Rawhide is an American Western television series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood. The show aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights from January 9, 1959,[1] to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965, until December 7, 1965, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. The show is remembered by many for its theme song, "Rawhide".
Set in the 1860s, Rawhide portrays the challenges faced by the drovers of a cattle drive. Most episodes are introduced with a monologue by Gil Favor (Eric Fleming), trail boss. In a typical Rawhide story, the drovers come upon people on the trail and involve themselves in other people's affairs, usually encountering various corrupt individuals. Many times, one or more of the crew venture into a nearby town and encounter some trouble from crooked townspeople or lawless politicians from whom they need to be rescued. Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) was young and at times impetuous in the earliest episodes, and Favor had to keep a tight rein on him.
Favor is a savvy and strong leader, who always plays "square" with his fellow men – a tough customer who can handle the challenges and get the job done. (Producer Charles Warren called on the diary written in 1866 by trail boss George C. Duffield[2] to shape the character of Favor.)[3] Although Favor had the respect and loyalty of the men who worked for him, the people, including Yates, are insubordinate to him a few times, after working too hard or after receiving a tongue lashing. Favor has to fight at times and usually wins.
Some Rawhide stories were easy in production terms, but the peak form of the show was convincing and naturalistic, and sometimes brutal. Its story lines ranged from parched plains to anthrax, ghostly riders to wolves, cattle raiding, bandits, murderers, and others. A frequent story line was the constant need to find water for the cattle. The scout spent much of his time looking for water, sometimes finding that water holes and even rivers had dried up.
Rawhide frequently dealt with controversial topics. Robert Culp played an ex-soldier on the drive who had become dangerously addicted to morphine. Mexican drover Hey Soos faced racism at times from outside of the crew.
Several shows deal with the aftermath of the American Civil War, which ended four years earlier. The "Poco Tiempo" episode reveals that Yates' father's name was Dan, that Yates came from Southwestern Texas, that he joined the Confederate States Army at 16, and that he was later held in a federal prison camp.
Favor also served in the CSA as a captain. "Incident on the Edge of Madness" in season one, guest-starring Lon Chaney Jr., had Favor's old commanding officer attempting to enlist the aid of Favor and his men to start the "New Confederacy of Panama" much to Favor's dismay. In that same episode, Favor and Nolan were revealed to have been in the Confederate forces up on Marye's Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg, and they "felt shamed" at killing so many Union soldiers.
Some American Indians demanded cattle as payment for going through their land. Rough characters were in the shows, and in one episode, Gil Favor is tortured by having his face held near a fire. In "Incident of the Town in Terror", people think that a sick Yates has "the plague" (anthrax), and they enforce at gunpoint a quarantine of the cattle drovers outside the town. Also, cattle rustlers were around, including Commancheros.
On occasions, Rawhide was eerily atmospheric. "Incident with an Executioner" featured a mysterious dark rider (Dan Duryea) seen on the hillside following the herd, "Incident of the Haunted Hills" featured a sacred Indian burial ground, "Incident of the Druid Curse" and season two's "Incident of the Murder Steer" (where anyone sighting a rogue steer with "Murder" carved on its side soon after dies, based on an actual legend of the Old West). The series also featured episodes with ghost towns, cattle with horns lit up by St. Elmo's fire at dusk, cowboys struck by lightning, plus a strange, totally enclosed gypsy wagon, apparently steering itself, repeatedly turning up, all stand out as curiously "spooky" tales for a bustling dusty cattle drive; the show's often stark incidental music suited these stories perfectly.
In episode 67, "Incident Near the Promised Land" (most episode titles began with "Incident" until Bruce Geller and Bernard L. Kowalski became the producers for season six), the cattle drive finally reached Sedalia for the first time in the series. Unusually, episode 68 continues on from that, where the cattle have been sold and the men celebrate in town and decide on their futures with even Favor thinking of leaving the business. Instead of the usual ending, wherein Favor gives the command "Head 'em up! Move 'em out!" and the cattle move off, this episode had the end titles over a view of a Sedalia street.
Episode 69 has Favor visiting his two daughters, Gillian and Maggie, who live with their aunt Eleanor Bradley in Philadelphia. In episode 70, a number of the men are back together and heading back to San Antonio about 650 miles away, with a herd of horses (used in the titles) instead of cattle. Episode 71 has a new cattle drive ready to go, but the owner of 1600 of the cattle wants to be in charge, so Favor reluctantly signs on as a ramrod, but after problems, Favor becomes boss again at the end of the show. These five episodes made up one storyline instead of the usual single-episode stories, which could have been set anywhere in the West.
Favor had many bad moments in the series, but none worse than the "Lost Herd" episode. Close to drive's finish, Favor wants to beat another herd to town to get the best prices. He takes a narrow shortcut; due to thunder and lightning, the herd stampedes over the cliffs, leaving him just 9 out of 3000 cattle when the drive reaches town. He does not have the money to pay the drovers and has to face the owner (Royal Dano), whose cattle he has lost, knowing that he might never work in the business again.
From the second season, episodes began to feature individual cast members, notably Clint Eastwood's Yates (sole star in "Incident on the Day of the Dead", which opens season two); later, both Scout Pete Nolan (Sheb Wooley) and even cook G. W. Wishbone (Paul Brinegar) were featured as leads, while Fleming's Gil Favor remained in overall charge.
Pete Nolan (Wooley), the scout, departs as a regular cast member after "The Deserter's Patrol" (season four, episode 18, 9 Feb 1962), but returns for a single episode "Reunion" (episode 26, 6 April 1962), and for a further nine episodes in season seven from "Texas Fever" (episode 18, 5 February 1965).
Charles H. Gray's character Clay Forester, having played a villain in three episodes of season four (from "The Inside Man", episode six), then reforms and replaces Nolan as scout from "The Greedy Town" (season four, episode 19). Gray remained in the regular cast for the rest of seasons four and five (though in a number of later episodes, he is credited but not seen).
John Ireland and Raymond St. Jacques, 1965
In the eighth and final season of Rawhide, Fleming left the series after an apparent disagreement with the producers. Rawhide had fallen in the ratings, from sixth in 1960–61 to 13th, 22nd, then 44th. Eric Fleming, who played Favor, was let go. "They fired me because they were paying me a million dollars a year" (actually $220,000), Fleming told TV Guide in 1965. Cast members Sheb Wooley, James Murdock, Rocky Shahan, and Robert Cabal were also let go.[4] Eastwood was promoted to series star as Yates finally becomes the trail boss. This outcome was hinted at in earlier episodes when Favor indicates he is training Yates to replace him as trail boss. The impression given is this was a later cattle drive with Yates now in charge, at a time after Favor had either "retired" or given up as boss, presumably having made his money or opted for a career change, since no mention is ever made onscreen of him or the reason for his absence in the final season's episodes. In its casting of the series, Robert Carricart was originally cast as George Washington Wishbone, but was replaced by Paul Brinegar.[5] Carricart only played the role for the series unaired pilot.[5]
John Ireland as Jed Colby and Raymond St Jacques as Simon Blake also joined the Rawhide cast at this time, plus semiregular minor cast member David Watson as Ian Cabot. With Fleming gone, ratings plunged and the revised format only lasted 13 episodes before Rawhide was suddenly cancelled in midseason.
The diary of trail boss George C. Duffield was written during a cattle drive from San Antonio to Sedalia in 1866. The narrations with which Gil Favor begins each episode are similar in style and breadth to the entries in Duffield's journal, lending the show an extra measure of authenticity.[2]
The premiere episode of Rawhide reached the top 20 in the Nielsen ratings.
The show had a grueling production schedule, being mostly weekly with a three- to four-month break between seasons. After the first season of 22 episodes, seasons two to seven were each 30 episodes. Often, the only way the lead actors could get a break was if they were said to be off on business. On rare occasions, the show featured a small number of the actors and some misfortune, maybe in a town, which would give the others time off.
Eric Fleming drowned at the age of 41 when a canoe flipped over on location in Peru six weeks into filming the movie High Jungle in 1966. The picture was abandoned as a result.
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all eight seasons of Rawhide on DVD in Region 1.[9]
On May 12, 2015, CBS DVD released Rawhide- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.[10]
In Region 2, Rawhide has been released in Scandinavia: Season 1, by Noble Entertainment, two boxes, 2009–2010, season one re-releasing in January 2014 by Soulmedia, seasons 2 and 3, by Soulmedia (season 2 in two boxes, and season 3 in four boxes). No more seasons will be released in Scandinavia.
Revelation Films has released the first three seasons on DVD in the UK.[11][12][13] Season 4 will be released on March 23, 2015,[14] followed by season 5 on June 22, 2015.[15] They are released as complete season sets rather than two volumes.
In Region 4, Madman Entertainment has released all eight seasons on DVD in Australia, with each season in one box.[16] Season 8, the Final Season, was released on October 5, 2011.[17] DVD releases play heavily on Clint Eastwood's later fame, depicting him in the foreground as the chief character and crediting: "Clint Eastwood in...", but the original show credits for seasons one to seven actually depict the late Eric Fleming (as Gil Favor) being the lead cast member, with Eastwood as co-star (excepting a few later episodes where Eastwood is the sole star).
DVD name
Ep No.
Region 1
Region 2 (UK)
Region 2 (Scandinavia)
Region 4
Season 1
22
July 25, 2006
November 15, 2010
October 28, 2009January 13, 2010
January 20, 2010
Season 2, Volume 1
16
May 29, 2007
April 11, 2011
September 22, 2010
March 9, 2010
Season 2, Volume 2
16
December 18, 2007
September 22, 2010
Season 3, Volume 1
15
May 27, 2008
July 11, 2011
September 28, 2011January 11, 2012
August 11, 2010
Season 3, Volume 2
15
December 9, 2008
February 15, 2012August 29, 2012
Season 4, Volume 1
15
June 7, 2011
June 6, 2016
Seasons 4–8, not to be released
September 27, 2010
Season 4, Volume 2
15
November 1, 2011
Season 5, Volume 1
15
September 18, 2012
September 5, 2016
February 2, 2011
Season 5, Volume 2
14
Season 6, Volume 1
16
June 4, 2013
TBA
May 2, 2011
Season 6, Volume 2
15
TBA
Season 7, Volume 1
15
March 4, 2014
TBA
August 3, 2011
Season 7, Volume 2
15
TBA
Season 8
13
June 3, 2014
October 5, 2011
The Complete Series
217
May 12, 2015
On the Region 1 DVD sets, the episode "Incident of the Roman Candles" is included on both the Season One DVD set and the Season Two Volume One DVD set. Similarly, the episode "Abilene" is included on both the Season Four Volume Two DVD set and the Season Five Volume Two DVD set.
Friday at 7:30 pm (Episode 1) Tuesday at 7:30 pm (Episodes 2–12)
Adaptations
Books
In 1961, Signet Books published a paperback original novel called Rawhide by Frank C. Robertson based upon the television show. Eric Fleming as Gil Favor and Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates are both on the front cover of the book. The book follows Favor, Yates, Wishbone, and others as they try to get their herd to Sedalia ahead of a rival's herd. The book was published multiple times with the last run printed in 1986.[19]
Shelby Fredrick Wooley was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He recorded a series of novelty songs including the 1958 hit rock and roll comedy single "The Purple People Eater" and under the name Ben Colder the country hit "Almost Persuaded No. 2". As an actor, he portrayed Cletus Summers, the principal of Hickory High School and assistant coach in the 1986 film Hoosiers; Ben Miller, brother of Frank Miller in the film High Noon; Travis Cobb in The Outlaw Josey Wales, and scout Pete Nolan in the television series Rawhide. Wooley is also credited as the voice actor who provided the Wilhelm scream and all of the other stock sound effects for Thomas J. Valentino's Major record label during the 1940s.
"The Purple People Eater" is a novelty song written and performed by Sheb Wooley, which reached No. 1 in the Billboard pop charts in 1958 from June 9 to July 14, No. 1 in Canada, reached No. 12 overall in the UK Singles Chart, and topped the Australian chart.
Anne Helm is a retired Canadian-born actress and children's author, who primarily appeared in guest roles on episodes of various American television series. Her few film roles include playing Elvis Presley's love interest in the 1962 film Follow That Dream. Helm had two recurring roles, playing Molly Pierce in five episodes during the 85-episode run of the mid-1960s series Run for Your Life and playing the minor role of nurse Mary Briggs in an unknown number of episodes of the daily soap opera General Hospital from 1971 to 1973.
Sugarfoot is an American Western television series that aired for 69 episodes on ABC from 1957-1961 on Tuesday nights on a "shared" slot basis – rotating with Cheyenne ; Cheyenne and Bronco ; and Bronco. The Warner Bros. production stars Will Hutchins as Tom Brewster, an Easterner who comes to the Oklahoma Territory to become a lawyer. Brewster was a correspondence-school student whose apparent lack of cowboy skills earned him the nickname "Sugarfoot", a designation even below that of a tenderfoot.
Rawhide may refer to:
George Vincent Homeier, known professionally as Skip Homeier, was an American actor who started his career at the age of eleven and became a child star.
Television Westerns are programs with settings in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West, Western Canada and Mexico during the period from about 1860 to the end of the so-called "Indian Wars". More recent entries in the Western genre have used the neo-Western subgenre, placing events in the modern day, or the space Western subgenre but still draw inspiration from the outlaw attitudes prevalent in traditional Western productions.
Cattle drives were a major economic activity in the 19th and early 20th century American West, particularly between 1850s and 1910s. In this period, 27 million cattle were driven from Texas to railheads in Kansas, for shipment to stockyards in St. Louis and points east, and direct to Chicago. The long distances covered, the need for periodic rests by riders and animals, and the establishment of railheads led to the development of "cow towns" across the frontier.
The Young Riders is an American Western television series created by Ed Spielman that presents a fictionalized account of a group of young Pony Express riders based at the Sweetwater Station in the Nebraska Territory during the years leading up to the American Civil War. The series premiered on ABC on September 20, 1989 and ran for three seasons until the final episode aired on July 23, 1992.
"Rawhide" is a Western song written by Ned Washington (lyrics) and composed by Dimitri Tiomkin in 1958. It was originally recorded by Frankie Laine. The song was used as the theme to Rawhide, a western television series that ran on CBS from 1959 to 1965. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
Paul Alden Brinegar Jr. was an American character actor best known for his roles in three Western series: The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Rawhide, and Lancer.
Eric Fleming was an American actor known primarily for his role as Gil Favor in the long-running CBS Western television series Rawhide.
Peter Whitney was an American actor in film and television. Tall and heavyset, he played brutish villains in many Hollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Boy from Oklahoma is a 1954 American western film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Will Rogers Jr., Nancy Olson and Anthony Caruso. It was produced and distributed by the major studio Warner Bros.
Clint Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930, in San Francisco, California, to Clinton Eastwood Sr. and Margret Ruth.
Cattle Empire is a 1958 American Western DeLuxe Color movie in CinemaScope directed by Charles Marquis Warren, starring Joel McCrea and released by 20th Century Fox. The film also features Gloria Talbott, Don Haggerty, Phyllis Coates, and Bing Russell and serves as something of a forerunner for director Warren's subsequent television series Rawhide starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood, which used the picture's writer Endre Bohem, as well as some of its supporting cast.
William O'Connell was an American film and television actor.
Hotel Bothwell is a historic hotel building located at Sedalia, Pettis County, Missouri. It was designed by H.L. Stevens & Company and built in 1927. It is a seven-story, Classical Revival style reinforced concrete building faced with tan brick and stone trim. The basement, first, and second floors occupy the full rectangular parcel, whereas the upper stories have an L-shaped plan.
Albert Guy Teague was an American actor and stuntman. He was known for serving as a double for Eric Fleming's character Gil Favor in the American western television series Rawhide.
↑ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2007). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (9thed.). Ballantine Books. pp.1682–1683. ISBN978-0-345-49773-4.
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Margaret O'Brien and Clint Eastwood (1959)
Clint Eastwood and Nina Foch (1959)
Fleming and Linda Cristal (1959)
Nan Grey and Frankie Laine (1960)
Fleming, Lola Albright, Allyn Joslyn (1964)
Eastwood, Brinegar, Fleming (1959)
Laura Devon and Dean Martin (1964)
Sheb Wooley and Brinegar (1962)
