Monday, October 7, 2013

Wide Country - The Complete Television Series - 28 Episodes!



Route 66 by another name
This series is very similar to Route 66 but with two brothers travelling around America with the rodeo circuit.I bought this sight unseen because of Earl Holliman from "Police Woman" fame.This is a good little series that failed to catch on maybe because it was thought to be only about the rodeo or maybe because there was not enough rodeo material shown to please some people.I read somewhere that this was a boring series.It is NOT.Some episodes are not great but what series has a good story every time and there are plenty of guest stars in each episode.I loved this series.Bonus features are interviews with both the stars and the pilot episode introduced by Fred Astaire which sold the series.
Here are some of the more interesting episodes:

The Royce Bennett Story. Rodeo rider with a terminal illness. Guests: Steve Forrest and Billy Mumy
Journey Down A Dusty Road
Who Killed Eddie Gannon
What are Friends For.[ A really funny episode]
Our Ernie Kills...

I Hope Timeless Video Does A Decent Job With This Series
While I obviously can't review this set since it hasn't been released yet, I hope Timeless Video does a better job than so many of their other releases of old TV series. (See Amazon reviews on any other Timeless releases on DVD, with the exception of The Virginian which they have done a good job on.)
As for the series itself, it is interesting how series with the same basic plot are released the same year and usually last the same amount of time. This show ran on NBC Thursday nights, it concerned rodeo rider Earl Holliman who travels the rodeo circuit with his younger brother, Andrew Prine. I watched it although I have no specific memories of specific episodes. The same year this series premiered on NBC, 1962, another rodeo show debuted on ABC: Stoney Burke with Jack Lord and a great supporting cast including Warren Oates and Bruce Dern. Both these rodeo series lasted 1 year and were cancelled. It is interesting how often we see this: The Munsters and The Addams Family, both...

Wide Country
This was a great series. As Mr. Holliman says in the included interview it was a "Route 66 follows the rodeo circuit". The stories were well written and the guest stars were superb. TimeLess Video does a great job of putting this classic series on DVD.

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