On September 19, 1962, The Virginian made its primetime broadcast premiere. The 1902 novel by Owen Wister had already seen four movie adaptations when Frank Price mentioned the story's series potential to NBC. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series. Immensely successful, it ran for nine seasons--television's third longest running western. This work accounts for the entire creative history of The Virginian, including the original inspirations and the motion picture adaptations--but the primary focus is its transformation into television and the ways in which the show changed over time. An extensive episode guide includes title, air date, guest star(s), writers, producers, director and a brief synopsis of each of The Virginian's 249 episodes, along with detailed cast and production credits.
From automatons to zombies, many elements of fantasy and science fiction have been cross-pollinated with the Western movie genre. In its second edition, this encyclopedia of the Weird Western includes many new entries covering film, television, animation, novels, pulp fiction, short stories, comic books, graphic novels and video and role-playing games. Categories include Weird, Weird Menace, Science Fiction, Space, Steampunk and Romance Westerns.
Producer-writer Roy Huggins is best known for creating the TV series, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, The Fugitive, Run For Your Life and The Rockford Files (with Stephen J. Cannell). This biography details his personal and professional life, aided by exclusive interviews with family, producers, actors and writers who worked with him. The author was granted exclusive access to Huggins' personal memoirs to provide an intimate, firsthand account, including his early career at Columbia, RKO, Warner Bros. and 20th Century-Fox. Huggins' political activism at UCLA and the subsequent House Un-American Activities hearing in 1952 is covered in depth. The book includes an extensive filmography and previously unpublished photographs provided by family members.
Most widely known for his starring role as outlaw Hannibal Heyes in television's Alias Smith and Jones (1971-1973), actor Pete Duel (originally Peter Deuel) led an unpredictable and often tumultuous life, cut short by his highly publicized suicide on New Year's Eve 1971, at the height of his celebrity. In the expanded second edition, this biography of Duel reveals more personal aspects of his career and death, including his formative years in New York City and Hollywood. The author draws on extensive interviews with Duel's closest family and friends, including sister Pamela Deuel, former girlfriends Jill Andre, Beth Griswold, Kim Darby and Dianne Ray, as well actors, producers, directors and writers who worked with Duel.
The distinguished film career of Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Jones (1919-2009) is thoroughly chronicled from her faltering start as Phylis Isley (her real name) at Republic Studios in 1939, to her re-invention as a major star by producer David O. Selznick, the actress' second husband. Each of her 24 films--among them The Song of Bernadette, Since You Went Away, Duel in the Sun, Portrait of Jennie, Madame Bovary and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing--is discussed in depth. Robert Osborne, host of the Turner Classic Movies cable channel, affectionately recalls his interview with Jennifer Jones in the Foreword. The actress' biography, radio appearances and unrealized projects are also covered, along with previously undocumented details of her limited stage career, including a 1966 revival of Clifford Odets' The Country Girl.
This biographical encyclopedia covers every actor and actress who had a regular role in a Western series on American television from 1960 through 1975, with analyses of key players. The entries provide birth and death dates, family information, and accounts of each player's career, with a cross-referenced videography. An appendix gives details about all Western series, network or syndicated, 1960-1975. The book is fully indexed.
Edward R. Rogaishio, Author, Fine Artist, Deputy Fire Chief (Retired) To all who suffer daily under the burdens of illnesses that fill the world my deepest wish is that this story gives them renewed determination and strength to endure and fight on and that those within whom hope is failing or nearly lost that each day may be at least a tiny bit better than the last so that hope for complete relief becomes a bit stronger every day. -Edward "Edward R. Rogaishio is, at once, a classic townie and a local version of a Renaissance man."” -Chris Bergeron/Reporter/DAILY NEWS STAFF "Quite impressive!" "Maybe writing this memoir can be an inspiration for future heart surgery patients." -Kamal R. Khabbaz, M.D., Cardiac Surgeon, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center You're wondering how you could possibly have survived … having endured so many life threatening medical episodes." "Instead of inviting pity you share your experiences with clarity and humor in hopes of making others less fearful. To that I say, bravo!" -Linda J. Dixon, Secretary of the Corporation (retired) Tufts University "I am sure many people will … gain immensely from your reflection and philosophizing." "You have made a terrific contribution to the local culture and history." -Magruder Craig Donaldson, M.D., Vascular & Endovascular Surgery Six Additional plus Full Commentaries inside……
This three-volume set is a valuable resource for researching the history of American television. An encyclopedic range of information documents how television forever changed the face of media and continues to be a powerful influence on society. What are the reasons behind enduring popularity of television genres such as police crime dramas, soap operas, sitcoms, and "reality TV"? What impact has television had on the culture and morality of American life? Does television largely emulate and reflect real life and society, or vice versa? How does television's influence differ from that of other media such as newspapers and magazines, radio, movies, and the Internet? These are just a few of the questions explored in the three-volume encyclopedia TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. This expansive set covers television from 1950 to the present day, addressing shows of all genres, well-known programs and short-lived series alike, broadcast on the traditional and cable networks. All three volumes lead off with a keynote essay regarding the technical and historical features of the decade(s) covered. Each entry on a specific show investigates the narrative, themes, and history of the program; provides comprehensive information about when the show started and ended, and why; and identifies the star players, directors, producers, and other key members of the crew of each television production. The set also features essays that explore how a particular program or type of show has influenced or reflected American society, and it includes numerous sidebars packed with interesting data, related information, and additional insights into the subject matter.
The Red Skelton Show was on the air for 20 years, the longest-running primetime network comedy variety series on television. It was a top 10 series for nine years--an accomplishment surpassed only by Gunsmoke and Home Improvement. The series has a few unimpressive achievements too, such as becoming the first top 10 series to be cancelled by a network. Here is the history of The Red Skelton Show, beginning with its debut in 1951, one of the top five that year. The show then declined in popularity, moved from CBS to NBC in 1953, slowly rose back to the top. In its glory days of the 1960s it became an hour long show and finished at number two in two different years. The cancellation of the show by CBS in 1970 despite its place in the top 10 was a surprise; the last season back with NBC was a failure. Appendices list cast and crew credits and special guests by season, and offer information on the post-Red Skelton lives of many of the principal players.
From roots to canopy, a lush, verdant history of the making of California. California now has more trees than at any time since the late Pleistocene. This green landscape, however, is not the work of nature. It’s the work of history. In the years after the Gold Rush, American settlers remade the California landscape, harnessing nature to their vision of the good life. Horticulturists, boosters, and civic reformers began to "improve" the bare, brown countryside, planting millions of trees to create groves, wooded suburbs, and landscaped cities. They imported the blue-green eucalypts whose tangy fragrance was thought to cure malaria. They built the lucrative "Orange Empire" on the sweet juice and thick skin of the Washington navel, an industrial fruit. They lined their streets with graceful palms to announce that they were not in the Midwest anymore. To the north the majestic coastal redwoods inspired awe and invited exploitation. A resource in the state, the durable heartwood of these timeless giants became infrastructure, transformed by the saw teeth of American enterprise. By 1900 timber firms owned the entire redwood forest; by 1950 they had clear-cut almost all of the old-growth trees. In time California’s new landscape proved to be no paradise: the eucalypts in the Berkeley hills exploded in fire; the orange groves near Riverside froze on cold nights; Los Angeles’s palms harbored rats and dropped heavy fronds on the streets below. Disease, infestation, and development all spelled decline for these nonnative evergreens. In the north, however, a new forest of second-growth redwood took root, nurtured by protective laws and sustainable harvesting. Today there are more California redwoods than there were a century ago. Rich in character and story, Trees in Paradise is a dazzling narrative that offers an insightful, new perspective on the history of the Golden State and the American West.
