There's nothing on TV even remotely resembling one either anymore. Anybody remember "The Yellow Rose" with Sam Elliott & Cybill Shepherd? A short lived TV show but Elliott played kind of a good cowboy character. Show was a little goofy though.
Another good Elliott movie was "You Know My Name" based on a true story I think about a turn of the century lawman, Bill Tilghman (spelling?).
Plus we forgot the John Ford cavalry trilogy: Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, & Rio Grande. And Stagecoach. Ok I could go on for hours...

Ranchroper...Yep, I do remember the Yellow Rose...only 'soap' I ever watched...used to take a break just to grab a coffee, watch it, then back to the barn. I liked Will Sampson in that too. Sam Elliot's been good in about anything he's done. And it looks like it's a good thing you asked for a short list of favorites...this topic would be 8 or 9 pages long by now. Too damn bad Hollywood's seemed to have given up on the westerns. Just goes to show you, they don't get it.

Well let's all hope that Selleck gets another one in the can before too long. Jeez, the guy's 60 already, and other than him & Duvall there just ain't anybody coming up thru the ranks. I don't think I'll be paying to see any J-Lo or Adam Sandler oaters anytime soon...

I'd like to see Sam and Tom team back up for a western. They haven't worked together since Shadow Riders (I think). I have a few ideas for movies if any of you have connections. One would be a remake of Smoky but staying true to the book. The other is based on Charlie Russel paintings I'd call it Charlie's Boys. Paul

I heard or read somewhere that Selleck was suspose to do a remake of " The Culpepper Cattle Company " for TNT. It's been about a year ago, so who knows whats going on with that project. As to current westerns, Sam Shepard ( a fine western actor in his own right ) is in a new movie about Jessie James. Sam's playing Frank James.

Ranchroper, I'll bet we have got the same John Wayne movies. They are fun to watch. They are the ones from Lone Star Pictures. They sure do wreck horses in those things, though, with trip wires and running W's. I have got a set of DVD's with about 25 movies on them. I got it at some flea market for 5 bucks. The rest of my westerns came from different places. I can't make myself spend the money on a satellite dish when I am only interested in the Western Channel. Lucky for me, old Westerns are real cheap to get a hold of!

Yup, that's the same John Wayne's I have. I'm the same way, the only satellite station I want is the western channel, but you have to buy all this other junk too.
I also have a few old Tim McCoy, Buck Jones, Tim Holt & Wild Bill Elliott B-westerns too. The B-western is a whole other topic. If I'm in the right frame of mind I really enjoy those old B's. Gangsters, cowboys, Indians, cars, stage coaches, nightclubs...all in the same town.

The Duke is the king of the western in my opinion.
Three favorite westerns; The Cowboys, Two Mules for Sister Sarah, and High Plains Drifter. Clint Eastwood has to be in the top ten actors in westerns.

What about the small screen: Bonanza, High Chapparal, the Monroes.

Opinions on Brokeback Mountain, couldn't bring myself to go see it; just not my image of the Western man.

Figured Brokeback Mtn would come up sooner or later. I have not seen it, not for me thanks.

Don't have a problem with the theme, but when they start calling sheepherders cowboys, that's where I draw the line...

nor i
i think it is a personal and moral afront. some of the dude ranches are saying that there is a huge interest in wyoming all of a sudden and they are booking lots of people for this summer. kinda stupid that a movie about gay, sheepherding "cowboys" supposedly in wyoming but really in canada is actually bringing people to wyoming.
liam

romans 1:26-32

Well, here it is...this is the topic I was going to post, but figured it would rile some folks, so I was thinking hard about it. I guess this is my opportunity.

Judging from the content of most posts under this topic, we all like to see movies portray the cowboy, or at least the western figure as upstanding, independent, tough, but sensitive to the point of defending the weak against wrongs, and I guess in short, doing his best to stay true to a code of life that includes having some morals & values...call it the cowboy code, or code of the west, if you like. When we have to look hard nowdays to find representations of all that coming out of Hollywood, hoping to find a good, morally uplifting movie that'll help keep the way of life most of us would like to see still survive, this is what they give us, Brokeback Mountain. And push it down our throats, with award hype, & a threat of being homophobic, or at least, politically incorrect.

Well, I'm probably the most conservative, politically incorrect s.o.b. I know, & try to live up to values I was taught that made this country strong enough to survive everything it has so far. I won't never condone gay bashing, but I also get my back up when I'm forced into the kind of moral bankruptcy that says I have to accept a perversion as normal, or, that "God made me this way." Excuse me, not the God of my Bible, thank you very much.

I had to walk out of the western store on another break when two wannabe's came in & started arguing in feminine voices over which hat they were each going to buy, according to the ones the characters wore in that movie. For certain. Made me want to puke.

Thanks to this movie, this is where our code, our traditional way of life, & what we used to stand up for is going.

I'm not apologizing if I offended anyone; if so, it's your own fault. I just can't tolerate a gay cowboy movie. It's offensive & insulting to the folks who still work cattle & horses mostly for the love of the job. But then, maybe I'm just ranting on for nothing. After all, I heard those two in the movie never did work cattle, they were sheep herders, I guess.

With a few exceptions, Hollywood's blown it real big when it comes to giving the general public the cowboy image. This time, & I'm afraid, for more to come, they've found a new way to help us & a heritage disappear.

[ April 16, 2006, 11:32 PM: Message edited by: MIWrangler ]

Amen to that.

Great post MIWRANGLER, I agree with you 100%. I'm tired of those perverts out in Hollywood trying to brainwash the public into condoning this kind of crap. They have made gay's acceptable on TV by working them in as funny, lovable friends on the sitcoms, must folks just accept it and think nothing of it anymore. Not in my house.

I dont know about the rest of you but i actually cheered out loud (at church) when a friend told me gay bashers of texas kill one of the queers in that movie!

Anybody else from wyoming leave the state after that queer movie came out and get asked if they were gay? I dont watch cowboy movies (i dont really like movies), i prefer to read books and paint my own picture of what things were like. I always keep a copy of lonesome dove around (it was my saddle bag book, but the bags i used finnally broke).

I like what MIWrangler said, and if someones offended by me not liking gay people, dont tell me, because ill have a few choice words and a poem for you.

I think we're all agreed, BB Mtn is not worth discussion in this forum.

Someone mentioned TV shows: I would say Rawhide has to be the one I liked best.

Yeah, Rawhide was one of my favorites as well. I also liked Stoney Burke and a show I believe it was called The Wheelers. Seems like my old buddy Jack Elam was in it. However my favorite had to be Roy Rogers. I can remember my whole family gathered around the tv to watch that show.In fact Death Valley Days was a family event as well as the old b&w gunsmokes when they were just 30mins.

You bet. Never missed a Roy Rogers show when I was a kid. A whole other type of western image; silver saddles, singing cowboys, wonder horses, and faithful sidekicks. Whether you're a fan of Roy, Gene & Hoppy or not, I think the world was a better place with them in it.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought BB Mountain was going too far. US or People magazine, I don't remember which, I picked it up in the break room at work, had an article on "Cowboys that were gay" only one person they interveiwed actually worked with cattle, the rest were photographers or artist working in Wyoming. They weren't even sheepherder.

Does anyone remember Sky King, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, I got Jay Silverheels auto graph at the Red Mile trotting track, he was an owner and driver of Standardbreds in his later years. What about Poncho and Cisco. Oh, for the good old days.

Gee graywolf now you're sounding as old as me! I remember (just do) watching Hoppy. Of course Roy and Trigger. Some more favs would have been Lawman, The Rifleman, Laredo, Sugarfoot and Cheyenne. Do any of you remember Johnny Umah? I can still sing a little of that theme song... Man, those were the days. My brother and I are going up to the Hopalong Cassidy festival on the 6th of May. William Boyd was born in Cambridge and they have a Hoppy fest every year. Should be fun. Paul

Paul,

I'm 47, and I do remember the Rifleman, mostly from TNT on Saturdy, of course we don't have cable TV here, but I loved all the old westerns and so did my children growing up, they would even watch Andy Griffith, I think everyone longs for those more stable times.

One of my favorite TV shows when I was a kid was "The Guns of Will Sonnet" - between that and "Bonanza" I was set. Having seen some Bonanza reruns lately, the show is a bit hokey and very dated, but at the time it was great.

"Johnny Umah was a rebel...he wandered alone." Great theme song. "

Thanks to everybody for their memories & recollections on this topic. When you see the garbage on TV today, you really appreciate these great old movies & shows. Luckily we can share them with our kids on DVD & video.

"Johnny Umah was a rebel...he wandered alone." Great theme song. "

Thanks to everybody for their memories & recollections on this topic. When you see the garbage on TV today, you really appreciate these great old movies & shows. Luckily we can share them with our kids on DVD & video.

"Johnny Umah was a rebel...he wandered alone." Great theme song. "

Thanks to everybody for their memories & recollections on this topic. When you see the garbage on TV today, you really appreciate these great old movies & shows. Luckily we can share them with our kids on DVD & video.

"Johnny Umah was a rebel...he wandered alone." Great theme song. "

Thanks to everybody for their memories & recollections on this topic. When you see the garbage on TV today, you really appreciate these great old movies & shows. Luckily we can share them with our kids on DVD & video.

..hmmm, not sure why that posted 3 times...guess that's why I like horses not computers.

Back to the big screen movies for a moment, did anyone mention " Will Penny " in all of this ? Has to be in the top 10 westerns of all time. What, no Wagon Train fans ! Ward Bond was great in that as Major Adams, but he was also great in the Searchers as well as many other westerns. As to the posts on B-westerns, If you're ever in Oklahoma and are near Dewey,Ok you've got to visit the Tom Mix museum. Any talk as to B-westerns has to include William S. Hart. I have several of his silents as well as several of Mix's and they are very entertaining. finally, My all time favorite cowboy movie star is Buck Jones. I've got a bunch of his stuff, makes me want to strap on my guns a ten-gallon white hat and ride off into the sunset. Happy trails .