Television Genres

Since the beginning of television, Westerns have been playing on the small screen. From the mid-1950s until the early 1960s, they were one of TV's most popular genres, with millions of viewers tuning in to such popular shows as Rawhide, Gunsmoke, and Disney's Davy Crockett. Though the cultural revolution of the later 1960s contributed to the demise of traditional Western programs, the Western never actually disappeared from TV. Instead, it took on new forms, such as the highly popular Lonesome Dove and Deadwood, while exploring the lives of characters who never before had a starring role, including anti-heroes, mountain men, farmers, Native and African Americans, Latinos, and women. ...

This intriguing book is a study of the rise and fall of an American genre of entertainment and communication whose symbols and rhetoric helped define American society for decades. Flourishing in the 1950s and 1960s, the television Western has deteriorated to the point where it is now irrelevant and meaningless. Tracing the evolution of the Western from the late 1940s to the 1980s, the author ties the genre to the political innocence and confidence of the Cold War years and suggests that the social reevaluations that began in the 1960s undermined the believability of Westerns and their entertainment value. ...

This reference work is an authoritative chronicle of prime time television programming on 20 major cable networks: A&E, ABC Family, AMC, BET, Bravo, Comedy Central, The Disney Channel, FX, GSN, HBO, Lifetime, MTV, Nickelodeon, Oxygen, Showtime, Spike, TBS, TNT, USA and VH1. These 20 represent the mass-oriented cable networks that have been most involved in airing original programming. ...

The western is one of the most popular genres in American film history, and some estimate more than 20,000 of them have been produced. Its popular portrayal of the American West, as a place where good and evil are clearly defined, created heroes that are still among the most respected and remembered in film history. ...

This has a chapter on the rise and fall of television westerns.

This work features interviews with 51 leading ladies who starred in B-westerns, A-westerns, and television westerns. Some were well-known and others were not, but they all have fascinating stories to tell and they talk candidly about their careers and the many difficulties that went along with their jobs. ...

Weird Westerns is an exploration of the hybrid western genre--an increasingly popular and visible form that mixes western themes, iconography, settings, and conventions with elements drawn from other genres, such as science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Despite frequent declarations of the western's death, the genre is now defined in part by its zombie-like ability to survive in American popular culture in weird, reanimated, and reassembled forms. ...

This is the cover story about TV Westerns in Time Magazine.

Use this index to find articles about this TV genre.

The online version of 3 separate ISI indexes: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Science Citation Index and, Social Sciences Citation Index.

This collection includes one show from each of twelve different TV westerns, 1949-1960

In the old west, Annie Oakley is the sheriff's niece in the small frontier town of Diablo. Her brother, Tag, is constantly getting himself and Annie into trouble. The sheriff's deputy, Lofty Craig, is Annie's "love interest."

Cheyenne was a big man, a former army scout who went west after the American Civil War and drifted from job to job, here a cowboy, there a lawman, and always a larger-than-life hero.

Set in 1876 in the Black Hills of South Dakota after the richest gold strike in American history has drawn a throng of misfits to an outlaw settlement where everyone has a price. Tells the story of the settlers, who range from an ex-lawman to a scheming saloon owner to the legendary Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.

The first 17 episodes of the popular and critically acclaimed series about Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn and her new life in Colorado Springs in the 1860s. Featuring stories of courage, conviction and romance on the American frontier.

Follow the adventures of singing cowboy Gene Autry, his wonder horse Champion, and his sidekick Pat. Each unique show has Gene's trademark mixture of action, comedy, and singing. It also features a wide range of guests. The complete Season 1 of Gene Autry's landmark TV series is brought home in fully-restored and uncut episodes from Autry's personal film and TV archive.

The dark-garbed Hopalong Cassidy was a wildly popular matinee idol of the '30s and '40s and one of the most iconic cowboy heroes of all time. Astride his white steed Topper with a black, 10-gallon hat perched on his head Hopalong (so named for a limp caused by a bullet wound) made a striking figure. Includes all 52 TV episodes-as well as a special bonus of 10 of Hoppalong's finest movies from the pinnacle of his film career-digitally remastered and sound enhanced.

19 episodes from one of television's classic westerns.

The tale of Gil Favor, the trail boss, as he drives cattle across the old West. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.

Follows the exploits of Vint Bonner, a retired gunfighter and restless drifter who wanders the Southwest in search of adventure.

The TV series that launched the career of Steve McQueen. Josh Randall was not a typical rough-hewn bounty hunter of the Old West; he was a consummate gentleman who always gave his reward money to charity. All 36 episodes of season one.