The Westerner (TV series)
| The Westerner | |
|---|---|
Brian Keith as Dave Blassingame and Spike as Brown, 1960
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| Genre | Western |
| Created by | Sam Peckinpah |
| Written by | Jack Curtis Bruce Geller Tom Gries Robert Heverly Sam Peckinpah |
| Directed by | Sam Peckinpah André de Toth Tom Gries |
| Starring | Brian Keith |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Hal Hudson |
| Producer(s) | Sam Peckinpah |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 25 mins. |
| Production company(s) | Four Star Productions |
| Distributor | Fox Television Studios |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 30 – December 30, 1960 |
The Westerner is a highbrow American Western series that aired on NBC from September 30 to December 30, 1960. Created and produced by Sam Peckinpah, who also directed some episodes, the series was a Four Star Television production. The Westerner stars Brian Keith as amiable, unexceptional cowhand/drifter Dave Blassingame, and features John Dehner as rakish Burgundy Smith, who appeared in three episodes.
The pilot for The Westerner appeared on CBS's Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater. The musical score was largely the work of Four Star's Herschel Burke Gilbert. For rerun syndication, it was grouped with three other short-lived Western series from the same company, Black Saddle starring Peter Breck, Johnny Ringo starring Don Durant, and Law of the Plainsman starring Michael Ansara, under the umbrella title The Westerners, bracketed with hosting sequences featuring Keenan Wynn.
Blassingame was realistically portrayed as a basically decent, ordinary man who was handy with a gun and his fists (and when the occasion arose, the ladies). A cowboy and itinerant drifter, Dave could sometimes behave amorally in his quest to get enough money together to buy his own ranch, but always did the right thing in the end, and remained true to himself. His equally amiable dog Brown was played by Spike, who was trained by Frank Weatherwax and is best known for playing the title role in Old Yeller. Brown figured prominently in a number of episodes, appeared in all of them, and was always seen faithfully following Blassingame in the end credits.
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