• LIFE

LIFE on the Set of Classic TV Westerns

3 minute read

The writer and essayist Gerald Early once asserted that “two thousand years from now, there will only be three things that Americans will be known for: the Constitution, baseball and jazz music. They’re the three most beautiful things Americans have ever created.”

That’s a great soundbite, and little doubt that Early—a smart, insightful man—has given this notion a lot of thought. But one could make the case, of course, that hip-hop should probably be added to that list, and there are those among us who might strenuously argue for other uniquely American contributions to global culture. The hot dog, for example. Or the ShamWow.

But one classic, identifiably, certifiably American creation that deserves to at least be in the conversation is the Western.

From the earliest days of film (The Great Train Robbery was made in 1903) to director John Ford’s genre-defining classics of the ’30s and ’40s to “revisionist” masterpieces like Eastwood’s Unforgiven, Westerns have thrilled, entertained and—with their familiar, mythic scope and often easily digested moral message—in a sense comforted countless millions.

The genre on the small screen, meanwhile, has enjoyed similar success and longevity. While we’ve never again seen anything like the Golden Age of the television Western, when in the mid-1950s and 1960s it sometimes felt like there was nothing on TV except gunfighters, cattle rustlers and bar maids with hearts of gold, more recent shows like Deadwood, Justified and Hell of Wheels illustrate just how potent, and popular, the recipe remains.

In tribute, then, to the television Western, and in celebration of two of the greatest shows of them all, Bonanza and Gunsmoke—both of which first aired in the second week of September, the latter in 1955, the former in 1959—LIFE.com presents photos made behind the scenes on a number of TV Westerns. Most of the pictures here were first published in an article titled “TV Goes Wild Over Westerns” in the October 1957 issue of LIFE—an article that made plain the magazine’s barely contained astonishment at the rise and rise of the seemingly inexhaustible genre:

Television this fall started off with a bang-bang and by this week the bangs had exploded into a huge boom in westerns. Everywhere on TV, along with the sound of six-shooters, comes the noise of bottles breaking on bars, of poker tables crashing to the floor, of fists smashing into faces and of hooves clattering over the plans. A full third of all the nighttime TV network ours is filled with westerns, 12 of them popular holdovers from last year plus 11 rootin’ tootin’ newcomers.

Now there are so many horse opera on the screen that even TV does not seem to be taking them too seriously, indulging on occasion in good-humored hokum. . . . The fashion has reached such proportions that right now a Los Angeles family with unlimited leisure, four TV sets and an insatiable appetite for gunplay could tune in on 64 hours of westerns per week.

Only one question now remains. Which cable channel—premium or otherwise—is going to step up and broadcast “all Westerns, all the time” to an audience that’s dying for classic horse operas? We’re looking at you, TBS. . . .

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

TV Westerns of the 1950s
Caption from LIFE. "Six TV western heroes who never trade fire on screen because they are all in different weekly serials stage a mock battle symbolic of a ratings war." (L to R) Clint Walker, Cheyenne; Jim Arness, Gunsmoke; Dick Boone, Have Gun, WIll Travel; Robert Horton, Wagon Train; James Garner, Maverick; John Payne, Restless Gun.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
James Garner in Maverick
Not published in LIFE. James Garner in Maverick.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Pair of unimpressed spectators (left) on set watch actors fake a fight on Wells Fargo.
Caption from LIFE. "Pair of unimpressed spectators (left) on set watch actors fake a fight on Tales of Wells Fargo."Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp
Hugh O'Brian, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
James Garner, Maverick
James Garner (right) films a fight on the show Maverick.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Will Hutchins on set of Sugarfoot
Caption from LIFE. "Posy-packing tenderfoot Will Hutchins, star of Sugarfoot, plays young law student wandering west who carries daisies when calling on girl."Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Clint Walker on set of Cheyenne
Caption from LIFE. Undersize stand-in Clyde Howdy (right), 6' 2", wears elevated shoes to raise stature to match towering Clint Walker (left), 6' 4", on set of Cheyenne.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
A scene from Wagon Train
Not published in LIFE. A scene from the TV show, Wagon Train.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Michael Ansarra, Broken Arrow
Caption from LIFE. "Michael Ansarra, who plays Cochise in Broken Arrow, cools off after fighting in buckskins and wig on the 100-degree sound stage."Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
TV Western, Broken Arrow
Not published in LIFE. On the set of the TV show, Broken Arrow.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp
Not published in LIFE. Scene from The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Have Gun, Will Travel
Caption from LIFE. "To win a desert race on Have Gun, Will Travel, Paladin (Dick Boone) trades his horse for a camel and rides up to the TV saloon set."Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Legendary actress Claudette Colbert (right) guest stars on "The Zane Grey Theater."
Not published in LIFE. Legendary actress Claudette Colbert (right) guest stars on "The Zane Grey Theater" in an episode called Blood in the Dust.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Sweeping up bullets, the blank cartridge cases expended in day's gunplay, a Warners' maintenance man cleans set for next episode.
Caption from LIFE. "Sweeping up bullets, the blank cartridge cases expended in day's gunplay, a Warners' maintenance man cleans set for next episode."Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
A scene from the TV Western, Colt .45.
Not published in LIFE. A scene from the TV show Colt .45.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp
Not published in LIFE. Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp.Allan Grant—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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