I've been watching a few episodes per season lately and this show is much better in the first 5 or so seasons. Once Landon sort of takes over and you have the weird looking guest stars and supporting cast it just takes a nose dive in quality.
Your basic western setting and cowboy focus gets lost in the weeds as a platform for ever more convoluted stories. And the last few seasons had way too much "little" joe with the long hair that was almost all gray. The ever weirder looking clown faced guests and supporting cast didn't help either. Lorna Green needed to step out a lot earlier as well, she didn't pass as the all knowing patriach with the dragging on of the series of old bachelors at home.
Other classic western TV like Maverick and Rawhide ended while still keeping to their themes and not wearing out their welcome with more and more crazy scenarios to attract interest. As a funny note Maverick had one episode that made fun of this show. Season 5 the queens full. I think Gunsmoke is another example of a tv western that was milked way too long and needed to be put out to pasture or sent to the glue factory much earlier.
Now the early seasons are tight, focused and all actors are really in their prime in the roles. It's focused on classic adventure themes in the country side and had plenty of material to work with. It wasn't bringing in side shows and men in dresses and such to keep itself going.
The relative clean-ness of this show is nice as well, there's no half good guy stuff like Maverick and Dillon the "friend" of kitty the night lady with his fake righteosness song and dance. This declines as the seasons go on but for the most part is consistent. A much better way to spend time in front of media if you choose to. And as a broken record the last few episodes of this show are all Landon, gag, and really don't fit all that well. I appreciate it not having "ending" specials and similar cringe stuff we get for a long time, "farewell tours" and other gimmicks but the last episode is very bizarre. It feature almost only Landon from the original cast who is hunted by tom skerrit and kind of wraps up the way this series turned into a Landon vehicle so much in the end. Sad really.
But overall the first 5-6 seasons are recommended classic western themed tv shows. That's a lot of tv with the 20 or so episodes at 48mins each every season. If you really need more there's the other 10 or so seasons to wrangle.
Your basic western setting and cowboy focus gets lost in the weeds as a platform for ever more convoluted stories. And the last few seasons had way too much "little" joe with the long hair that was almost all gray. The ever weirder looking clown faced guests and supporting cast didn't help either. Lorna Green needed to step out a lot earlier as well, she didn't pass as the all knowing patriach with the dragging on of the series of old bachelors at home.
Other classic western TV like Maverick and Rawhide ended while still keeping to their themes and not wearing out their welcome with more and more crazy scenarios to attract interest. As a funny note Maverick had one episode that made fun of this show. Season 5 the queens full. I think Gunsmoke is another example of a tv western that was milked way too long and needed to be put out to pasture or sent to the glue factory much earlier.
Now the early seasons are tight, focused and all actors are really in their prime in the roles. It's focused on classic adventure themes in the country side and had plenty of material to work with. It wasn't bringing in side shows and men in dresses and such to keep itself going.
The relative clean-ness of this show is nice as well, there's no half good guy stuff like Maverick and Dillon the "friend" of kitty the night lady with his fake righteosness song and dance. This declines as the seasons go on but for the most part is consistent. A much better way to spend time in front of media if you choose to. And as a broken record the last few episodes of this show are all Landon, gag, and really don't fit all that well. I appreciate it not having "ending" specials and similar cringe stuff we get for a long time, "farewell tours" and other gimmicks but the last episode is very bizarre. It feature almost only Landon from the original cast who is hunted by tom skerrit and kind of wraps up the way this series turned into a Landon vehicle so much in the end. Sad really.
But overall the first 5-6 seasons are recommended classic western themed tv shows. That's a lot of tv with the 20 or so episodes at 48mins each every season. If you really need more there's the other 10 or so seasons to wrangle.