


Gary, for that reason, whenever I purchase a 50" plasma set, this will likely be the first series I pop in the DVD player.

 

[Doug^Ch]

I would truly be a happy camper with more Rawhide, and Gunsmoke being planned, if the studio could only release the remaining seasons of Have Gun Will Travel. I think the quality of those remaining seasons may be even be better than what has already been released.

 

[michael_ks]

Everytime an announcement is made for "Rawhide" I always lament Paramount's giving up on HGWT, which I'd love to see finished.

I'd always heard that for season by season quality HGWT ranks out roughly as: 2,1,4,5,3,6--but of course fans will dicker. For "Rawhide", from what I gather from input on posters here, is that it's basically 1,2...8.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

LOL, truly a missed opportunity.

Of course, Dick York made a return appearance on RAWHIDE, in the Season 6 episode, "Incident at Confidence Creek" (1963), where he's paired up with...Barbara Eden!

Seven episodes earlier in Season 6, Elizabeth Montgomery appeared in "Incident at El Crucero". Though Agnes Moorehead doesn't appear in either episode, perhaps Endora was influencing things.

 

[silverking]

Well I'm a little surprised but delighted Rawhide is continuing. I had convinced myself that it would be abandoned.

As for the episodes in this new batch I don't think anyone will be disappointed as content wise, they maintain the standard of previous issues.Of particular interest is 'Incident of the Slavemaster' with the great Peter Lorre, 'Incident on the Road to Yesterday' with none other than Frankie Laine, the aforementioned 'Incident at Dragoon Crossing', 'Incident At the Top of the World' which, unusual for the time deals with drug addiction & two episodes in which they finally come to the end of the drive. 'Incident Near the Promised Land' & 'Incident of the Big Blowout'.

It would be some time yet before Rawhide 'jumped the shark' if it ever really did ,as even amongst the occasional dull segments there were always a few choice gems.

Like everyone else not keen on half seasons, but it appears this is the way it is going & I can live with it. Maybe Paramount might consider HGWT's remaining seasons in the same format ?

Keep em Rollin' Paramount !

 

[jdee28]

I think Rawhide jumped the shark in the seventh season when they brought aboard Bruce Geller and Bernard Kowalski as producers. For whatever reason, they basically deconstructed the program, turning it into an almost self-conscious parody of itself and the genre. They also destroyed the Gil Favor character, perhaps as a means to get Eric Fleming out of there. But before that, Rawhide was pretty solid, in seasons 4-6.

 

[Guy Foulard]

FYI, Season Two, vol 1 and 2 are now both on sale at Amazon for $20.99 each (46% off). Cheaper than the combined set!

Nice prices on some other Western shows, too.

 

[Hank Dearborn]

So, as someone who is pretty unfamiliar with the show, you would say that after 3rd season there are 3 more pretty good seasons after that and then 7 & 8 are not really all that important, in terms of having the really good episodes.

Right now, just going by the shows I've paid attention to, it seems like HGWT and Taxi and the only 2 series that Paramount has abandoned in the middle. That's unfortunate but it's still a far better track record than any other major has.

 

[Stephen Bowie]

As long as I'm back on board the HTF for the moment, let me chime in here with a dissenting opinion, because this thread was bugging me. I think the Bruce Geller-Bernie Kowalski episodes of RAWHIDE were absolutely brilliant -- I mean, mind-boggling, revolutionary, the whole deal. I can see how they outraged the traditional Roy Rogers-type western fans at the time, but if you're a fan of imaginative, ahead-of-their-time genre-bending stories, these are among the best of the era, comparable to Peckinpah's THE WESTERNER or Serling's THE LONER (or DEADWOOD). I'm confident that if Paramount manages to keep the DVD releases going that long, those episodes will be properly reevaluated.

As for what's been released on DVD so far, I've found all the first and second season RAWHIDEs I've seen to be mediocre to poor -- threadbare, padded outings very much in the 50s B western mode (other than the pilot, which does have a lot of action & production value). It improves a bit in the third through sixth seasons and gets almost onto a GUNSMOKE level of quality, after they booted some of the hacks and attracted a few really terrific top TV writers as regular contributors: Charles Larson ("The Little Fishes"), Jack Turley ("Incident at Confidence Creek"), Gene L. Coon (the amazing "Incident of the Dogfaces").

 

[jdee28]

For me, what made Rawhide special in its first few seasons was its gritty, realistic feel, its raw portrayal of the elemental struggle between man, his environment, and other men. Stuff like "Incident of the Coyote Weed"; "Incident of the Dog Days"; "Incident at Jacob's Well"; "Incident of the Haunted Hills"; "Incident of the Blue Fire"; "Incident at River Station." I hadn't quite seen stuff like this before, played to this level.

Charles Marquis Warren was the driving force behind this. After he left, the series went through a number of producers, each of whom had a different approach to the show, desperate to recapture ever shrinking ratings. In the event, Warren's original vision for Rawhide as relatively realistic was diluted to the point in the seventh season where new producers Geller & Kowalski came in and threw everything out the window. I wouldn't have minded as much if they had showed more of a respect to the show's history. But instead, Favor's a raving lunatic; herds are bought, sold, and lost at the drop of a hat, with no more than one or two men ever guarding them; the cattle drive is a joke; we even get an episode where Mushy loses everything, is fired, and is then kidnapped & sold into slavery, to be rescued by a new girlfriend ("A Man Called Mushy").

As for the eighth season, it's more a curiosity piece then anything. They try to go back to pre-seventh season sort of stuff. Eastwood acts a little more like the Man with No Name than the Rowdy we've seen before. It featured a re-mix of the theme song over a new semi-animated opening. The credits were super-imposed over rough pen-drawings of the characters and cattle. The last rough drawing in the opening was one of Eastwood with the kind of cigar he'd smoke in the Leone films, but never did on Rawhide. It was still a little hard to take soft-spoken Rowdy as trail boss, but I wouldn't have minded seeing this version of the show last more than 13 episodes. There are a couple of interesting additions, like a black drover and another who is a young Englishman.

In sum, this doesn't mean that episodes in the later years aren't great. It's just to me, what made Rawhide really stand out above other shows from the era, its existential struggle between man and the elements, isn't there as much.

 

[BobSchneider]

I have to be honest and I am kind of mystify by all the adulation over rawhide. I bought complete season one set on a blind buy and stop watching after the fifth episode because as another post mention its B movie shooting (power lines and air planes), dull stories and a very uneven acting and eastwood's rowdy flips between the high plans drifter and gomer pile, for me the only real high light was the opening credits/theme. Maybe the show picks up later in season one , but honestly Im baffled why people remember this show so fondly?:frowning: I am going to revisited Rawhide after Im though with the Man from UNCLE series set I got and give it another try , two shows I bought blind and love was Wanted Dead or Alive and Have Gun Will Travel. Although I have to say the dvd capture on the second half S2 HGWT is really horrid (aleast my set maybe defective) ,I love the stores but any episode in the second half of s2 (episode 15 on out) that envolves allot of night scenes is so grain and washed out its almost unwatchable. I think cbs low rent captures on the second half s2 and even worse captures on s3 is what kill HGWT sales and lead to its abandoment by cbs. I am going to revisit Rawhide later this year but so far Im still curious what all the hub bub is about.

 

[JamesC1]

Well I think Rawhide is excellent, I can watch it over and over again. My dad also loves watching it as well as Gunsmoke and Cheyenne. I’ve never noticed power lines and air planes, I watch the Characters not the sky.

 

[BobSchneider]

Ive still got the season one set, Im going to give it another shot, maybe after watching the fast paced HGWT and WDOA it clouded my jugdement on rawhide? We'll see

 

[michael_ks]

Interesting. It's entirely the realism of setting and situations, the character driven stories, the period sounding dialogue and most importantly the de-emphasis on steoreotypically drawn Indians and gun play that IMO places this series head and shoulders above the 'shoot-em-up' B serials.

 

[Doug^Ch]

Anyone watching this one yet? I've seen the first three episodes of Season 3 and I have to say the show keeps getting better and better. Some of these episodes really transcend the entire Western genre - just brilliant. I really hope these Rawhide releases keep coming.

 

[Bob Hug]

I'm a bit behind on this series, just recently started watching season 2, volume 1, but I have to say that it is fast becoming my favorite Western series. It may be a while, but I'll eventually pick up season 3.

 

[Jeff Willis]

Same for me. I'm about 1/3 into the S2V1 set. So far, this one's really held up great over the years. I haven't seen any of these since the 60's airings.

Mike, that's a good analagy about this show being able to "capture" the viewer and make it seem like you're along on those trail drives with the show.

These early seasons are basically like a first-time view for me since I remember the later ones more clearly when Dad and I watched the show together.

 

[Gary OS]

I'm in the same boat, Jeff. I have very vague memories of watching this one in the early 70's when I was in grade school, but somehow it had escaped me in reruns until the dvds started coming out. So it's pretty much like first time viewing for me. And like some of the other folks here, I have to say it's now my favorite western of all time.

I purposely held off purchasing Season 3, V. 1 only because I knew that the Deep Discount Sale would be coming in early June and I could save a little if I was willing to wait a few weeks. I should have it in hand within the next couple of weeks because the sale should be coming very, very soon (HINT).

Gary "this has become one of my favorite series of all time!" O.