Longtime NBC newsman Garrick Utley has died at age 74.
Utley joined the Peacock Network in 1963 and was among the first correspondents to cover the Vietnam War. He reported from more than 70 countries during his career, which also saw him anchoring evening newscasts and moderating Sunday morning roundtable Meet The Press.
After spending three decades at NBC, Utley went on to work at ABC and CNN. He passed away Thursday in New York.
Westerns were all over the primetime network schedules in the 1950s and 60s. By the time the 1970s rolled around, viewer tastes were changing and the western era was all but over.
Long-running westerns Bonanza and Gunsmoke ended in the 1970s. Although there were a handful of westerns that launched later in the decade, none could match the genre’s earlier success.
Fortunately, many local stations continued to air off-network reruns of classic westerns long after they left primetime. These local stations, along with family-oriented cable networks like CBN (now ABC Family), helped expose these great shows to new generations of viewers.
Today there are many places to catch your favorite western shows, whether its on pay channels like Encore Westerns or for free on national diginets like Cozi and MeTV. There are also many westerns available for purchase on DVD.
The table below shows where classic westerns (1950s-70s) are currently available for viewing (as of February 2014). The columns include Program Title (with a link to DVD releases), Diginets (national programming services carried by local TV stations), Cable/Satellite Networks and Streaming (Internet-based services like Hulu, Netflix).
Saddle up and enjoy! Please contact me via Facebook or Twitter with your comments and suggestions.
| Program Title w/DVD Link | Diginet | Cable/Satellite | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Man Called Shenandoah | |||
| The Adventures of Champion | |||
| The Adventures of Jim Bowie | Cozi & Retro | ||
| The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin | Antenna | ||
| The Alaskans | |||
| Alias Smith and Jones | Cozi | Hulu | |
| Barbary Coast | |||
| Bat Masterson | Encore Westerns | ||
| The Big Valley | MeTV | INSP | Hulu |
| Bonanza | MeTV | Encore Westerns & INSP | Hulu |
| Branded | MeTV | ||
| Brave Eagle | |||
| Broken Arrow | |||
| Bronco | |||
| Buckskin | |||
| The Californians | |||
| Cheyenne | |||
| The Chisholms | |||
| Cimarron City | |||
| Cimarron Strip | |||
| The Cisco Kid | Retro | ||
| Colt .45 | |||
| The Cowboys | |||
| Custer | |||
| The Dakotas | |||
| Daniel Boone | |||
| The Deputy | Cozi | ||
| Dirty Sally | |||
| Dundee and the Culhane | |||
| Empire | |||
| Frontier | |||
| Frontier Circus | |||
| Fury | |||
| The Gene Autry Show | |||
| Gunslinger | |||
| Gunsmoke | MeTV | Encore Westerns | |
| The Guns of Will Sonnett | MeTV | ||
| Have Gun Will Travel | Encore Westerns | ||
| Here Come The Brides | Antenna | ||
| High Chaparral | INSP | ||
| Hondo | |||
| Hopalong Cassidy | Cozi & Retro | ||
| How The West Was Won | |||
| The Iron Horse | |||
| Johnny Ringo | |||
| Klondike | |||
| Kung Fu | |||
| Lancer | |||
| Laramie | |||
| Laredo | |||
| Law of the Plainsman | |||
| The Lawman | |||
| The Legend of Jesse James | |||
| The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp | Encore Westerns | ||
| Little House on the Prairie | Hallmark & INSP | ||
| The Loner | |||
| The Lone Ranger | Cozi | Angel Two & FETV | Hulu |
| The Man from Blackhawk | |||
| Man Without a Gun | |||
| Marshal Dillon* | Encore Westerns | ||
| Maverick | Cozi | Encore Westerns | |
| The Monroes | |||
| My Friend Flicka | |||
| Nichols | |||
| The Oregon Trail | |||
| The Outcasts | |||
| Outlaws | |||
| Overland Trail | |||
| The Quest | |||
| Rawhide | MeTV | AMC | |
| The Rebel | MeTV | ||
| Redigo | |||
| The Restless Gun | |||
| The Rifleman | MeTV | AMC | Hulu |
| Riverboat | |||
| The Road West | |||
| The Rough Riders | |||
| The Roy Rogers Show | Cozi | Angel Two & FETV | Hulu |
| Sergeant Preston of the Yukon | FETV | ||
| Shane | |||
| Sky King | |||
| Stagecoach West | |||
| Stoney Burke | |||
| Sugarfoot | |||
| Tales of Wells Fargo | |||
| The Tall Man | |||
| Temple Houston | |||
| The Texan | |||
| Tombstone Territory | |||
| Trackdown | |||
| The Travels of Jamie McPheeters | |||
| The Virginian* | Cozi | INSP | |
| Wagon Train | MeTV | ||
| Wanted Dead or Alive | MeTV | ||
| The Westerner | |||
| Wichita Town | |||
| The Wide Country | |||
| The Wild Wild West | |||
| Yancy Derringer | |||
| Young Daniel Boone | |||
| Zane Grey Theatre | |||
| Zorro |
*Half-hour version of Gunsmoke
**Also known as The Men from Shiloh
Christine Ebersole is first on today’s birthday list. The 61 year old actress-singer appeared on daytime soaps One Life To Live and Ryan’s Hope. She was a regular on Saturday Night Live in the early 80s and is currently in the cast of the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son.
Also celebrating a birthday: Tyne Daly is 68. She guested on many classic TV series including Hawaii Five-0, Ironside, Medical Center, Quincy and The Virginian. She also appeared on The Rookies with ex-husband Georg Stanford Brown. Daly went on to star in the long-running 1980s crime drama Cagney and Lacey. She’s also the sister of actor Tim Daly (Wings).
Gary Lockwood turns 77 today. He starred in the 1963 drama The Lieutenant and guested on many classic shows of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. His resume includes 12 O’Clock High, Barnaby Jones, Medical Center and Perry Mason.
February 21 is also the birthday of some classic TV favorites no longer with us. Humorist Erma Bombeck wrote a long-running newspaper column and appeared on Good Morning America. B-movie actress Arline Judge guested on Mr. & Mrs. North and Perry Mason. Austrian-American actress Celia Lovsky appeared on many classic shows of the 1950s to the 70s, including Dragnet (both 1950s and late 1960s versions), The Flying Nun, Marcus Welby M.D., Playhouse 90 and The Waltons. Lovsky was once married to movie actor Peter Lorre.
Also born this day: Rue McClanahan (The Golden Girls, Mama’s Family, Maude), film director-screenwriter Sam Peckinpah (Straw Dogs, The Wild Bunch…also worked on TV, mostly westerns like Broken Arrow, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and The Westerner) and Ann Sheridan. Sheridan, pictured above, starred in such movies as Angels with Dirty Faces and appeared on daytime soap Another World, Lux Video Theatre and Wagon Train. Her last role was as star of the 1966 sitcom Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats.
Actor Ben Chapman died on February 21. He made a couple of early TV appearances (Adventures in Paradise, The Colgate Comedy Hour) but is best known for playing the Gill Man in Creature from the Black Lagoon.