| Rawhide | |
|---|---|
 Opening title sequence | |
| Genre | Western |
| Created by | Charles Marquis Warren |
| Starring | |
| Theme music composer |
|
| Opening theme | "Rawhide" performed byFrankie Laine |
| Composers |
|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 217(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Ben Brady |
| Producers | |
| Production locations | |
| Cinematography |
|
| Editors |
|
| Running time | 50 min. |
| Production company | CBS Television Network Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | January 9, 1959 (1959-01-09) – December 7, 1965 (1965-12-07) |
Rawhide is an AmericanWestern television series starringEric Fleming andClint Eastwood. The show aired for seven seasons on theCBS network on Friday nights from January 9, 1959,[1] to September 3, 1965, before moving to its eighth and final season on Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965, until December 7, 1965, with a total of 217black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed byCharles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes ofGunsmoke. The show is remembered by many for its theme song, "Rawhide".
Spanning7+1⁄2 years,Rawhide was the sixth-longest-running American television Western, exceeded only byWagon Train,The Virginian,Bonanza,Death Valley Days, andGunsmoke.
Set in the 1860s,Rawhide portrays the challenges faced by thedrovers of acattle drive. Most episodes are introduced with a monologue by Gil Favor, trail boss. In a typicalRawhide story, the drovers come upon people on the trail and involve themselves in their affairs, or one or more of the crew venture into a nearby town and get themselves into trouble. Rowdy Yates was young and at times impetuous in the earliest episodes, and Favor had to keep a tight rein on him.
Story lines ranged from parchedplains toanthrax, ghostly riders towolves,cattle raiding, bandits, murderers, and others. A frequent story line was the constant need to find water for the cattle. The scout spent much of his time looking for water, sometimes finding that water holes and even rivers had dried up.
Spanning seven years,Rawhide frequently dealt with controversial topics.Robert Culp played an ex-soldier on the drive who had become dangerously addicted tomorphine. Mexican drover "Hey Soos" facedracism at times from outside of the crew. SomeAmerican Indians demanded cattle as payment for going through their land and several episodes deal with the aftermath of theAmerican Civil War, which ended four years earlier.
Regular cast members included:
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| Season | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | |||
| 1 | 23 | January 9, 1959 (1959-01-09) | July 10, 1959 (1959-07-10) | |
| 2 | 31 | September 18, 1959 (1959-09-18) | June 17, 1960 (1960-06-17) | |
| 3 | 30 | September 30, 1960 (1960-09-30) | June 16, 1961 (1961-06-16) | |
| 4 | 29 | September 29, 1961 (1961-09-29) | May 11, 1962 (1962-05-11) | |
| 5 | 31 | September 21, 1962 (1962-09-21) | May 31, 1963 (1963-05-31) | |
| 6 | 30 | September 26, 1963 (1963-09-26) | May 14, 1964 (1964-05-14) | |
| 7 | 30 | September 25, 1964 (1964-09-25) | May 21, 1965 (1965-05-21) | |
| 8 | 13 | September 14, 1965 (1965-09-14) | December 7, 1965 (1965-12-07) | |
Series producer Charles Marquis Warren basedRawhide on three sources:
Filming for the first season ofRawhide took place atUniversal-International Studios in Hollywood. The extensive railroad scenes in the third season were filmed in one month on theSierra Railroad inTuolumne County, California.[3]
The premiere episode ofRawhide reached the top 20 in theNielsen ratings.
The show had a grueling production schedule, being mostly weekly with a three- to four-month break between seasons. After the first season of 22 episodes, seasons two to seven were each 30 episodes. Often, the only way the lead actors could get a break was if their character was said to be off on business. On rare occasions, the show featured a smaller number of the actors and some misfortune, maybe in a town, which would give the others time off.
Thetheme song's lyrics were written byNed Washington in 1958. It was composed byDimitri Tiomkin and sung by pop singerFrankie Laine, with the orchestra and chorus conducted byJohn Williams (credited as Johnny Williams).[4] The theme song became very popular, and was covered several times and featured in movies such asThe Blues Brothers andShrek 2.
The eighth and final season's title sequence was animated by Ken Mundie ofDePatie-Freleng Enterprises.[5]
CBS DVD (distributed byParamount) has released all eight seasons ofRawhide on DVD in Region 1.[6]
On May 12, 2015, CBS DVD releasedRawhide- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.[7]
In Region 2,Rawhide has been released in Scandinavia: Season 1, by Noble Entertainment, two boxes, 2009–2010, season one re-releasing in January 2014 by Soulmedia, seasons 2 and 3, by Soulmedia (season 2 in two boxes, and season 3 in four boxes). No more seasons will be released in Scandinavia.
Revelation Films has released the first three seasons on DVD in the UK.[8][9][10] Season 4 will be released on March 23, 2015,[11] followed by season 5 on June 22, 2015.[12] They are released as complete season sets rather than two volumes.
In Region 4,Madman Entertainment has released all eight seasons on DVD in Australia, with each season in one box.[13] Season 8, the Final Season, was released on October 5, 2011.[14] DVD releases play heavily on Clint Eastwood's later fame, depicting him in the foreground as the chief character and crediting: "Clint Eastwood in...", but the original show credits for seasons one to seven actually depict the late Eric Fleming (as Gil Favor) being the lead cast member, with Eastwood as co-star (excepting a few later episodes where Eastwood is the sole star).
| DVD name | Ep No. | Region 1 | Region 2 (UK) | Region 2 (Scandinavia) | Region 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 22 | July 25, 2006 | November 15, 2010 | October 28, 2009January 13, 2010 | January 20, 2010 |
| Season 2, Volume 1 | 16 | May 29, 2007 | April 11, 2011 | September 22, 2010 | March 9, 2010 |
| Season 2, Volume 2 | 16 | December 18, 2007 | September 22, 2010 | ||
| Season 3, Volume 1 | 15 | May 27, 2008 | July 11, 2011 | September 28, 2011January 11, 2012 | August 11, 2010 |
| Season 3, Volume 2 | 15 | December 9, 2008 | February 15, 2012August 29, 2012 | ||
| Season 4, Volume 1 | 15 | June 7, 2011 | June 6, 2016 | Seasons 4–8, not to be released | September 27, 2010 |
| Season 4, Volume 2 | 15 | November 1, 2011 | |||
| Season 5, Volume 1 | 15 | September 18, 2012 | September 5, 2016 | February 2, 2011 | |
| Season 5, Volume 2 | 14 | ||||
| Season 6, Volume 1 | 16 | June 4, 2013 | TBA | May 2, 2011 | |
| Season 6, Volume 2 | 15 | TBA | |||
| Season 7, Volume 1 | 15 | March 4, 2014 | TBA | August 3, 2011 | |
| Season 7, Volume 2 | 15 | TBA | |||
| Season 8 | 13 | June 3, 2014 | October 5, 2011 | ||
| The Complete Series | 217 | May 12, 2015 |
On the Region 1 DVD sets, the episode "Incident of the Roman Candles" is included on both the Season One DVD set and the Season Two Volume One DVD set. Similarly, the episode "Abilene" is included on both the Season Four Volume Two DVD set and the Season Five Volume Two DVD set.
| Season | Time slot (ET) | Rank | Rating[15] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958–59 | Friday at 8:00 pm(Episodes 1–15) Friday at 7:30 pm(Episodes 16–23) | 28 | 25.9 |
| 1959–60 | Friday at 7:30 pm | 18 | 25.8 |
| 1960–61 | 6 | 27.5 | |
| 1961–62 | 13 | 24.5 | |
| 1962–63 | 22 | 22.8 | |
| 1963–64 | Thursday at 8:00 pm | Not in the Top 30 | |
| 1964–65 | Friday at 7:30 pm | ||
| 1965–66 | Friday at 7:30 pm(Episode 1) Tuesday at 7:30 pm(Episodes 2–12) | ||
In 1961,Signet Books published a paperback original novel calledRawhide byFrank C. Robertson based upon the television show. Eric Fleming as Gil Favor and Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates are both on the front cover of the book. The book follows Favor, Yates, Wishbone, and others as they try to get their herd to Sedalia ahead of a rival's herd. The book was published multiple times with the last run printed in 1986.[16]
The TV show was also adapted into a comic book byDan Spiegle, distributed byDell Comics.[17]
