Lightening up -- TV shows?

B

Bruce from West Oz

New member
I know things are looking grim over there for gunowners, and we've written a lot about the "good old days" when gun ownership was not Politically Incorrect :(

Let's look back then with a bit of a smile -- what were some of your favourite TV shows which featured or included firearms?

I'll kick off with just a couple (and I'm sure you'll appreciate that in the "early"days of TV, Australian TV showed a lot of American shows -- still does for that matter ;))

Combat -- I wanted to be like Caje -- but I wanted Kirby's BAR more! (How did he carry so much ammo?) It also started a lifelong love affair with the M1 carbine (the Lieutenant carried one) that culminated nearly 20 years later when a mate of mine bought one (it was legal in his State) and I actually got to fire it!!
The Rifleman -- I'd watch it just for the opening!!!
Maverick -- loved Brett, hated Bart!
F Troop -- "Chinwester, the gun that won the West!"
The Avengers (UK) -- Mrs Peel, now she could shoot (and gave an adolescent boy many fevered fantasies!)
Hawaii 5-O -- "Book 'em, Danno"
Paladin -- I wanted a holster with a horse's head on it s-o-o-o bad!
Sea Hunt -- if it wasn't a gun, it was a speargun :)

I'm sure we can think of others. What I remember most is that the morality was so clear-cut -- guns were used to right a wrong, and only the crims and bad guys "misused" them. But then, maybe we were looking through rose-tinted glasses.

Bruce
 
Bruce, you left out The Rat Patrol...

Go out shoot a bunch of Jerries, get captured & shoot a whole lot more whilst escaping !

Remember the "clicker" episode in Combat? Where they used the toy clickers to "quietly" identify their position & later the GI goes click, click & hears a return sound but it's the German cocking his gun !

Ahh the memories, bit like when I owned semi-auto longarms - The good 'ol Days!

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
 
All of the above. The Rebel. He had a sawoff lever action and carried it in a holster on his hip. Very cool.(I think that is right,a long ,long time ago,in a place far,far away.)

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Keep the Faith and the Constitution
 
Let's not forget that Hawaii 5-O was a blatently rabidly anti-gun show, even though guns were used. Jack Lord never missed a chance to preach that guns should not be in peoples hands.
Paul B.
COMPROMISE IS NOT AN OPTION!
 
Gunsmoke, THE F.B.I., glad someone said the rat patrol, the man from u.n.c.l.e. always had something cool, branded, hell i know there's more my brain just ain't workin'.

Oz, i remember Mrs. Peel very well! ;)

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fiat justitia
 
I'm going to show my age a little, but let's get in the "Way Back Machine" -

Annie Oakley - not a bit of accurate history, but good

The Cisco Kid - never missed

The Lone Ranger - I met Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels one day at the Irvine Ranch. I lost the silver bullet he gave me in one of the many moves since then.

Davy Crockett

Daniel Boone

Moving ahead in time:

Tombstone Territory

Wyatt Earp

All of the Warner Brothers western series -

Maverick - Bruce, I agree, I was always disappointed when the story centered around Bart or Beau instead of Brett.

Colt .45

Sugerfoot - kind of a pansy, but the other guys could shoot well.
 
This is interesting.

See...when I was a kid, I got all enthralled too, in the same ways, but it wasn't guns.

It was cars.

And the absolute topper was at around age 15ish when an *Australian* import of a film hit the US.

The Road Warrior. The original "Mad Max" only hit later, on video, but TRW had a *major* effect on me. I mean, seein' ol' Mel decide "OK, enough of these clowns, time to BOOGIE" and hit the switch on that supercharger, seeing the close-up of that big bad boy spoolin' up, that kewl screamin' noise as it kicked in...SWOON! An' I damn near cried when he totalled it.

The guns were cool and all, and just the concept of some dude armed to the teeth in the baddest thing on wheels and able to pack enough gas to go forever (remember them two giant fuel cannisters?) was to me, just the absolute height of independence.

Sigh. And this from AUSTRALIA...the irony is just murderous.

Jim March
 
The Westerner with Brian Keith - he carried a '95 Winchester.
Yancy Derringer
Bat Masterson
Trackdown
Wanted: Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen (he is the one with the sawn off '92 Winchester)
Tales of the Texas Rangers
Johnny Ringo - He carried a LaMatt revolver
Tales of Wells Fargo
Marshal of Cochise with Glenn Ford

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
 
Rawhide (with a young Clint Eastwood)
The Wild Wild West
12 O'Clock High
Death Valley Days
Roy & Dale (Happy Trails to You)

[This message has been edited by DHH (edited May 16, 1999).]
 
Paul B: You're right, of course, I'd forgotten about Jack Lord's anti-gun preaching. See what I meant by "rose-coloured glasses"?

Jim March:
Ahhh, yes, the "original" Mad Max. Must have seen it 6 or 8 times when I was younger. The X-series GT Ford Falcon "Interceptor" with the supercharged 351 c.i. V-8. They were good in a straight line, but handled like a wet sponge round corners. And fuel economy!!!! He'd need those tankers of gas!

Mind you, that was before good ol' Mel decided to bite the hand that feeds him (literally) and open his cakehole to make anti-gun statements. I've refused to watch his movies since then.

Bruce
 
Bruce, that wasn't a FORD!

It was an "AMX", the two-seat "sport version" of the old AMX Javelin. Had a Mopar 389 if I recall. A total of six were shipped to Oz back in the 60's with the steering wheel on the "wrong side", they got ahold of two or three for the movie and wrecked one in "The Road Warrior" (part 2 of the trilogy).

Back in my wild youth I had a '65 VW Bug converted to Baja with a 33gal. extended tank up front, dual-carb 1776cc "monstermotor", three oil coolers, 31" tires, the works. Primer grey hood, battered red chassis, black doors off a '62 that fit but were obviously "wrong" in a subtle fashion, full guage set, dual fuel pumps - if the mechanical one on the motor took a crap I could hit a switch and keep going with the electric mounted near the tank, or use that as a booster if the fuel filter got dirty. Tranny had major mods, steel shift forks, welded gears and a superdiff. Old rusty but POTENT off-road spotlights scrounged at a junkyard. That thing could out-climb most 4x4s.

GREAT ol' beast. Never washed it. Ugly as sin. And on both doors I had the words "Barfergnugen".

Most fun I ever had in a car, bouncing around in the wilderness in that critter.

It woulda fit right into ol' Max's world just FINE.

Jim March
 
Just when I get ready to put on my 14oz gloves, Hal comes & ruins my day ! ;)

Was gonna go & tell you guys that it was a '78 XC Ford & we Aussies know OUR cars :D ...

Hal, your'e a party pooper !

Oh & btw, no ones mentioned Hogans Heroes yet..

Hogaaaaaaannnnnnn !!!

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
 
Ah yes.

Combat
Rat Patrol
FBI
Cannon
Mannix
Kojak
Baa Baa Blacksheep

And right before FBI was Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

Man...where has the time gone?

- Ron V.

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Gotta jump in here on Mad Max and the cars. It was indeed a '73 XB GT Ford Falcon, strictly an Australian version. I must have watched that movie 8 times. But my wife has watched it over 20 times, honest. Not because Gibson was "dreamy", but because she was enthralled with the meaning behind the movie. We both enjoyed the early Mel Gibson movies, "Gallipoli" and especially "The Year of Living Dangerously". Today he sucks.

If you want some good history of the Mad Max movies, including good photos of the cars, go to www.madmaxmovies.com.
 
Other TV shows from the past:

I SPY

MANNAX

THE MAN FROM UNCLE

HOPALONG CASSIDY (for you real old timers)

THE BEARCATS (took place around 1914 in the southwest, the heros carried 1911's)-I could be wrong about the name.

COLT .45

When my poor old mind kicks back in I'll post another list. :D



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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
 
Phew!! Thanks for the support on this -- I thought the Alzheimer's was starting to gallop rather than creep ;)

I remember seeing the real thing at a shopping centre here in Perth years ago and thinking to myself -- 'Gawd, what a heap of cr*p!!!!" compared to how good it looked on screen.

Bruce
 
Saw the BEAST myself a few years back around '87. What a Black shiney piece of crap it was... ;)

Ahh, sorry about that Chief ! - Get Smart hasn't been mentioned yet either :D

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
 
I thought the car in Mad Max was an Aussie Ford, too, a supercharged Holden, a make that did well in saloon racing.

And I remember the "clicker" scene from "The Longest Day," though Combat may have borrowed it or vice versa (where the GI uses a cricker clicker to identify himself, gets what he thinks is a reply, fatally shows himself and it turns out to be a German working the bolt on his rifle.)

TV did an excellent job of remaking "All Quiet on The Western Front," though it didn't have the contemporary freshness of the original, made while WW1 was still a recent event.
 
Jim V:

Yes, I remember, it was called Bearcats! Ex-pat Aussie actor Rod Taylor and a young Dennis Cole. The name came from the car -- a Stutz Bearcat. Set in Arizona. Taylor wore like ex-army uniform -- khaki jodhpurs and shirt, high boots, and crowned hat (sorta like a Boy Scout/Marine-type hat). Had a 1911 in a clip-down style military holster.

Ahhh, good memories :)

Bruce
 
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