Rawhide (TV series)

"Rawhide" was a television western series that aired on the U.S. network CBS from 1959 to 1966. The show starred Eric Fleming and launched the career of Clint Eastwood.

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 showsFact|date=February 2007. "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".

The plot

In an early show, the date is given as 1869. It is given that there are twenty riders looking after 3,000 head of cattle. Gil Favor revealed this is about the maximum manageable size for a herd of cows. This cattle drive begins in San Antonio, Texas, and makes its way along the Sedalia Trail (Sedalia, the final destination, is in Missouri about 50 miles east from Kansas City). The herd is estimated to be worth about $50-60,000 if sold at market and represents a pool of animals from 200 owners. The Trail Boss carries a considerable sum of cash for all necessities and all possible emergencies. Pay was a dollar a day and often the drovers would go through six months pay in days at the end of the trail, often gambling and drinking all of it away. There were also women. Riding "drag" was often a punishment since it was behind the herd, so you'd pick up all their dust.

The episode would be introduced, usually by some words from Gil Favor but sometimes by others. 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. Rowdy Yates was a young hothead in the earliest episodes and Favour had to keep a tight rein on him. Favor was often a hard man and there were a few times when people including Yates mutinied under him after working too hard or after a good tongue lashing. He had to fight some times and mostly but not always, won. 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.

The series was not afraid to face tough issues. Robert Culp played an ex-soldier on the drive who had become dangerously addicted to morphine. Jesus (Hey Soos) being Mexican faced racism a number of times. There was still anger left over from the Civil War which had ended only four years earlier. The Poco Tiempo episode reveals that Rowdy's father's name was Dan, that Rowdy came from S.W. Texas and that he went off to war at 16. Trail Boss Favor had been a Confederate Captain in the war. There were still Indians about, though often not that wild, some still wanted cattle as payment for going through their land. There were some rough-tough people in the shows and Gil Favor was tortured by having his face held near a fire in one episode. In another, people had "the plague" and guns were used to enforce quarantine. Though towns liked the drover's money, they did not like them coming into town in numbers and getting drunk. There was also cattle rustlers in many different forms.

In episode 67 "Incident Near the Promised Land", the cattle drive finally reached Sedalia (for the first time in the series). Unusually, episode 68 continues on from that, where the cattle have been sold and the men celebrate in town and decide on their futures with even Favor thinking of leaving the business. Instead of the usual ending where Gil Favor tells his men to: "Head 'em up! Move 'em out!" and the cattle move off, this episode had the end titles over a view of a Sedalia Street. Episode 69 sees Gil Favor visiting his two daughters, Gillian and Maggie who live with their Aunt Elena in Philadelphia. Episode 70 and a number of the men are back together and heading back to San Antonio about 650 miles away, with a herd of horses (used in the titles instead of cattle). Episode 71 sees a new cattle drive ready to go but the owner of 1600 of the cattle wants to be in charge so Favor reluctantly signs on as a ramrod, but after some problems, Favor is boss against the end of the show. These five episodes made up one storyline instead of the usual single episode stories which could have been set anywhere in the West.

Cowboys

Of all the western characters on TV, these were the only real cowboys, because they drove cows. There were also sheep boys who drove sheep, pig boys who looked after pigs, etc. The name "cowboys" became a generic name in western films and TV series.

Cameos and regular cast members

Regular cast members included:
* Paul Brinegar as the cantankerous cook, George Washington Wishbone
* Robert Cabal as the wrangler, Jesús "Hey Soos" Patines
* James Murdock as the cook's unfortunate assistant, Harkness "Mushy" Mushgrove III
* 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.
* Charles Gray as Clay Forester

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, Frankie Laine, 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.

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". Also a cover version for Volvo 700 Series promotional video.

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 of Rowdy Yates after practically every other cowboy actor in Hollywood had turned it down.Fact|date=February 2007

Fleming's career

Eric Fleming (real name Edward Heddy, July 4, 1925 - September 28, 1966) died in a drowning accident while filming the adventure series "High Jungle" for MGM-TV in Peru [http://www.classicscifi.com/index.php?option=com_csfactor&Itemid=40&actor=Eric+Flemming] .

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.

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 was released on May 27, 2008.

External links

*imdb title|0052504|Rawhide
* [http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tv/rawhide.htm "Rawhide"] at FiftiesWeb.com
* [http://www.tv.com/rawhide/show/1063/summary.html/ "Rawhide"] at TV.com