Inside the Guide: TV Guide 40 years ago (July 1984 Part 3): Monday Monday brings lots of ads

Monday, July 16, 1984 is mostly reruns in prime time, but we get some interesting stuff. At least in this Dallas/Fort Worth edition, CBN is advertising big time this week, and it's great. Here is BOTNS fave from Season 11, The Rifleman:

And you can't go wrong with Jack:

Finally, this seems a little off brand now, but in 1984 HBO wasn't quite the HBO it would be in about 15 years:

My Halloween watching 2023: Part 1

I sought out some podcast shows from Season 14 this year and found some interesting episodes.

The Rifleman "Hostages to Fortune": This Season 5 installment opens with Halloween action but doesn't really longer on it. Mark and his friends are out "Halloweenin'" (I like the away Lucas says that) and doing some mild mischief that causes mild ruckus, like cattle getting spooked and going astray. Mark gets a talking-to, but the real story is when he meets an erudite English bookstore owner and his son Percy and befriends them.

The Halloweenin' comes back in the sense that when rustlers actually steal cattle, townsfolk wonder if Mark is involved. However, the heart of the story is the bond Mark has with the new town intellectual, who is starting a ranch of his own. Lucas' jealousy is evident and also called out, though Mark tries to assure his pa that the other guy doesn't know the first thing about ranching. Lucas feels a little down due to his lack of reading (except the Bible), and it's refreshing, really.

The saga plays out in simple, clear, and honest fashion. No, there isn't a lot of Halloweenin' in this half-hour, but there is the good, soloid family Western drama you expect from The Rifleman. And some fights and gunplay, too!

Dennis the Menace "Haunted House." It's Season 3, and already Dennis seems a little too old for a Halloween episode, which is kind of sad. He and Tommy are peripheral characters in this one, roaming the house that Henry and George (I love how Henry always calls him "Mr. Wilson") buy for investment purposes.

The house is supposedly haunted, and shady realtor Harvey Korman (!) is really proud of himself for unloading it on the two "boobs." When the guys have second thoughts, the realtor and his mom (the real brains in the outfit) are not sympathetic. So they keep the place and try to prove it's not haunted by having a sleepover!

They deal with a host of weird noises and happenings, yet even though they know the kids are aware of the situation and actively looking for ghosts and playing all over the joint, it doesn't seem to occur to them they could be causing the anomalies. In fact, they aren't causing all of them! A lively guest spot by Harold Gould adds something to this episode.

More to come this week!

Power Rankings: Half-hour Westerns!

This week, rather than attempt to rank elements of the Rifleman, I am doing something different and listing some other half-hour Western programs of yore that I can recommend. Remember, the rankings are based on what would happen if these series squared off against each other in a dome in Rock Ridge.

1) Have Gun -- Will Travel: I don't remember this one being at all when I was a lad, but I discovered it as an adult and found it one of the best of the genre. Growing up, I really only knew it for the image of Richard Boone as the black-clad Paladin and of course "The Ballad of Paladin." It's an excellent program, though, and it's complete on DVD and streaming on Pluto (yet not, for no good reason that I know, on Paramount Plus).

2) Gunsmoke: I am required by law to mention Gunsmoke in any list of Western TV shows, and I am also required to mention William Conrad played the lead in the radio version. The half-hour version of the series lasted its first 6 seasons, and all episodes are on DVD and have aired in syndication. Unfortunately, these seasons are not on Paramount Plus nor Pluto at this time.

3) The Westerner: An excellent, thoughtful series from Sam Peckinpah (probably going places he wanted to on The Rifleman) and starring Brian Keith. At 13 episodes, it's an easy watch, and it's on DVD as well as various streamers, including free ones Tubi and Roku Channel as well as Prime Video.

4) Wanted: Dead or Alive: I haven't done a deep dive into this one, another series that I don't think was on much in my rerun-infested youth. It's highly marketable because of star Steve McQueen, so it is easy to find on DVD and is also on streamers like Starz and Prime. I do like what I have seen of it!

5) Bat Masterson: Another Prime Video star (but also found elsewhere and on DVD, though the best sets are harder to find and/or out of print). I always enjoy the characterization of cooler-than-thou Gene Barry as Bat, and the series' light touch is welcome but maybe has led to it being a bit underrated. It also boasts one of the best theme songs in TV history:

6) Dick Powell's Zane Gray Theater: An anthology with some great stories, it spawned The Rifleman and The Westerner! Powell produced, hosts, sometimes even stars. Unfortunately, DVD releases stalled out halfway through the series, but you can find many episodes on YouTube. This is one of my favorite show titles of all time, by the way.

7) A Man Called Shenandoah: I enjoyed the premise of this one: Robert Horton is a man left for dead and struggling to remember who he is. He roams the West trying to discover his identity. I watched the entire series on my dearly beloved but defunct Warner Archive Instant. It feels like a good candidate to pop up on Tubi someday, but for now you can get the Warner Archive DVD set.

8) Death Valley Days: Another anthology, with many episodes hosted by Ronald Reagan, and it is chock full of interesting stories and cool guests. I don't understand what happened to this one. Most episodes were issued on DVD, and for a while Starz streamed it. Yet now, despite the rightsholders (and maybe Starz, directly or indirectly) paying a lot to restore the episodes, it is MIA on streaming and you have to catch it on YouTube. Grit TV shows a few episodes every Saturday, but that seems like kind of a waste.

9) Tate: The title character in this 1960 summer replacement series is a Civil War vet who lost an arm in the conflict but continues as a bounty hunter. The uniqueness of the character adds a spin to the Western srories. Timeless (speaking of late and lamented; the company put out a lot of great DVD sets before Shout swallowed it and put an end to that) released the entire series, and you can find it on Tubi, Roku, and YouTube.

10) Yancy Derringer: Available on DVD and on Prime Video, this 1958 CBS series starred Jock Mahoney in the title role as a former Confederate officer working as a secret agent for the Feds in Reconstruction-era New Orleans. The setting and Derringer's dandy-ish image, plus the butt kicking of X Brands as his Native American sidekick, make this an interesting program.

There's 10 for you, and I didn't even include Lawman, Zorro, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (with BOTNS icon Hugh O'Brian,Chuck Connors' Branded (Apparently butchered for syndication forever, I am sad to say), or The Rebel...nor many other half-hour oaters worth checking out!

You Tube Spotlight: Johnny Crawford on "Shivaree"

One of the videos in our Rifleman playlist this week showcases Johnny Crawford, singer; as opposed to Johnny Crawford, Mark McCain. 

Crawford was much more than an Emmy-nominated child actor on The Rifleman. As our playlist shows, he was an original Mouseketeer several years earlier. While the Western was airing on ABC, Crawford had a successful pop career that included 4 Top 40 singles. Years later, he fronted a band called The Johnny Crawford Orchestra.

How about Shivaree, though? Host Gene Weed's epic forehead suggests "wide open spaces" more than any episode of The Rifleman did. This was syndicated daily music show that ran just over a year in 1965-1966.

Show Notes and Video Playlist: Episode 11-10: The Rifleman

*We hope you enjoy this season's journey into the so-called Silver Age of TV (Dennis the Menace was a special tie-in with the Eighties toon). We remain focused on the BOTNS era of the Seventies and Eighties but plan to keep the occasional steps back to the earlier days of TV!

*Here is the video playlist for this week's podcast. Note that the second video is the full episode we discuss this week, "Ordeal," courtesy of an official upload from FilmRise. 

But you will also see commercials, promos, music, and more! Just click below:

*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!

*For info about the series beyond these show notes, check out this official website.

*The Rifleman aired 5 seasons, 1958 to 1963, on ABC for 168 episodes plus a pilot on The Zane Grey Theater. It remains widely available on streaming outlets including YouTube.

*"Ordeal" premiered November 17, 1959 at 9:00 on ABC.

*Michael Jordan had a famous stint with the Chicago White Sox organization but didn't appear in an official regular season game (He is still the GOAT, though). Danny Ainge made it to a Blue Jays rookies baseball card and played several seasons with the club. appear in a game. Another two-part star was knicks great Dave Debusschere. So, yes, Wikipedia is wrong if it says Chuck Connors is the only athlete to play in both MLB and the NBA!

*Johnny Crawford was 12 when the show premiered (Connors was 38).

*The Westerner is also widely available. The half-hour Brian Keith starrer from Sam Peckinpah aired Fall 1960.

*North Fork was on a Hollywood soundstage, though the show did use locations at various times. This local New Mexico source assures us that it is not a real town:

To close, there is a gentleman that keeps calling our office. His first inquiry was about the ranch where Lucas McCain and his son lived in the television western show – The Rifleman. The ranch was supposed to be located near the fictional town of North Fork, New Mexico. This gentleman has decided North Fork, New Mexico is close to Silver City. We keep saying that North Fork, New Mexico was a fictional town. The gentleman from another state continues believing it was near Silver City and wants us to share the secret with him… describing the location of North Fork, New Mexico. If you know something we don’t know about North Fork… please call our office at 538-3785.

*TV ratings for the series were generally good. It finished fourth its first season, 13th its second, then in the 20s the enxt two season before dropping out of the top 30 in its final season.

*Here is the Minus 5 song "The Rifleman" that Mike mentions on the show.

*Four Star Playhouse was an anthology program that aired from 1952 to 1956 on CBS. Many of the episodes are easy to find on various streaming outlets.

*Here is something I wish I had:

*Finally, I will just put this here without comment:

Episode 11-10: Retro-Retro The Rifleman

The Old West comes to BOTNS in this season's Retro-Retro episode. Chuck Connors stars as Lucas "The Rifelman" McCain in this half-hour oater from the late fifties and early sixties. In "Ordeal," Lucas and his son Mark find themselves stranded in the desert after their meat salt mining expedition goes awry. Will they make it to safety or end up buzzard food? Find out on this exciting episode of Battle of the Network Shows! #podcast #tv #retrotv #fifties #sixties #therifelman #chuckconnors #ordeal #westerns #oater #meatsalt

 

Check out this episode!

Tomorrow on Battle of the Network Shows...