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Post by gerald424 on May 17, 2023 1:40:13 GMT
I have a member of my family who is a big western fan. He watches Grit almost constantly. When Directv removed Grit for whatever reason, he would watch Inspiration .
Not only is Grit back on Directv but, Grit has always been on OTA free TV and here in LA, its on Two different stations. Apparently, people want to see old westerns.
Where do you watch ? Or do you watch ?
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Post by topbilled on May 17, 2023 15:15:51 GMT
Great idea for a thread.
I have never let my subscription for Starz streaming lapse, because it's my go-to for classic westerns. They are now offering less in the way of western films from the 1930s to the 1960s, and have started to include more modern day fare. But they still have all the seasons for The Virginian, Wagon Train, Tales of Wells Fargo and Laramie plus a few western miniseries like Centennial.
I no longer have cable but about ten years ago, I was recording a lot of classic western TV episodes that aired on the Encore Westerns channel because they were uncut, restored and aired without commercials. So I actually have all the 'Lost' episodes of Bonanza which are finally getting a DVD release next week, on May 23rd (the final seasons, 12-13-14). I will occasionally dig those discs out and re-watch them.
I also have quite a few of the early Gunsmoke episodes from the black-and-white half hour days in the mid-50s that I recorded from the Encore Westerns channel. But in that case, I did decide to splurge and I bought the whole 20-season set of Gunsmoke recently when the price finally dropped below $200. I figured it was worth having all the Gunsmoke episodes.
Another classic western show I have is The Big Valley which I bought from a seller online a few years back. But those episodes were recorded off a commercial channel, and I suspect that scenes have been edited out. Unfortunately The Big Valley has never been issued as a complete set but if that happens, I will purchase it because I would like to have every episode restored and uncut.
Recently, on another thread, I mentioned that I bought The Rebel and I also bought Branded. I am not through all the Branded episodes yet.
I guess this is a long-winded way of saying that I think the best way to watch these shows is to own them on DVD or else buy them online to stream whenever you like. Then you always have the chance to re-watch your favorite episodes without waiting for them to be rerun by a TV station.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on May 18, 2023 20:01:30 GMT
In the last year or so 50s\60s TV westerns have been my 4th favorite choice for viewings (with an order of live sports, TCM, Food Network, and then TV westerns).
For these westerns, I just discovered Grit a few weeks back, been watching Inspiration for many months, and ME-TV for a few years now.
I tend to just watch the TV serials and not the movies unless they feature a studio-era actor I'm interested in. E.g., last night Grit showed 3 John Payne 50s westerns. Payne doesn't move me much in westerns (his somewhat bland screen persona was a better fit for noir films IMO), but Sante Fe Passage stared Faith Domergue; the film was in color (a washed-out sort of color), and she looked fantastic.
The western serial I really like is Tales of Wells Fargo. Grit has this on for two hours and then INSP for another hour, so I can watch 6 30 minutes episodes in a row! There were 5 seasons of b\w 30-minute episodes. The last season was one-hour in color. Yesterday INSP showed episode 1 of season 6. It was OK, but like Gunsmoke, I prefer the quickly paced, b\w 30 minutes episodes.
With ME-TV I mostly just turn to that for Wagon Train and since I have been watching this for a few years, I have now seen most of the b\w ones.
Also Grit TV has a few westerns I never watched when I was younger, E.g., Bat Masterson with a dapper Gene Barry and Tombstone Territory with Pat Conway. Gene Barry is charming and humorous, but the grit (and yea, violence) isn't really there except for a few moments.
Tombstone Territory is gritty and Conway is good in his role but still somewhat flat when compared to other iconic TV western lead actors.
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