Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

There are numerous TV Western collections out there on the dvd praire and all showing real signs of age and neglect. However here is one thats sure to delight anyone who grew up playing cowboys & indians in the 1950's and 60's. Again, the quality isn't too bad considering they haven't been really professionally restored the way most movies are. But remember, when we first used to see them on TV at that time, the TV picture via the old aerial, wasn't always too great either. TV stations before tape, showed these episodes via telecine, that is they physically ran 16mm prints on special movie projectors. Even though the exspensively produced "Bonanza" was the first TV Western to be aired in color, thanks to those RCA sets which the show did so well at selling. The first show to be shot in color was "The Cisco Kid". Years earlier and on a shoe-string budget and with 16mm cameras. The producers were smart to predict that color was coming and gave that particular show an even longer life in syndication. At their height in 1959, there were 48 westerns on the air, mostly half hour shows of course, but they dominated our living rooms morning, noon and night. Let's face it for the money, this collection is a better steal than anything ever taken in one of those endless stage or bank robberies, these oaters are always depicting. And for anyone who grew up after their intial runs and even the many years of syndication, these shows are an education. A look at a perceived simpler time with simpler values! Oh! one other thing pardner -try to get hold of a copy of TV's Western Heroes hosted by Will "Sugarfoot" Hutchins. It's the perfect companion to this set, as not only profiles the shows, but shows the very classic commercials that inter-rupted them. That plus network promos and bloopers. HAPPY TRAILS!