TV Like You’ve Never Seen It! A Foray into Hell: The Premiere Episode of Sam Peckinpah’s The Westerner (1960) (Complete Video, Presented Without Commercial Interruptions)

Re-posted by Nicholas Stix

Don’t blink! That’s how sudden things happen here. It’s a mere 25-minute episode, but it feels like twice as long, not because it drags, but because it’s so intense.

The series opens with Dave Blassingame (Brian Keith) addressing the love of his life, from atop his horse:

“Go on, Dog. We got a long way to go, yet. We got us a man to kill, when we get there.”

When they get to town, it’s dark. A blond woman offering a Christian tract that he pays her for sweetly tells him,

“There’s no charge for salvation.”

You’d better hold tight to the reins, viewer, or you might fall off your mount, and break your neck!

Unfortunately, in spite of the success of the Peckinpah-created The Rifleman, which was going strong at the time on ABC, NBC pulled the plug on this series after a mere 13-episode buy. It was strong drink for viewers and network suits alike at the time, but introduced preoccupations that its creator would spend the next nine years working out, by the end of which he will have taught Western audiences to acquire a taste for the product of his particular still.
 

The Westerner 1960 S01E01: “Jeff”



Published on Oct 18, 2014 by Sam Peckinpah's The Westerner (1960).