The Overlooked Second Roles of TVs Greatest Western Stars

The fine folks at Heroes & Icons present The Overlooked Second Roles of TVs Greatest Western Stars.  Here are three of my favorites and my thoughts…

JAMES ARNESS IN ‘HOW THE WEST WAS WON’

Twenty years is a long time to play a character. And that was just the beginning. Arness kept pinning on his Marshal badge in Gunsmoke TV movies up until the mid-1990s. Audiences could not get enough of Matt Dillon for four decades. In the middle there, from 1977–79, Arness headlined How the West Was Won, a loose adaptation of the 1962 film that began as a miniseries. The veteran cowboy actor played Zebulon “Zeb” Macahan, a rugged pioneer, tracker and Army scout who moves his family from Virginia to the frontier. Bruce Boxleitner and Eva Marie Saint rounded out the stellar cast.

I was a huge fan of How the West Was Won and Zeb Machan was my favorite character.  He was a no-nonsense frontiersman who seemed so different from the heroes on tv at that time.  I’d like to see the series again to check out if it holds up to my memory of how good it was.

CHUCK CONNORS IN ‘BRANDED’

Former three-sport professional athlete Chuck Connors cut an impressive figure as a TV cowboy. His imposing presence also made him suitable as an indomitable villain, as he so often portrayed later in his career. However, two years after The Rifleman star hung up his Winchester, he slid into a new uniform, portraying unjustly disgraced cavalry captain Jason McCord on Branded. McCord was a vagabond, wandering the country like the Fugitive or Incredible Hulk, seeking to prove himself. Connor’s broad shoulders wore the massive chip in it well. Alas, kicking off in 1965, the series lasted a mere two seasons. Perhaps it was doomed to be an outlier, as the show was a rare scripted drama from Goodson-Todman Productions, a studio best known for churning out hit game shows like The Price Is Right, Family Feud, Match Game and Password.

I was a huge fan of Branded.  It hit at a great time for me as I was really into the whole Custer legend.  The thought that a man survived the battle and was unjustly branded a coward made for good drama.

JAMES GARNER IN ‘NICHOLS’

Nichols was a reunion between James Garner and Warner Bros., his first work for the studio since his iconic role as Maverick. The two lead characters had much in common, from their black hats to their sharp wit to their similar adventures. However, Nichols took some unexpected turns. For starters, our hero rode a motorcycle, not a horse. Then, after shaky ratings, producers killed off Nichols — only to replace him with his twin brother, Nichols. This new Nichols had a mustache. The great Margot Kidder co-starred as the love interest, yet somehow audiences just did not click.

Nicols was a different spin on the western.  It was set at the turn-of-the-century and the hero drove a motorcycle!  I loved it… but you know the series is in trouble when they kill off the star’s character… even if he returns as his twin brother.

Around this same time there was another series set in the turn-of-the-century west called The Bearcats that I liked.  It didn’t last long either.