The Roy Rogers Show

I just picked a copy of a joint biography of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and the story behind the television series was an interesting one.

Both were winding up their contracts at Republic Pictures where they didn't make much money from the studio itself. Herbert J. Yates ran a pinch penny operation to say the least. Their money came from Roy's shrewd business sense and merchandising of the Rogers/Evans name. But they decided to get into the new medium of television.

The problem they foresaw was Yates selling or leasing their old films for television showing while they were making new product. So Roy and Dale had to go to court to enjoin Yates from selling the films so as not to compete with the weekly half hour western show they were planning. The films eventually made it to television, but not until after the series went into syndication. By that time Republic Pictures was no more.

I certainly remember the show as a kid watching it. It was little more than an extension of the films. No doubt existed that Roy and Dale would rout the bad guys in the end.

Roy operated out of the Double R Bar Ranch and Dale had her own business, very advanced thinking especially for folks as conservative as these two were. Instead of a saloon she ran a small diner type establishment for travelers who were going by car or horse.

What I remember best was Pat Brady though. He was a funny guy who was a friend of Roy and Dale, but he was more of a hindrance at times than a help. Roy had the patience of Job with him, but Dale would really get exasperated at times.

Pat didn't ride a horse, he had a jeep which he named NellyBelle. The jeep I swear had its own personality. One thing you could always depend on, that in a crisis that jeep would always let you down. Pat had his own swear oath, a G rated one to be sure. I've never heard anyone else use the phrase 'mustard and custard' and it was usually directed at that cantankerous jeep NellyBelle.

Roy's show ran for about six seasons and by that time the western was becoming more of an adult enterprise for television as well as the big screen. Still I do have fond memories of it and I even use Happy Trails as my way of saying goodbye.

This show was already in Saturday morning re-runs when I first watched it. And, I loved it!

The "good vs. evil" plots might seem corny, by today's standards. But, we have to remember that this was produced during comparatively simpler times. When morality was just as black-and-white as the film stock the studios used.

Furthermore, the hero and heroine practiced what they preached! Nor did they preach using four-letter words. Unlike, say, Dennis Franz on NYPD BLUES.

Last, but not least? This was not a "steampunk" Western.

The fictional city in which Roy and Dale made their home was contemporaneous with the shows' audience. It's just that the locals maintained a 19th-century ambiance for the tourist trade, similar to Virginia City, Nevada. So, the mixture of "old and new," especially modes of transportation, was most definitely _not_ anachronistic!

In short, I am unalterably convinced that this show should be praised, rather than condemned, for the beneficial values it tried to instill in its mostly young viewers. That some of us might not have grown up to live by those values is--to paraphrase Shakespeare--not the fault of this show's stars. But, of ourselves.

Despite what one reviewer said, the Roy Rogers TV show was an excellent show for us kids in the 50s. If that reviewer did any research he would see that people in Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, California, etc did ride horses for ranch work and in their daily lives, with cars, including Jeeps being driven in the same era.

As for shooting guns out of the hands of outlaws instead of killing them, that was simply role modelling for kids. The Lone Ranger did it; so did Roy Rogers. It was about values. Disarming an outlaw was more important than killing him. It tried to teach children that the value of a life was important. Respect and dignity were valued. Yes, these were all fantasy shows with unrealistic concepts and ideals, but so are the Star Wars movies.

The violence displayed in today's society is more associated with the TV shows and movies shown decades after the 50s. Perhaps, if those 50s values had continued on into the 60s and 70s, instead of the violent 'reality' displayed on TV and in the movies that became the standard, America and the world might be a better, safer place today. I say, "shame" on the entertainment industry for promoting the violence to children on TV, in the movies, and in the music that has become today's norm.

Yeah, when I watched this as a kid in the 50s I was a little confused about the time period this was set in. i know they didn't have cars or jeeps in the 1880s. Now that the show is in reruns in can see that is is set in the 40s or early 50s. There is electricity and radios and I've even spotted other cars. And horses are still ridden on the roads. It was a couple of years ago I was in Gilbert AZ. at a strip mall and a rider pulled up on a horse and "parked" it into a parking stall. Funny as heck.

WHEN WE HAD CBS with THE GENE AUTRY SHOW, the National Broadcasting Company answered with THE ROY ROGERS SHOW. It was as if the two friendly rivals were truly slugging it out; although not going toe to toe for their ratings, they still had to establish who was truly number one TV Cowboy.

WHEREAS THE "B" MOVIE fans were very familiar with this sort of series Western from studios like Republic*, Coluimbia, Monogram and Producers Releasing Corporation, no real beach head had been established on the newly created realm of Television.

WELL THAT SURE didn't last very long as Flying A Productions (GENE AUTRY, ANNIE OAKLEY,RANGE RIDER) and Bar Double R produced the ROY ROGERS SHOW. Others, many others followed.

AS FAR AS the Rogers production, there was far more continuity with more regular cast members. Roy and Dale Evans Mrs. Rogers in real life) always managed to get involved with whatever local hugs had planned for 'Mineral City' and vicinity. They were great help to somewhat laid-back and inept middle aged Sheriff, played by Harry Harvey. Then there was "Roy's comical sidekick", Pat Brady, thrown in for,. that's right, comic relief.

THE ONE THIG that always was a puzzlement to us as kids was that whereas Roy rode his palomino horse, Trigger and Miss Dale rode her mare, Buttermilk; why did Pat Brady drive a jeep with the name of "Nellie-belle?" After all, how could one have a Jeep, an automobile, in the Old West? THE ANSWER OF course is that THE ROY ROGERS SHOW, as were so many of the old "B" Western Sderies Poctures, was set in the modern, then contemporary times of the 1950s.

WE ALSO WOULD like to make mention of one other regular cast member. That would be Bullet, Roy's faithful German Shepard puppy dog.

ROY KNEW THAT he needed all the help ion his 'rivalry' with Gene. And, as any schoolboy knows, people just love dogs.

NOTE: * Both men had worked at Republic and Roy had been a member of the Western Musical group, THE SONS OF THE PIONEERS when he arrived there. When Gene went to the Service in World War II, it was the former Leonard Sly ()Roy's birth name) who replaced him. Upon his return, Gene established his own company, FLYING A PRODUCTIONS and struck a deal for release with Columbia.