4 Classic TV Western Comedies From the ’60s That Every Fan Should Watch
During the peak of their popularity on television, Westerns offered more than just showdowns and shootouts. Many small-screen Westerns were also lighthearted and designed to make viewers laugh. While most Westerns featured heroes and gunslingers, some featured well-known comedic talent along with stars of the silver screen and plenty of big-name guest stars.
Here are a few of the most noteworthy comedic Westerns of the 1960s.
Maverick
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ABC’s Maverick aired from 1957 until ’62. It starred James Garner as Bret Maverick and Jack Kelly as his brother Bart. The devious brothers preferred the card table to confronting bad guys. One of television’s most popular Westerns, Maverick is fondly remembered for its witty dialogue and jovial tone. The show turned Garner, already a relatively familiar presence on the big screen, into a TV star. Guest stars including Roger Moore and Robert Colbert made appearances as other members of the Maverick family. Looking back on the show a few decades after it originally aired, creator Roy Huggins explained that it was never meant to be a satire or an anti-Western. However you choose to describe Maverick, people loved it. The show is so beloved that all three major television networks attempted a reboot in the ’70s and ’80s, while the ’90s featured a movie version of the show starring Garner, Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. The movie made more than $100 million at the domestic box office, demonstrating the continuing affection for the lead character.
F Troop
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ABC was also home to F Troop, which ran for two seasons from 1965-67. Ken Berry led an ensemble cast and played the somewhat inept Capt. Wilton Parmenter, who is mistakenly promoted from private to captain as the Civil War comes to an end and put in charge of Fort Courage, Kansas. Viewers could find everything from slapstick, physical, and burlesque comedy to references to ’60s culture like the Playbrave Club (a parody of the Playboy Club). The ensemble cast included Forrest Tucker, Larry Storch, Melody Patterson, and Frank DeKova. The show is known for its colorful cast of characters (including big-name guest stars like Don Rickles, Jamie Farr, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Julie Newmar and Vincent Price) and outlandish situations. While it only had a brief run on ABC, the show found another life in syndication and aired regularly on TV Land.
Ken Whitmore/TV Guide/Everett Collection
Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats lasted for one season on CBS in 1966 until 67. One of the first shows on the network to air in color, it starred film actress Ann Sheridan in her only lead role on a TV series. She played the widowed, gun-toting head of a wacky family of homesteaders in 1870s Colorado. The supporting cast included Gary Vinson, Robert Lowery and Lon Chaney Jr. Every character, even the grandparents, carried firearms. The show spoofed famous events including the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. In “Shoot-Out at O’Day Corral,” the family finds themselves interacting with the notorious Blanton brothers along with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday (only the ending is a humorous one). Tragically, Sheridan died of cancer in 1967, not long after she completed filming, and the show was not renewed.
Laredo
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NBC’s Laredo was also more than just a classic Western drama. It aired for two seasons from 1965-67. The hourlong series followed three rowdy Texas Rangers: gruff Reese Bennett (Neville Brand), smooth-talking Chad Cooper (Peter Brown) and strongman Joe Riley (William Smith). Philip Carey played their stern commander, Capt. Edward Parmalee, who frequently found himself exasperated by their jokes and pranks. The show combined traditional Western action with roughhouse comedy, often at Reese’s expense. The characters were first introduced in “We’ve Lost a Train,” an April 1965 episode of The Virginian that served as the pilot for the new series. Robert Wolders joined the cast as stylish rookie Ranger Erik Hunter during the second season. Notable guest stars included Lee Van Cleef, George Kennedy, Jack Lord, and a teenage Kurt Russell.
NBC canceled Laredo after 56 episodes, but later on three episodes were assembled into the 1968 feature Three Guns for Texas.
Which one of these was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
This article appears in the September 2021 TV Westerns of the 1950s & 1960s issue of ReMIND Magazine. It is currently out of stock.
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