VM100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Roy Huggins, The Big Valley, Dennis Hopper
4 Jul 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
VM 100 History of Media Arts
Prof. Michael Selig
Sem 1 Lecture #17 Television Pt 3
-Gunsmoke (1955-75)- #1 rated show 1957-62, top ten for first 7 seasons, top ten 1967-73!
-Longest running live drama before law & order, adult western !
!
-Minow’s “Vast Wasteland”- (1961) (Speech to NAB)- FCC refers to TV content & telefilms as a
“vast wasteland”!
-“We cannot permit television in its present for to be our voice overseas”
-Adult Western = Domesticated Western
-Western as family drama
-Rifleman (1958-63), Bonanza (1959-73, top 10 for 10 seasons), The Big Valley (1965-69)
-The Rifleman- Sam Pechinpah in 1950s
-Writing Western TV scripts, rejected Gunsmoke script becomes 1st episode of The Rifleman,
“The Sharpshooter” (w. Dennis Hopper)
-Chuck Connors- Athlete turned performer in TV. Didn't originally wanna take role because
television was looked down upon.
TV Western as Domestic Melodrama
-Rifleman about father and son finding home in the west !
As western- Characters- Rifleman with dark, shady past, bad guys the sheriff can’t handle
alone. !
Settings and iconography
As Domestic Melodrama- Story of making a home (finding a ranch), domestic relations at heart
of story (modeling ‘good’ behavior) !
Maverick (Warner Brothers/ABC 1957-62)- Sixth ranked show in 1958 !
-Maverick starts as conventional, then became ironic after three episodes- “conventional
western turned inside out’
-Roy Huggins becomes prominent figure in creating/producing !
How is this show ironic?- Itinerant gambler, talkative, reluctant hero, urbane. Mix of genres,
with voice-over narration, femme fatale and damsel in distress, plot twists, low-key lighting
(other episodes parody of other TV westerns)
Document Summary
Gunsmoke (1955-75)- #1 rated show 1957-62, top ten for rst 7 seasons, top ten 1967-73. Longest running live drama before law & order, adult western. Minow"s vast wasteland - (1961) (speech to nab)- fcc refers to tv content & tele lms as a. We cannot permit television in its present for to be our voice overseas . Ri eman (1958-63), bonanza (1959-73, top 10 for 10 seasons), the big valley (1965-69) Writing western tv scripts, rejected gunsmoke script becomes 1st episode of the ri eman, Didn"t originally wanna take role because television was looked down upon. Ri eman about father and son nding home in the west. As western- characters- ri eman with dark, shady past, bad guys the sheriff can"t handle alone. As domestic melodrama- story of making a home ( nding a ranch), domestic relations at heart of story (modeling good" behavior) Maverick (warner brothers/abc 1957-62)- sixth ranked show in 1958.
