Geächtet

I always watched The Rifleman because I was as old as Johnny Crawford was and I put myself in his shoes. MY dad was always trying to point out that somewhere in each show there was a "point" to be made. That point being made to impress me and help me go thru life without screwing up, which I have so far and I'm now 70! Lucas and Mark made a great team of what you would expect a western series to make during the time of transition to color. I was sorry to see The Rifleman end, but equally excited to see what Branded was all about. Chuck now playing a loner/drifter with all of his hair cut to a butch certainly was different. I often wondered why the sword "broke" when it should have "bent". I often wondered why he just didn't settle down in some quiet, out-of-the-way town and remain anonymous. I wondered why I never saw a lot of the second season episodes. Were they going to cancel the show that quick? I wondered a lot of other things, but there were also many other westerns to wonder about, too. Have Gun, Will Travel was one such with mysterious Paladin and the almost hidden icons and double meanings in the story line. Maverick and The Rebel, and oh so many more. Reading these comments and the description of Rifleman/Branded and reading the comments has made me want to find the Branded series on DVD so I can watch it over again. Heck, I can watch The Rifleman everyday on METV that is available thru DirecTV, but to be able to satisfy my curiosity about watching Branded over again to see what I missed has peaked my curiosity. SEE YA!

The lone survivor of the Battle Of Bitter Creek, an Apache massacre of U.S. cavalrymen, Chuck Conners is falsely court-marshaled for cowardice and desertion. Dishonorably discharged, he's forced to roam the west, taking on odd-jobs, while enduring cruel taunts and unprovoked violence, proving his manhood time and again.

Branded is pretty high-concept for a fairly low-budget thirty-minute show, with a lot of early episodes (under the supervision of series creator Larry Cohen) dealing with the nature of cowardice and what exactly makes a man a man, as well as Connors' attempts to keep the secrets of Bitter Creek, his encounters with various friends and relatives of his deceased men and the inevitable vengeance-seekers among them.

The first season is the more cerebral and ambitious of the two, with much of the action taking place primarily in town and leading to some anticlimactic conclusions to some of the episodes. The second season finds the series upgraded to color, with a bigger budget and better- staged action scenes. It's a bit of a trade-off though, with Connors' past (and the participation of Cohen) pushed to the back-burner. There's still some quality scripts, though in the spirit of a more conventional western series. It does however, provide a serviceable ending to the series.

One of the show's strengths, over only two seasons, is it's virtual army of old and new guest stars: Johnny Crawford, Burt Reynolds, Bruce Dern, Noah Beery, Beau Bridges, Lee Van Cleef, Dick Clark (!), Jay Silverheels, L.Q. Jones, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Cesar Romero, Iron Eyes Cody, James Best, Pat O'Brien, John Carradine, John Ireland, Claude Akins, Burgess Meredith, Martin Landau, Angelo Rossito, Pat Wayne, Dick Miller, Victor French, etc.

As the show ended, the producers gathered much of the crew, Connors and Branded guest stars Michael Rennie and James MacArthur for the feature, Ride Beyond Vengeance. Fans of this should definitely check it out.

As a "Rifleman" fan, I wasn't impressed with this series too much, even though I've always liked Chuck Connors' work.

The premise, a man who was thought to have abandoned his cavalry brothers in cowardice - but not really, gave the opportunity, like Star Trek, Route 66, The Fugitive and other t.v. shows, for the main character to roam from town to town, place to place, etc., to meet other people and help them deal with whatever crisis they happened to be facing at the time.

The theme song was great and gave opportunity for some wag to come up with alternative lyrics... "Stranded, on the toilet bowl. What do you do when you're stranded without a roll?"

I used to watch this show on the usual circuit of bad late night television. I will not glorify it; it only lasted two seasons because it was not a great show. It was respectable, however, and had a theme song that made it memorable.

"All but one man died..."

Branded was no masterpiece that's true, but as a little boy in the 60's, I thought it was great. It had Cowboys, Indians and adventure. You "critics" kill me! We had two or three channels back then and most of us didn't own a color set. This show served a purpose. It entertained. Superman stunk also, but we loved it! Don't tell me you think "The Andy Devine Show" was quality programing. I only saw it in re-runs, but I remember it was rather poorly made. My sister and I still watched it after school. (Ya gotta love Ignatz!) Don't over work everything just to hear yourself talk. Just sit in quiet misery while the rest of us enjoy 30 minutes of pure fantasy.