How many of you remember back in the day, what us oldsters called “good TV”? Shows like “Daniel Boone” and “Davy Crockett,” “Rawhide” and “Adventures in Paradise,” “Gunsmoke” and “Have Gun Will Travel” were the common TV dramas at that time.
How many remember sitting on the living room floor and as Frankie Laine sang the theme to Rawhide, you tried to keep up with him until it seemed your lungs would burst from a lack of air, he held that last note sooooo long. Then on Saturday, the TV came on the air at 7:30 a.m. with shows like “Kaptain Kangaroo” (and yes, it was spelled with a K). Then there were “Mighty Mouse” and “Bugs Bunny” and the “Road Runner.” You know, I still think the coyote owned stock in the Acme Company.
Then “Roy Rogers” came on, and is it just me, or did the cowboys in that day actually throw the bullets with their pistols? Roy would cock the hammer on his gun and then you would see him kind of push the gun out in front of him, you would see the powder smoke and the recoil raised the gun up by his ear, and when he brought it down and pulled the trigger, there was no second of aiming, just bang — and the crook would fall off his horse. Then the morning would end at 12:30 with Skye King and his daughter Penny flying his plane named “Songbird.”
I remember sitting in rapt attention as these shows would air, then later when I went out to play I would find a place that was a little high and sit with an old ring from a 5-gallon can and I was Skye King. See, back then you could actually lose yourself in the programs and the material that they brought out, because good always overcame evil and it seemed there was always a moral lesson in the outcome. That would be lovely to have in our world as we know it today, moral lessons to learn rather than morals broken.
At night when I was allowed to stay up, “Adventures in Paradise” and the travels of Capt, Adam Troy and his Schooner Tiki as they sailed under the Southern Cross in the Pacific was one of my favorite shows, as well as the crime drama, “Peter Gunn.” As time progressed, others such as “Bonanza,” “12 O’clock High,” and “Combat” with the late Vic Morrow were aired, along with “F Troop” and “The Ted Mack Amateur Hour.” This was kind of like a smaller version of “American Idol,” only done locally.
Lately, I have found a couple channels on cable that have westerns mostly all day. So I have been blissfully losing myself in the old shows. I also remember sitting down to write a letter to General Steele, the bomb wing commander on “12 O’clock High,” to tell him I would be flying P 51 Mustang fighters so that I could help keep the bombers in the air. Now the letter alone was a very long shot for a 7-year-old, and also the war was over and for all intents and purposes we were now in the jet age.
One bit of trivia: James Arness was not the one asked to play Marshall Dillon in “Gunsmoke” originally. The man first asked actually recommended Arness. That man would be the one and only John Wayne.
Ahhh, the musings of youth. I think I could actually sit and write a whole page on these shows. I do hope that maybe, just maybe, I have triggered a memory of yours and these old morally correct shows. Now it is time for me to tune in and Remember When …
Guy Woodworth, a Presque Isle native now living in Limestone, is a 1973 graduate of Presque Isle High School and a four-year Navy veteran. He and his wife Theresa have two grown sons and five grandchildren. He may be contacted at lightning117_1999@yahoo.com.
