During the pandemic I had time to catch up on my TV watching. The news stations didn't interest me and I found myself turning to a lot "Nostalgia" television. In particular old cowboy movies and the TV shows that were all the rage in the 1960s.

One of the things I found fascinating is the guest stars on many of these shows. Anyone who was established in Hollywood or an up and comer made a guest appearance on the shows and it made a regular of any show that was airing on my cable.

The biggies were of course Gunsmoke, Bonanza and The Big Valley but one show that I had never heard of quickly became my favorite. In fact, I watch it every night. It's called The Virginian and it ran from 1962 - 1971 so there are tons of episodes for me to watch.

One of the most interesting things about the show is it's runtime. It is a 90 minute show and as far as I know it's the only one that ran that way.

The show revolves around the crew of the Shiloh Ranch in Medicine Bow Wyoming beginning in 1898. I have noticed that The Virginian isn't a show that circulates on Hulu, Netflix or other Streaming services but you can find episodes on Youtube or hosted on individual blogs. I happen to be lucky because my cable company has the Inspire channel and it is loaded with old Cowboy stuff.

I wouldn't have thought Id be so into Westerns because I wasn't as a child but I'm watching them by the ton and getting hooked on the old TV shows.

So what's your favorite Western? It can be a movie or a TV series. I have to say at the moment while even though I've now watched most of the 400ish Gunsmoke episodes, The Virginin is my favorite.

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