Showing results by author "Andrew Rhynes" in All Categories

The Six Shooter brought James Stewart to the NBC microphone on September 20, 1953, in a fine series of folksy Western adventures.

Have Gun Will Travel was a popular American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was the #4 show in the Nielsen ratings in its first year, and #3 for the next three years. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted on November 23, 1958. The show followed the adventures of Paladin, a gentleman-turned-gunfighter played by John Dehner on radio, who preferred to settle problems without violence, yet, when forced to fight, excelled. Paladin lived in the Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, where he dressed in ...

This western featured movie star Guy Madison as the lead, ably assisted by media veteran Andy Devine as his sidekick Jingles. Wild Bill Hickok was a figure in the American Old West, his skills as a gunfighter and scout, along with his reputation as a lawman, provided the basis for his fame, although some of his exploits are fictionalized.

The Whistler is told from the killers’ perspective, the Whistler himself tells the story but is not part of it. He talks to the characters, although they do not hear him. “I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes… I know the nameless terrors of which they cannot speak.” Of course, the bad guys set up the perfect crime.

Suspense presented some of the best stories of the thriller genre. Although classic short stories and novellas were sometimes adapted, many of the best Suspense scripts were original radio plays created for the show. Rightly considered one of Radio’s greatest programs, the relationship between Suspense and the motion picture industry is undeniable.

Escape takes you on a ride into a world where danger comes in many forms, and you are on the edge of life and death, and perhaps you are being pushed! When Escape says romantic, we’re not talking kissing, perhaps those kisses might be from teeming piranha! Escape is more Devil’s Island than Fantasy Island. And it is a wonderful mystery radio for the whole family, especially Dad.

Mystery is a fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (such as Sherlock Holmes), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader. Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its ...

Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal, to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.

The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in 1930s pulp novels and later in a variety of media. Its title character has been featured on the radio, in a long-running pulp magazine series, in American comic books, comic strips, television, serials, video games, and at least five feature films. The radio drama includes episodes voiced by Orson Welles. The introductory line from the radio adaptation of The Shadow – “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!” and at the end of each episode, reminded listeners, “The weed of crime bears bitter fruit!...

Challenge of the Yukon was a long-running radio series that began on Detroit’s station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet), and an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on February 3, 1938.

The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925

Frontier Gentleman is different from other radio westerns in that the story centered not around some colorful character out of the old West, but it is about a foreigner. An Englishman who came to America to experience firsthand what it is like to live in the still wild and untamed frontier. As the series goes on, we’ll find that Kendall is as good with a gun as he is with a pen.

The Cisco Kid was a popular film, radio, television and comic book series based on the fictional Western character created by O. Henry in his short story, “The Caballero’s Way,” published in 1907 in the collection Heart of the West. Films and television depicted the Cisco Kid as a heroic Mexican caballero, although in O. Henry’s original story he was a non-Hispanic character and a cruel outlaw probably modeled on Billy the Kid. The Cisco Kid came to radio October 2, 1942, with Jackson Beck in the title role and Louis Sorin as Poncho. With Vicki Vola and Bryna Raeburn in supporting ...

Gunsmoke was a long-running old-time radio and television Western drama program set in Dodge City, Kansas during the settlement of the American West. The radio show first aired on April 26, 1952 and ran until June 18, 1961 on the CBS radio network.

Country Style, USA is a series of 15-minute radio and film programs produced by the US Army as a recruiting aid from 1957 to 1960 featuring top American country music artists. Each year 13 episodes were produced in Nashville, Tennessee and distributed to local radio and TV stations.

The story was that a mild-mannered rancher, Steve Adams, had been a Comanche Indian who was taken in by ranchers very early in life.

The Lone Ranger is an American radio and television show created by George W. Trendle and developed by writer Fran Striker.

Fort Laramie is a Western drama that depicted life at old Fort Laramie during the 19th Century.

Chad Remington is an aspiring new lawyer in the big city whose world and dreams are turned upside down by the news of his father’s murder back in the small ranching town of Dos Rios where he was raised. His quest to bring the killer to justice serves as the springboard to an unexpected new career as a crimefighting attorney struggling to bring order to his small corner of the frontier as it makes the difficult transition from the Old West to the New.

Not all westerns were done as full series. This is a collection of Western Stories from different shows that did not focus strictly on westerns but had episodes that were westerns or during the western era.