What televisions typically looked like in the '50's and 60's.
In an earlier blog I said that I'd share a little about what life was like in the early 1960's. For example, what movies were people watching? What games were popular? How clothes looked? Well, today I decided to write about was was on the television in the late '50's and into the early '60's.
Television was, as you can imagine, VERY different. To begin with, there weren't programs on all day. I don't recall exactly what time of day programing started, but I do know that at midnight it went off with the playing of the
Star Spangled Banner, then a
test pattern would come up and stay up until programming began again in the morning.
This is what a test pattern looked like - for those of you who either don't remember
or who hadn't been born yet.
On this blog post I'm going to concentrate on a particular genre of t.v. show, then move on to another next time. For now, it's western and western-esque shows. (Read on, it will all come clear)
We don't see many westerns on t.v. anymore, unless they're specially "made for television" or reruns, but back in the late 50's and early 60's they were everywhere, and I loved them. The hats, boots, guns, good guy vs. bad guy, horses ... yeah, they were great.
You might think they're like the movie Tombstone or the CSI's of today ... you might, but they're not. There are a couple things that make the old t.v. westerns different: one is that the bad guys always get their just desserts ... I like that. And two, there is no gore ... I really like that. Personally, I don't need to see blood and guts to understand that someone is dead on a t.v. show, what's the point? If a character gets shot, clutches his chest, drops to the ground, doesn't move and they throw a blanket over him, I get it. I don't have to see gruesome details - and happily for us, they never showed them on television westerns 'back in the day'.
Now let's get specific ...
One western we watched faithfully as a family, was Gunsmoke, with James Arness as Matt Dillon (it was the longest running western; beginning on radio with William Conrad as Marshall Dillon, then going onto the small screen). Marshall Dillon was honest, vigilant and fair. The outlaws either feared him or wanted to take him down (they never did). The earlier seasons featured Dennis Weaver as his side kick, Chester - and then there was Miss Kitty, the owner of the Longbranch Saloon and Doc Adams the local sawbones.
You may recognize one of the stars of the show Rawhide, if you look closely (I'll give you a hint, "Make my day"). The ongoing story of cattle herders in the west and the bad guys that wanted to steal their cows (that's BAD). The show had a great theme song, sung by Frankie Laine that became a popular song on the radio.
Rawhide
Then there was
Wagon Train, starring Ward Bond. You may remember Mr. Bond from
It's a Wonderful Life - he played the part of Bert (or was it Ernie, I always confuse them), the policeman friend of George Bailey. I was fascinated and intrigued by the stories of the hearty folks who left their lives in the east to gamble on beginning anew in the wild west. I know they were fictitious characters but the hardships they endured were tough ... and not even as tough as the reality.
Before there was
Dog the Bounty Hunter, there was Palladin the bounty hunter, played by Richard Boone. He had a business card that read,
Have Gun Will Travel, which also happened to be the name of the show. I like the Dog, but Palladin had more panache and better hair. And he always made sure he got his bounty.
One of my favorite shows was Bonanza, on Sunday evenings. Terry and I used to gallop around the living room to the theme song. Who couldn't love Little Joe, played by Michael Landon (known to many as Pa Ingalls) ... such a cutie riding his pinto horse. Lorne Greene played Pa Cartwright, Pernell Roberts, Adam (my personal favorite), and big, jovial Hoss, played by Dan Blocker.
The Cartwright family (sans mothers who were all deceased. Poor Pa Cartwright was widowed three times, and each time had an infant son to care for ... tragic), were wealthy land owners outside Virginia City, and even though they were really good guys - always fair, upstanding and generous - the bad guys were out to get them (jealousy, I guess).
One thing Terry and I knew for sure about Bonanza, was that if one of the Cartwrights got serious about a girl/lady, the poor thing was fated to be carted off to some distant place, or die. It wasn't until Pernell Roberts decided to leave the show that Kathy Brown, his love interest, survived the 'Bonanza curse'. They got married after several episode and moved away, never to be seen again.
Hoss (Dan Blocker), Little Joe (Michael Landon), Pa Cartwright (Lorne Greene)
and Adam (Pernell Roberts).
If you've read this far, Thanks! We're moving on to the 'western-esque' television shows I mentioned earlier. What I mean by western-esque, is that everyone wore cowboy hats, rode horses and lived in the country, but they also had cars, phones and indoor plumbing. We'll begin with
Sky King ... he flew a plane, yes really, and had a daughter named Penny. The airplane was his mode of transportation for getting the bad guy. It's kind of an odd premise, but I really liked watching
Sky King on Saturday mornings.
If you look closely, you can see the plane behind the 'I' in King.
... and boys with their horses. My Friend Flicka, (whose theme melody I still remember), and Fury. My Friend Flicka was a t.v. adaptation of a 1940's movie starring Roddy McDowell (why they had an English boy play the part of an American boy in the movie ... ). But I digress ... I like horses, so I liked both these shows, too. Maybe because I wanted a horse?
The main cast of Fury. The tall man with the hat is Peter Graves, the brother of James Arness, Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke. (I wonder if their last names were Arness or Graves?)
And last, but not least, Lassie! (also based on a movie starring Roddy McDowell, and a very young and beautiful, Elizabeth Taylor)
Lassie had three t.v. incarnations, but I'll only mention the first two (I didn't care for the third).
In the first, Lassie's owner was a boy named, Jeff Miller, played by Tommy Rettig. I liked Jeff and I liked the cast (his mother and grandpa), but at some point Lassie became the property of a boy named Timmy (I must've been too busy to watch that episode - you know, the things that keep kids from in front of the 'tube', like climbing trees, burying dead critters, picking plums, doing chores, and being told by their mothers to, "Go outside and play!" ... that kind of thing).
In the second incarnation, Jon Provost played Timmy Martin, and his mom was June Lockhart (of Lost in Space fame).
Then of course, there was Lassie, a rough collie. Lassie was a beautiful dog and had the most uncanny ability to communicate distress (usually Jeff/Timmy's) to the appropriate adult. Some of the situations were nail-biters, but Lassie always came through.
Tommy Rettig, as Jeff Miller, with Lassie.
My final word. Television sets and television shows have evolved, and not always for the better.The time of t.v. innocence, when parents didn't have to monitor everything their children watched because there was no need to, has passed; there was nothing objectionable for them to be concerned about on television, then. It's a very different world today. Parents must be uber-vigilant about what they allow their children to watch because there is so much garbage shown on both programming and commercials - garbage that kids just don't need to see. The innocence of youth is precious and fleeting, and should be guarded against the cynicism and assaults of many television shows.
Terry and I were fortunate; although our favorite shows were in black and white, we had no remote control, cable or high definition, and there were only three channels, we had Marshall Dillon, Palladin and the others to catch the bad guys, and Penny, Jeff and Timmy to share adventures with.
Until later,
Lynda
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