Now Elephant makes The Virginian available again, starting with seasons 1 to 3 (since last month). They can be bought individually or in "Le Virginien - Intégrale Volume 1 - Saisons 1 à 3" boxset. Seasons 4 to 6 will follow in July.
The Virginian is set in Medicine Bow, Wyoming at the end of the 19th century and centered on the charismatic and enigmatic foreman of the Shiloh Ranch, only known as "The Virginian". The character was created by American writer Owen Wister (1860-1938) for his novel The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains, first published in 1902. The book was adapted for the stage as of 1903 and there were four movies based on Wister's work between 1914 and 1946. In the late 1950s, The Virginian raised the interest of Frank Price, a story editor at Screen Gems (the television arm of Columbia Pictures), who recommended it for a possible series. The company produced a 30-minute black and white pilot written by Leslie Stevens (creator of the 1963-1965 sci-fi series The Outer Limits) and starring James Drury, a young actor from New York, as The Virginian. The pilot didn't sell and was recycled as an episode of Decision, an anthology shown by NBC during summer 1958. But Frank Price and James Drury would hear again of The Virginian.
The western genre was very popular on U.S. television in the 1950s and 1960s. The first two most watched shows of the 1961-1962 season were NBC's westerns Wagon Train (1957-1965) and Bonanza (1959-1973). The third was Gunsmoke (1955-1975) on CBS, a western too. Wagon Train was produced by Revue Studios, the TV subsidiary of MCA (Music Corporation of America). Revue was also behind western series Tales of Wells Fargo (1957-1962) and Laramie (1959-1963) for NBC and Rawhide (1959-1965), co-starring Clint Eastwood, for CBS. In 1961, Jennings Lang, vice president of distributor MCA TV, sold Wagon Train to ABC for $20 million (reruns included) after NBC refused the price proposed by MCA at the end of their five-year contract. Lang gave the executives of NBC something bigger to replace America's #1 programme... The Virginian, television's first 90-minute (with commercial breaks) western series. He asked Frank Price, who joined Revue in 1959, to write the format.
NBC greenlit the series, to be filmed in colour (1) on 35mm and without a pilot. The network called The Virginian "the most ambitious and costly programming in network television history" and explained that the 90 minutes allowed full character development and expanded storytelling. They promised location shooting and "at least one major guest star" every week (2). In March 1962, it was announced that Broadway and film actor Lee J. Cobb (12 Angry Men, On the Waterfront) would play the key role of Judge Henry Garth, the owner of the Shiloh Ranch. The rest of the main cast was revealed in May: four years after the Screen Gems pilot, James Drury was chosen to be The Virginian. Doug McClure (Overland Trail, Checkmate) got the role of Trampas, the fun-loving top hand of The Virginian though he was a bad guy in the book. Gary Clarke (Michael Shayne) was given the part of Steve Hill, a young cowboy.
The other regular characters announced were newspaper owner Molly Wood, portrayed by Pippa Scott, and Judge Garth's teenage daughter Betsy, played by Roberta Shore. Revue's Richard Irving was to serve as executive producer and Frank Price as producer but Charles Marquis Warren (Rawhide, Gunsmoke) was named executive producer of The Virginian instead. Filming started in May 1962 with multiple production units working simultaneously to provide the 30 75-minute episodes planned. The shooting schedule required to make two or three episodes at the same time, hence the variable presence of the main characters from an episode to another. With a budget estimated as much as $500,000 each on some episodes (3) and a duel vs Wagon Train on wednesdays to begin in fall 1962, failure was not an option.
Long before the launch of The Virginian, NBC and Revue Studios grew dissatisfied with the work of Charles Marquis Warren and decided to replace him. MCA hired Roy Huggins as a consultant to assess the problems of the 13 episodes already produced and fix them. Huggins was a novelist, scriptwriter and producer who worked for Columbia Pictures, RKO, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. For television, he created the hit series Cheyenne (1955-1962), Maverick (1957-1962) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958-1964). Roy Huggins called Frank Price and Joel Rogosin to assist him and asked director Richard L. Bare to shoot new scenes. Charles Marquis Warren remained credited until mid-season, then Roy Huggins and Frank Price officially became executive producer and producer (respectively).
Roy Huggins wrote the stories of several episodes (4). Westerns scriptwriter and director Burt Kennedy, who penned the story of an episode and helmed it, later directed Return of the Seven (1966) and Support Your Local Sheriff (1969). Samuel Fuller wrote and directed an episode before doing the film Shock Corridor (1963). One of the writers, Roland Kibbee, created It Takes a Thief (1968-1970). Other directors include Earl Bellamy, James Sheldon, Douglas Heyes, movie serials veterans William Witney and John English or Ted Post. The latter directed Clint Eastwood in Hang'Em High (1968) and Magnum Force (1973). The other producers of The Virginian (season 1) were Morton Fine & David Friedkin, Roland Kibbee, Warren Duff and Winston Miller.
Percy Faith (Tammy Tell Me True) composed the theme music of The Virginian. Richard Shores, Morton Stevens and Pete Rugolo are among the composers who worked on the season 1 soundtrack. This first season aired from September 1962 to May 1963 on NBC and its list of guest stars is impressive right from The Executioners, the first episode shown. Fresh from The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-1961), Hugh O'Brian plays a man who arrives at Medicine Bow after a hanging. He seduces the school teacher played by Colleen Dewhurst. Ricardo Montalbán, of Fantasy Island and Star Trek fame, displays his customary flamboyance as a Columbian gentleman in The Big Deal. George C. Scott is a teacher who recites Oscar Wilde in The Brazen Bell. Lee Marvin is a villain in It Tolls For Thee, Samuel Fuller's episode.
Bette Davis plays a bank clerk in The Accomplice. Tom Tryon (Texas John Slaughter) is a seaman in The Man from the Sea. Vera Miles (Psycho) guest stars in The Man Who Couldn't Die. Michael Rennie (The Day the Earth Stood Still) faces Nina Foch in Vengeance is the Spur. In The Golden Door, Karlheinz Böhm (Peeping Tom, Sissi) portrays an immigrant accused of murder. Actress, director, writer and producer Ida Lupino guest star with her then husband Howard Duff in A Distant Fury. Singer Nancy Sinatra is a saloon singer in If You Have Tears. Many familiar faces appear throughout the first season, such as Jack Warden, Eddie Albert, Robert Colbert, Tom Skeritt, James Gregory, Harold Gould, Victor French, Carol Lynley, Steve Forrest, David White, Bradford Dillman, Ed Asner, Don Galloway, etc. Even Robert Vaughn before The Man from U.N.C.L.E., a pre-fame Robert Duvall, as well as future pop culture icons DeForest Kelley and James Doohan (Star Trek).
Katherine Crawford, who plays Alice Lawford in the episode Say Goodbye to All That, is the daughter of Roy Huggins. She married Frank Price in 1965. Two episodes from season 1 are the remakes of westerns produced by Universal Pictures. Duel at Shiloh, which explains how Steve Hill came to work at the ranch, is based on the screenplay of Man Without a Star (1955) and a 1952 novel. Brian Keith guest stars as the character played by Kirk Douglas in the film. The Judgment is adapted from Day of the Badman (1958). Clu Gulager, who plays the villain, returned in a different role in 1963 and as Deputy Sheriff Emmett Ryker from season 3 to season 6. Ross Elliott recurred as Sheriff Mark Abbott from season 1 to season 7 (except for season 4). MCA decided to release some episodes of The Virginian in theaters abroad to recoup some of the production costs, starting with The Brazen Bell.
In 1962, MCA acquired record company Decca, the owner of Universal Pictures, and Revue Studios was renamed Universal Television the following year. MCA formed Universal City Studios in 1964 to oversee their film and television activities. The Virginian was renewed for a second season. Its third season ranked #22 in the ratings and launched a spin-off, Laredo (1965-1967). Season 5 reached the Top 10. For its ninth season, the title changed for The Men from Shiloh and a new theme music was composed by Ennio Morricone. Only James Drury and Doug McClure stayed for the entire series. The success of The Virginian prompted Wagon Train to switch to colour and 90 minutes for its seventh season (1963-1964) (5) and paved the way for more 90-minute programmes with continuing characters, like western Cimarron Strip (1967-1968) on CBS or NBC's The Name of the Game (1968-1971) and The NBC Mystery Movie (1971-1977).
Roy Huggins created The Fugitive (1963-1967) for ABC and stayed at Universal Television as a vice president (until 1966) and executive producer. There, he created and/or exec produced Run for Your Life (1965-1968), The Outsider (1968-1969), The Lawyers (1968-1972), Alias Smith and Jones (1971-1973) (6), Cool Million (1972), Toma (1973-1974), The Rockford Files (1974-1980, co-created with Stephen J. Cannell), Baretta (1975-1978, created by Stephen J. Cannell) and City of Angels (1976, created with Cannell). Huggins came out of retirement in 1985 to become the executive producer of Hunter (1984-1991). After The Virginian, James Drury did some stage work and starred in the short-lived Firehouse (1974). He guest starred in a lot of series and attended numerous western festivals and conventions.
Doug McClure rotated the lead with Hugh O'Brian and Tony Franciosa in Search (1972-1973). He replaced Dennis Cole in Barbary Coast (1975-1976) after the pilot. The TV movie Satan's Triangle (1975), where he played alongside Kim Novak, is cult in France. His last regular role in a series was in Out of This World (1987-1991). On the big screen, McClure starred in The Land That Time Forgot (1974), At The Earth's Core (1976) or The People That Time Forgot (1977). Selected episodes of The Virginian arrived on French television from 1966. The "Le Virginien - Intégrale Saison 1" 15-disc boxset from Elephant Films contains the 30 episodes of season 1. The languages are French and English (with French subtitles). 14 episodes unaired on French TV are in English only.
Bonus material is comprised of an interview with James Drury, an interview with Roberta Shore and the trailers of other titles from Elephant: The Rockford Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975), Madigan and The Equalizer (with Edward Woodward). An incredible concentration of talents (on and off screen), likeable main characters, interesting supporting characters, various stories and a beautiful colour cinematography make these boxsets of The Virginian indispensable.
(2) NBC Press release (August 29, 1962).
(3) Sponsor (March 19, 1962).
(4) Under the pseudonyms of Thomas Fitzroy and John Francis O'Mara.
(5) Wagon Train reverted to black and white and 60 minutes for its eighth and final season.
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/mfp/5472590/serie-le-virginien?pid=10516775904 (Intégrale Saison 1)
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/mfp/shop/5472590/serie-le-virginien?pid=10516775905 (Intégrale Saison 2)
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/mfp/5472590/serie-le-virginien?pid=10516775908 (Intégrale Saison 3)
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/offer/buy/10516775909/le-virginien-volume-1-saisons-1-a-3.html (Intégrale Volume 1 - Saisons 1 à 3)
http://www.elephantfilms.com
https://fr.shopping.rakuten.com/boutique/ElephantFilm
See also:
https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/roy-huggins/ (Paul Green's book about Roy Huggins)
https://www.blackstonepublishing.com/mr-mrs-hollywood-axhp.html
https://thevirginiantv.wordpress.com/
https://the-artifice.com/the-virginian-political-journeys/
https://mercurie.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-60th-anniversary-of-tv-series.html
https://tvnewfrontier.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-virginian-1962.html
