Television: Westerns

Rawhide

Theme sung by		Frankie Laine
Character played by Clint Eastwood		Rowdy Yates
Surname of the cook (first names George Washington; played by Paul Brinegar)		Wishbone

Gunsmoke

Set in		Dodge City
Marshal Matt Dillon: played by		James Arness
Chester played by		Dennis Weaver
Quint Asper played by		Burt Reynolds
Title used in the UK for the first six series (1956–61) of Gunsmoke		Gun Law

Bonanza

Name of the ranch		The Ponderosa
Family that owned the ranch		Cartwright
The cook (a 'comic relief' character who appeared in about every fourth episode, on average) was an immigrant from		China
Eric 'Hoss' Cartwright was played by		Dan Blocker

The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger's real name		John Reid
The Lone Ranger's horse		Silver
Actor who played the Lone Ranger (apart from 2 series when it was John Hart) – died 1999		Clayton Moore
Tonto was played by		Jay Silverheels
Tonto's horse		Scout

The Virginian

Title role		James Drury
Played Trampas; died in 1995, aged 59, of lung cancer		Doug McClure
Name of the ranch (after a Biblical city, via a small church in south–western Tennessee and a battle in the American Civil War)		Shiloh

Alias Smith & Jones

Smith's real name		Hannibal Heyes
Jones's real name		'Kid' Curry
Smith (Hannibal Heyes) played by		Pete Duel
Jones (Kid Curry) played by		Ben Murphy
Narrated the title sequence voiceover; replaced Duel after the latter's suicide – but the new partnership failed to ignite and lasted only 17 episodes		Roger Davis

Cheyenne

Surname of the title character		Bodie
Title character (Cheyenne Bodie) played by		Clint Walker
Character who first appeared in Cheyenne – brought in to replace Cheyenne when Walker walked out following a contract dispute; later got his own series		Bronco Lane

The Cisco Kid

His horse		Diablo
His sidekick (in cinema – name means "fatty")		Gordito
His sidekick (on TV)		Pancho

Other

Equine companion of Gene Autry, in 79 films 1935–52 and on TV 1950–55; also had his own TV series 1955–6, starring Barry Curtis as 12–year–old Ricky North		Champion the Wonder Horse
Bronco Lane (see Cheyenne): played by		Ty Hardin
1967–71: set in Arizona in the 1870s; starred Leif Erickson as ranch owner John Cannon, Cameron Mitchell as his brother Buck, Mark Slade as his son Billy (Blue Boy)		The High Chaparral
Famous American composer, starred as Jonesy in Laramie		Hoagy Carmichael
Hugely successful and highly acclaimed 1989 miniseries, starring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as former Texas Rangers Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, based on a Pulitzer–prizewinning novel by Larry McMurtry – a fictionalised account of a real–life (1868) cattle drive by Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving		Lonesome Dove
Wanted Dead or Alive (1958–61): name of the Confederate veteran and bounty hunter		Josh Randall
Played by		Steve McQueen

© Haydn Thompson 2017–20