Rawhide (TV Western)

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

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[citation needed]. 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.

• Clint Eastwood ... Rowdy Yates (217 episodes, 1959-1965)
• Paul Brinegar ... Wishbone (216 episodes, 1959-1965)
• Steve Raines ... Jim Quince (215 episodes, 1959-1965)
• Eric Fleming ... Gil Favor (202 episodes, 1959-1965)
• James Murdock ... Mushy (202 episodes, 1959-1965)
• Rocky Shahan ... Joe Scarlett (181 episodes, 1959-1965)
• Robert Cabal ... Jesus (pronounced — Hey Soos) (112 episodes, 1959-1965)
• Sheb Wooley ... Pete Nolan (110 episodes, 1959-1965)

The plot

The typical Rawhide story involved drovers, portrayed by Eric Fleming (Trail Boss Gil Favor) and Clint Eastwood (ramrod 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.

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 theme song 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.