RAWHIDE (TV SERIES)

'''Rawhide''' was a television western series which aired on the American network CBS from 1959 to 1966. It starred Eric Fleming and launched the career of Clint Eastwood.

Contents

The Series

The Plot

Cameos and regular cast members

Theme Song

Clint Eastwood's career

Fleming's career

Popularity after the fact

DVD Releases

External links

The Series

The series ran for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 episodes, all filmed and broadcast in black and white. It was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren who also produced early episodes of ''Gunsmoke''. Warren based ''Rawhide'' on the movie ''Cattle Empire'' that he directed in 1958 and for which Endre Bohem was a screenwriter and Paul Brinegar, Steve Raines and Rocky Shahan were actors, all also worked in ''Rawhide''. Its premiere episode reached the top 20 in the Nielsen Ratings. During its run it rose steadily in popularity until, towards the end of the series run, it was one of America's top ten shows. ''Rawhide'' was the fourth longest-running American TV western, beaten only by nine years of ''The Virginian'' and ''Wagon Train'', fourteen years of ''Bonanza'', and twenty years of ''Gunsmoke''.

The Plot

The typical ''Rawhide'' story involved drovers, portrayed by Eric Fleming (Trail Boss 'Gil Favor') and Clint Eastwood ('Rowdy Yates'), coming upon people on the trail and getting drawn into solving whatever problem they presented or were confronting. Sometimes one of the members of the cattle drive or some of the others would venture into a nearby town and encounter some trouble or other from which they needed to be rescued. Some of the stories were obviously easier in production terms but the peak form of the show was convincing and naturalistic, and sometimes brutal. Its situations could range from parched plains to anthrax, ghostly riders to wolves, cattle raiding, bandits, murderers, and so forth. In some ways it was similar to the TV series ''Wagon Train'' that debuted in 1957.

Cameos and regular cast members

Guest stars included: Claude Akins, Michael Ansara, Mary Astor, Frankie Avalon,
John Drew Barrymore, James Best, McDonald Carey, Lon Chaney, Jr., Elisha Cook, Jr., Broderick Crawford, Linda Cristal, Robert Culp, Royal Dano, Troy Donahue, Brian Donlevy, Dan Duryea, Buddy Ebsen, Barbara Eden, Leif Erickson, Beverly Garland, Charles Herbert, Earl Holliman, Alan Hale, Jr., Dwayne Hickman, Brian Keith, Ruta Lee, Jack Lord, Jock Mahoney, Mercedes McCambridge, Burgess Meredith, Robert Middleton, Vera Miles, Martin Milner, Warren Oates, Susan Oliver, J. Pat O'Malley, Cesar Romero, Marion Ross, Harry Dean Stanton, Barbara Stanwyck, Bob Steele, Lee van Cleef, Chill Wills, Ed Wynn & Dick York. Regular cast members included Paul Brinegar as George Washington Wishbone, Robert Cabal as Hey Soos (Jesus), James Murdock as Mushy, Steve Raines as Jim Quince, Rocky Shahan as Joe Scarlet, Sheb Wooley as Pete Nolan, John Ireland as Jed Colby, and Raymond St. Jacques as Simon Blake.

Theme Song

The theme song's lyrics were written by Ned Washington in 1958. It was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and sung by pop singer Frankie Laine. The themesong became very popular. It was covered several times and parts of the song also appear in more recent movies like The Blues Brothers and Shrek.

Clint Eastwood's career

As stated earlier, ''Rawhide'' launched the career of Clint Eastwood, who went on to star in many feature films and also become an Oscar-winning director and producer. Eastwood began the "Man With No Name" western movie series (''A Fistful of Dollars'', etc.) in 1964 while on summer hiatus from ''Rawhide'', bringing the same boots, shirt and gun grips with him that he wore on the series. He got the role after practically every other cowboy actor in Hollywood had turned it down.

Fleming's career

Eric Fleming (real name Edward Heddy, July 4, 1925 - September 28, 1966) drowned while filming the adventure series ''High Jungle'' for MGM-TV in Peru [1].

Popularity after the fact

''Rawhide'' gained some unusual popularity following the release of the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd movie ''The Blues Brothers''. The show's theme song was performed by the blues band at a country bar instead of a blues club.

DVD Releases

Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing ''Rawhide'' on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Season 1 was released on July 25, 2006 and the first half of Season 2 on May 29, 2007.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Season 1	23	July 25 2006
Season 2, Volume 1	16	May 29 2007

External links

★ ''Rawhide'' at IMDB.com

★ ''Rawhide'' at FiftiesWeb.com

★ ''Rawhide'' at TV.com