Since May, Elephant makes The Virginian available again. Seasons 1 to 3 and Seasons 4 to 6 can be bought individually or in "Le Virginien - Intégrale Volume 1 - Saisons 1 à 3" and "Le Virginien - Intégrale Volume 2 - Saisons 4 à 6". Seasons 7 to 9 will follow in September.
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 four movies were made between 1914 and 1946. Wister's work raised the interest of television in the late 1950s. At the suggestion of Frank Price, a story editor at Screen Gems (the TV subsidiary of Columbia Pictures), the company produced a 30-minute black and white pilot starring James Drury, a young actor from New York, as The Virginian. The pilot didn't sell and ended up as an episode of the anthology Decision, aired by NBC in summer 1958.
The western genre was very popular on U.S. television in the 1950s and 1960s. The most watched show of the 1961-1962 season was NBC's western Wagon Train (1957-1965), produced by Revue Studios, the TV arm of MCA (Music Corporation of America). The second and third most watched programmes were westerns too: Bonanza (1959-1973), also on NBC, and Gunsmoke (1955-1975) on CBS. In 1961, Jennings Lang, vice president of distributor MCA TV, sold new and old episodes of Wagon Train to ABC for $20 million 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. The network greenlit the series, to be filmed in colour (1) on 35mm and without a pilot.
NBC 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 came the announcement 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 villain 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. In May 1962, multiple production units started to work simultaneously to provide the 30 75-minute episodes planned, on a schedule requiring 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 executive producer Charles Marquis Warren on the series and decided to replace him.
MCA hired Roy Huggins
as a consultant to assess the problems of the episodes already
produced and fix them. Huggins was a novelist, scriptwriter and producer
who worked for Columbia, 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). Hugh O'Brian, Ricardo Montalbán, George C. Scott, Bette Davis or Vera Miles guest starred in a first season which fulfilled its promises. The Virginian ranked #26 in the ratings, closely following Wagon Train which fell to the 25th position.
In May 1963, Lee J. Cobb, James Drury, Doug McClure, Gary Clarke and Roberta Shore began to work on the second season of The Virginian. New executive producer Frank Price signed freelance writer Cy Chermak as story editor. Chermak worked on The Dakotas (1963) and Bonanza (4). Produced by Jules Schermer and Winston Miller, season 2 aired from September 1963 to May 1964 on wednesdays. 26 episodes were originally intended but NBC ordered four more in December. Wagon Train switched to colour and 90 minutes for its seventh season (5) but was now on mondays. Written by E.M. Parsons from a story by Arthur Browne and directed by John Peyser, Ride A Dark Trail opens the season with the story of Trampas before his arrival at Shiloh Ranch. Writers Carey Wilber and Frank Fenton did the same for The Virginian in The Drifter, the 19th episode (directed by Don McDougall).
In November 1963, NBC announced that Randy Boone would join the regular cast.
This young actor and singer from North Carolina, noticed in It's a
Man's World (1962-1963), first appeared as guitar playing ranch hand Randy Benton in First to Thine Own Self
(the 20th episode). Ross Elliott recurred as Sheriff Mark Abbott from season 1 to season 7 (except for season 4). L.Q. Jones played Andy Belden, a semi-regular character, from season 2 to the final season. The Fatal Journey, the 11th episode, solves the absence of
newspaperwoman Molly Wood since the middle of season 1 without the
actress Pippa Scott. Other writers of this 1963-1964 season include Bob and Wanda Duncan, Frank Chase, William Fay, Dean Riesner, Donn Mullally, John D.F. Black or Borden Chase.
Robert Ellis Miller, movie serials veterans John English and William Witney, Bernard McEveety, Earl Bellamy, Richard L. Bare and Andrew V. McLaglen are some of the other directors of season 2. Percy Faith (Tammy Tell Me True) composed the theme music of The Virginian. Composers Lennie Hayton, Sidney Fine, David Buttolph, Pete Rugolo and Richard Shores worked on the soundtrack. Gena Rowlands, Robert Redford, Dick York, Yvonne DeCarlo, Jack Klugman, Peter Graves or Darren McGavin are among the guest stars of this second season. Clu Gulager, who played a villain in a season 1 episode, returns in a different role. He came back again as Deputy Sheriff Emmett Ryker from season 3 to season 6.
Many familiar faces appear throughout season 2, such as Robert Colbert, Warren Oates, Madlyn Rhue, Mariette Hartley, Bruce Dern or David Carradine. Future Star Trek icons DeForest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy can both be seen in Man of Violence (episode 14). Katherine Crawford, who plays Anna Swenson in the episode A Bride For Lars, is the daughter of Roy Huggins. She married Frank Price in 1965. The second season of The Virginian ranked #17 in the ratings. Season 3 was #22 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 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), 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).
MCA decided to release some episodes of The Virginian in theaters abroad to recoup some of the production costs (6). Selected episodes of The Virginian arrived on French television from 1966. The "Le Virginien - Intégrale Saison 2" 15-disc boxset from Elephant Films contains the 30 episodes of season 2. The languages are French and English (with French subtitles). 13 episodes unaired on French TV are in English only. Bonus material is comprised of a presentation of the series and its season 2 by French journalist and acknowledged TV series expert Alain Carrazé, an interview with Gary Clarke, an interview with Robert Fuller (Wagon Train, Laramie) and the trailers of other titles from Elephant Films.
(1) Bonanza was the first TV western to be filmed in colour. Alex Quiroga, the colour consultant of Bonanza, and Robert Brower worked as consultants on The Virginian.
(2) NBC Press release (August 29, 1962).
(3) Sponsor (March 19, 1962).
(4) Later, Cy Chermak became the executive producer of Ironside (1967-1975) and CHiPs (1977-1983).
(5) Wagon Train reverted to black and white and 60 minutes for its eighth and final season.
(2) NBC Press release (August 29, 1962).
(3) Sponsor (March 19, 1962).
(4) Later, Cy Chermak became the executive producer of Ironside (1967-1975) and CHiPs (1977-1983).
(5) Wagon Train reverted to black and white and 60 minutes for its eighth and final season.
(6) Ride a Dark Trail, the first episode of season 2, was edited with the 30th episode of the third season (We've Lost A Train, the pilot for Laredo) to form the movie Backtrack! (1969).
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/a-history-of-televisions-the-virginian-1962-1971/ (Paul Green's book about The Virginian)
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
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
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