|
|
1st season (1959) [TOP]
1. Incident of the Tumbleweed
Gil Favor: "It's not the rounding up and the roping and the branding of the cattle that's the big problem for the ranchers. It's getting them to market. Fifteen hundred bone-weary miles from the southern tip of Texas to the rail head in Sedalia. That's where I come in. Gil Favor's my name, Trail Boss."
2. Incident at Alabaster Plain
Gil Favor: "It's a thousand miles from San Antone to the rail head at Sedalia, Missouri. We got 3,000 head of Texas cattle that don't want to go. When everything's right, we cover 8 miles a day. But, how often are things right? The weather's what hits you the hardest between the eyes. Boiling sun that dries up the water, brings the dust and the sand. Storms that mill the cattle, touch off stampedes. The way the land lies can hurt you, too. Wearing off pounds with each step the beeves take. But the way to even things up is to hire the best men in the business, and I got 'em. Pete Nolan, scout. Rowdy Yates, new as they come, but he's got the makings. Joe Scarlett, swing; Jim Quince, flank. And the man who can make or break the drive--the cook, Wishbone. And the cook's louse. His name is Mushy. Somebody's got to kick this whole kit and kaboodle along. That's me. Gil Favor, Trail Boss. I ride point."
3. Incident with an Executioner
Gil Favor: "On the Sedalia Trail, pushing a herd of 3,000 mixed head, you're always a long ways from nowhere. Ahead, trouble--known and unknown. Behind, owners depending on the drive, counting on men crazy enough to push it. Like me. Gil Favor. Trail boss."
4. Incident of the Widowed Dove
Gil Favor: "The Sedalia Trail is a thousand miles of dust, deep river crossings, and stampedes. A job forgotten by those who wait for their cattle at the end of the trip. But not forgotten by the men in the saddle who bring the cattle through. Like me. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
5. Incident on the Edge of Madness
Gil Favor: "A cattle drive's mostly hard work, doing without, being alone. It's warming yourself in a rain storm with no fuel but buffalo chips, spreading your duds on an ant hill to get out the vermin. It's being and doing things you don't rightly ask of two-legged humans--unless they're cowboys. Add discipline and loyalty to the list, all for $30 a month. It puts a big strain on a man. You have to expect something to give along the way and bust wide open. I'm in a position to know. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
6. Incident of the Power and the Plow
Gil Favor: "The Sedalia Trail is as rough as it is long. You might say deuces are wild the way everything comes in twos. In the low country, two inches of rain in half an hour. Coming through the passes, it was two feet of snow. On this side of the mountains, we had two brushes with rustlers, ended up burying two hands. Now it's been two days since grass and water. But my job is to kick this herd along no matter what. The only way I know to get a thing done is to keep trying. Gil Favor's my name. Trail Boss."
7. Incident at Barker Springs
Gil Favor: "On a drive from San Antone to Sedalia, I don't have to remind myself what's lying in wait for us up ahead. But sometimes I'm apt to forget what we've left behind. This isn't a single-brand herd. It's made up of a lot of brands. A hundred small owners counting on us to get through. The early herds have first call on the weather. We get the grazed out, parched land. Dry enough for a bolt of lightening to touch off a prairie fire, streams too thin to plow but too thick to drink. One thing's sure. A trail boss who thinks he can push a drive through this late has to be out of his mind. But somebody's got to try it. That's me. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
8. Incident West of Lano
Gil Favor: "I got a cousin-woman teaches in a small schoolhouse back east. She tells me those boys daydream about becoming cowboys. Of all the jobs a man could pick, why'd ever he want to choose this way to make a living? Three thousand head of God's lowest form of life--cattle. If they don't die of tick fever, strangle in a dust storm, or trample their fool selves to death, then the market will go down to two cents a pound on the hoof. They might as well have died before we set out. But they need food back east. It's my job to get this herd moving. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
9. Incident of the Town in Terror
Gil Favor: "Riding herd over a long trail may be a headache. I can tell you that it's never boresome, even when it's going smooth. There's plenty of sweet grass, blue skies, clear spring water. You ride lazy thinking of what you left behind and dreaming of what's ahead. But riding easy doesn't come often on the drive. When you're pushing 3,000 head and 20 hands, there's always something about to happen. Whatever it is and whenever it comes up, I got to meet it. That's my job. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
10. Incident of the Golden Calf
Gil Favor: "The breeding ground of the cattle is the southern tip of Texas and the markets are over a thousand miles away. A day's drive on the Sedalia Trail is eight, ten miles at the most. Fine and easy when the prairie grass is fresh and the river's wet. But you have to keep going when the grasses are parched and the water has disappeared under the drought. That's when the cows become skittish, hard to manage. Nobody takes his boots off as long as it lasts. The last one to take his boots off is me. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
11. Incident of the Coyote Weed
Gil Favor: "Pushing cattle up the Sedalia Trail, it's a thousand miles of aching bones and heat madness. You lose a lot of men. Some men never make it. Sometimes you don't rightly think a man was ever born who could. Well, men fool you sometimes, especially on a cattle drive. I ought to know. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
12. Incident of the Chubasco
Gil Favor: "On a drive the days and nights get mighty big. There is a danger a man can understand and a lot he can't. That is the kind I hate, the kind I can't understand. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
13. Incident of the Curious Street
Gil Favor: "When a man's pushing a herd of ornery cows over the Sedalia Trail, he's got to hope for the best, expect the worst. You never know what the cows will do. It keeps a man jumping, always on the watch. But I wouldn't trade the job. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
14. Incident of the Dog Days
Gil Favor: "Every once in a while, you have to get away from the herd so you can listen to the sound of it. You can tell a lot from the way the cattle call. But the same can't be said for the drovers you hire along the way. It's hard to judge a man by his voice. That's why we keep gaining some and losing others. It's my job to judge, and sometimes I miss. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
15. Incident of the Calico Gun
Gil Favor: "You run into a lot of things on a cattle drive before you get where you're going. Stampedes, floods, sickness, drought. But one thing's with you all the time. You can't get away from it; you can't lick it. The same faces day after day, week after week. You look at each other or you look at the cattle. After a while, you can't tell the difference. I'm getting that way myself. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
16. Incident of the Misplaced Indians
Gil Favor: "Pointing 'em north, most things you can calculate – your men, for instance. You know what to expect. But there's one thing you can't calculate on – the people who cross your trail. The thousand ways they can make their troubles yours. You find that out real quick in my job. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
17. Incident of Fear in the Streets
Gil Favor: "Ask any townsman along the Sedalia Missouri Trail and he'll tell you that drovers are nothing but trouble. They work hard, play hard, fight hard. They're sons of the devil. But if you want to hear their side, just ask me. Favor's my name, Trail Boss."
18. Incident Below the Brazos
Gil Favor: "In the trail towns they say the only thing wilder than Texas steers are the cow hands who drive them. So if a big herd is gonna reach the market, there has to be someone tough enough to handle the crew and the cattle and anything else that might get in the way during a thousand slow, grinding miles. Well, it's a job, and it's mine. Gil Favor's my name, trail Boss."
19. Incident of the Dry Drive
Gil Favor: "Bringing a herd up through the plains of Texas on the Sedalia Missouri Trail, you need three things. One of them, air, we have more than enough of. Another, grass, usually in good supply. But the third is another story. It's always with us--the need for water. Sometimes it's a real job to find it, and it's my job. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
20. Incident of the Judas Trap
Gil Favor: "A human being can take a lot of punishment. You find that out real quick when you drive cattle. You head along a thousand miles of dust and cuss the day that man ever decided to eat beef. We're trying to bring it to the market in Sedalia, Missouri. We don't always like what we have to do to get it there. But, that's part of my job. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
21. Incident in No Man's Land
Gil Favor: "Those cows have a right to bellow. On a drive like this, they often have to go for days without grass or water. The men driving 'em have a right to gripe. Often they have to go without food, water, and sleep. I have a right to worry about both – men and beasts. That's part of my job. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
22. Incident of a Burst of Evil
Gil Favor: "Pretty hard to beat it when it sets in solid--boredom. You can feel it close in like heat around your riders. Watch it dull 'em to the point where the drive gets to be something they'd just as soon forget. But they can't afford to forget it; I can't afford to let 'em. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
23. Incident of the Roman Candles
Gil Favor: "On a trail drive a man can find the things he wants: a sense of God's good earth, the room to move in, a job to be done. Of course, there's not always enough water and you can't always choose your own company. There's some that say that's all that's wrong with hell. It's up to me to handle, good and bad. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
2nd season (1959-60) [TOP]
1. Incident of the Day of the Dead
Rowdy Yates: "On a trail drive, each and every man has his chore. The eye of the drive is the scout, riding out in front to test the trail and find water and bed ground. Others are stationed around the herd, hazing it when it moves and soothing it when it's bedded down. A very important man is the master of the chuck wagon, because he's not only got to be a good trail cook, but a jack of all trades as well. But the man that holds the whole kaboodle together is the trail boss. There's one man in the outfit who's got no chores of his own. He's got to be ready and willing to take over anyone else's. Yeah, that's me, ramrod of this outfit, Rowdy Yates."
2. Incident at Dangerfield Dip
Gil Favor: "On the trail to Sedalia, Missouri day to day, you fall into the habit of trying to read your men but you don't make much headway into finding out what makes them tick. It isn't easy to figure out grown up humans that would take this kind of life for 30 bucks a month. So, you finally give up and you're just glad there's a good reason to get the beeves to market. I've got a good reason to be glad, I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
3. Incident of the Shambling Man
Gil Favor: "Cows are senseless, stupid beasts. They go half way across a continent just to be slaughtered. The trouble is, nobody ever trained 'em to go alone. It takes men to push a herd north. Men and time and sometimes pain. That's where I come in. I'm one of the men. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
4. Incident at Jacob's Well
Gil Favor: "On a trail drive, you pick your men to be at least as smart as the cows. The cows know enough to drink up when there's water, to stop and eat when there's food. Well, men can do that, too. But the rest of their thinking, man or beast, I'm supposed to do for 'em, whether I do it right or not. My name's Favor, Trail Boss."
5. Incident of the Thirteenth Man
G.W. Wishbone: "On a drive, the one thing you gotta have to keep the cattle moving is men. Trouble with that is each man thinks without him everything would come to a standstill. Fact is, there's only one man the drive can't do without. He's the one who keeps the men going who keep the cattle moving. He's the cook. That's my job. My name's Wishbone, feeder of the Gil Favor outfit. This idiot beside me is the cook's louse, Mushy."
6. Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse
Gil Favor: "The trail log says every working cow hand has a string of horses assigned to him. That string's made up of the different kinds he's gonna need: circle horse, cutting horse, a roping horse, one or two broncs. He works with 'em, worries over 'em and wouldn't be worth a brass nickel without 'em. The same goes for me, except my string isn't horses. It's men. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
7. Incident of the Haunted Hills
Gil Favor: "When things are going right on a drive, a trail hand will call everything from a calf to a ten-year-old bull a cow. When they're not going right, which is most of the time, he'll call cattle lots of other names. Very few of them are complimentary. I know 'em all. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
8. Incident of the Stalking Death
Gil Favor: "Pushing a trail drive is like moving a whole town that isn't sure it wants to be moved. Some of its people are willing. Some aren't. You start out with problems, then you meet up with new ones. Whatever they are, however they happen, they have to be met. That's my job. Gil Favor's my name. Trail boss."
9. Incident of the Valley in Shadow
Gil Favor: "There's money in beef, but it doesn't come easy. There's a market for all the steers you can raise, but it's a thousand miles away. You get top prices only for top cattle. Pushing the herd up the trail is only half the job. You got to get 'em there in good shape. It takes tough men working long hours for low wages, staring trouble in the face at every bend in the trail. I'm one of 'em. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
10. Incident of the Blue Fire
Gil Favor: "Oldtimers always say it
doesn't storm like it used to.
But I'd argue with them. When you're on a trail drive, you get
on intimate terms with the weather. You're away from home maybe eight,
nine months, and you may not sleep under a roof the whole time. Rain,
sleet, snow, whatever it has to offer, it's part of the job. My job.
Gil Favor's the name. Trail boss."
12. Incident of the Druid Curse
Gil Favor: "When it comes to cattle, you can brand them with a barbed brand, a bench brand, or a bowsal brand, which is a stipe running around the cow's nose. Or you can use a running or a swinging brand, a tumbling or a walking brand, whose lower part looks like feet. But whichever you use, from then on you know who the cow belongs to. When it comes to men, though, it's not that easy. They don't wear brands. What herd they're running with, what loyalties they got is anybody's guess. And I can't afford to guess. I'm Gil Favor, trail boss."
13. Incident at Red River Station
Gil Favor: "Most cow herders picture the Lord as a pretty serious old gentleman. But I figure any power that creates a cow has got to have a strong sense of humor. Nothing uglier, more contrary, or more stupid ever drew breath. Unless it's the men who push them. I know. I'm one of the men who pushes them. I'm Gil Favor, trail boss."
14. Incident of the Devil and His Due
Gil Favor: "A cow hand's hat is the first thing he puts on when he gets up, and the last thing he takes off when he beds down. Some of the wide brim shades his eyes from the sun. In winter, he pulls the brim down and ties it over his ears to avoid frost bite. He uses the crown as a bucket and the brim as a drinking cup. That's why a cow hand will get the best hat he can, because it's got to serve a dozen purposes it's maker never dreamed of. The same thing goes for the men wearing the hats. I know. I'm Gil Favor, trail boss."
15. Incident of the Wanted Painter
Pete Nolan: "When you're pushing 3,000 steers north on the Sedalia Trail, you don't have time to worry about where you've been, it's where you're going that counts. What's over the next hill, whether there's grazing ahead and water, it's my job to find out. I'm Pete Nolan, trail scout for the Gil Favor drive."
16. Incident at Tinker's Dam
Gil Favor: "It takes three things to make a trail drive: cattle, horses, and men. Some say two, because a man without a horse is no man at all. There are mornings when I think a horse without a man would be better. I should know men by now, but I keep learning. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
17. Incident of the Night Horse
Gil Favor: "Driving a trail herd North, each delay means getting the herd to market that much later. Days, sometimes even half days, count. A herd that can beat its schedule has time to fatten up at the end of the drive and bring the best price. But sometimes it seems the good Lord is on the side of the buyers. Nobody else could turn streams into swollen rivers that take three days to cross instead of one. I don't try to understand it, mostly I just go along with whatever turns up. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
19. Incident of the Dust Flower
Gil Favor: "It sounds simple when you start out -- get the herd to Abiliene. Before you are half way there, the cattle are the least of your worries. I know. Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
20. Incident at Sulfur Creek
Pete Nolan: "Beeves come in all colors and sizes. But whether they're Sonora Reds or White Faces, Supinas or Rustics, they've all got one thing in common -- no brains. During the day you've got to lead them to make sure that they don't walk into cactus patches where they scratch their eyes or over stoney ground where they cut their hooves or off the side of a mountain where they break their neck. And at night, somebody's got to pick a sleeping place for them. That's usually me. I'm Pete Nolan, trail scout."
21. Incident of the Champagne Bottles
Gil Favor: "I keep looking at them: the herd and the drovers. Which is more important? The beeves are worth over $20 a head when we get them to Sedalia, Missouri. And the drovers, I can't sell them. Most of them won't be there when we get to Sedalia. The things you get to thinking of on the drive: who's worth more, the cattle or the drovers who get them there? And I'm one of the drovers. The name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
23. Incident of the Dancing Death
Gil Favor: "The only thing certain about a trail drive is the uncertainty. The expected never seems to happen. The surprise is always popping up, most of the time bringing trouble. When it hits, there's no counting on somebody else to handle it. That's my job, mine alone. I'm Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
24. Incident of the Arana Sacar
Gil Favor: "This is a drover. He's tough and he's durable. He has to match his strength and skill against the orneriness of cattle. Normally, he's steady-going and dependable, except once in a while when the orneriness of the cattle rubs off on him. Then I've got a problem, and it's usually a bad one. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
25. Incident of the Deserter
G.W. Wishbone: "The way I heard it, it was some French fellow named Napoleon said an army marches on it's belly. Well, I don't know much about armies, but I mighty well know that's true about trail drives. The beeves eat what they can, but the drovers are a little more particular. So, one day I'll cook a big mess of buttons, that's salt pork and beans. Then next day they'll get Kansas City fish, that's salt pork with brown berries, that's beans. The day after that, they're liable to get sow belly, that's salt pork. This time with prairie strawberries, and that's beans. So the fourth day, I stay out of sight. My name's Wishbone, feeder of the Gil Favor outfit."
27. Incident of the Murder Steer
Gil Favor: "In those Eastern newspapers, they write about the lawlessness of the West. But they don't know what it means to live that way. It means in time of trouble you've got no help but the quickness of your own right hand. No Judge but your own good sense, especially on trail herds. Most of the time you're miles from anyone wearing a lawman's star. So keeping order is up to me. Name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
30. Incident of the Last Chance
Gil Favor: "A trail herd's got to have a couple of experienced bog riders to get mired cattle out of mud holes and buffalo wallows. But when it comes to fishing the bog riders themselves out of trouble, not to mention the point and flank riders, the wranglers and the night hawkers, it takes more than a rope and a short-handled shovel. I know. I'm Gil Favor, trail boss."
3rd season (1960-61) [TOP]
2. Incident of the Challenge
Gil Favor: "On the Sedalia Trail, the weather is like a Texas woman, contrary and full of little tricks to keep a man off balance. No use trying to out-guess either one of 'em. They give you trouble all you can do is pray for a change, hope for the best. I've had a passing acqaintance with both. Name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
3. Incident at Dragon Crossing
Gil Favor: "Taking the herd north, you have to trail across nearly 1,000 miles of the wrinkled skin of Earth over terrain as strange and different as paradise above from the hot place below. Mostly its too rough or too steep, too wet or dry, too hot or cold, too windy, too lonely. But you take what comes along and try to find a way to move the beeves through. At least you try. My name is Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
4. Incident of the Night Visitor
Gil Favor: "Whenever you hear a fellow telling about how he rode with a trail herd of five or ten thousand steers, you can call him a liar. The most any crew can handle and keep safe is about 3,000, the size of this herd. With the hazards of weather, terrain, stampedes, and Indian raids, that's plenty. Then there's the remuda, the extra horses. That's maybe the most valuable part of the herd and the most vulnerable. Put that many animals together, they spell trouble. And it's my trouble. Gil Favor's the name, Trail Boss."
5. Incident of the Slavemaster
Gil Favor: "Depending on where you come from, you call steers brush splitters, cactus boomers, critters, rawhides, skallaways, or bacas. The drovers whose job it is to get them where they're going just call 'em beeves. I'm one of the drovers. We've been pushing this herd for almost 500 miles and it's still nearly twice that to Sedalia, Missouri. My name's Gil Favor, Trail Boss."
7. Incident at Superstition Prairie
Gil Favor: "Every once in a while, somebody comes up with the idea that a cattle drive is like a military campaign. They also think a trail boss has the power of a general. They're a little wrong. For one thing, his pay is lower. For another thing, his men can quit when they want to. And finally, you can order 3,000 head of cattle to do anything, but you can't court marshal them if they don't obey. I found that out. My name's Favor, Trail Boss."
9. Incident of the Captive
Harkness Mushgrove: "I always thought a trail drive would be an exciting life full of adventures. Well, maybe it will be when I'm a real drover. But right now I don't seem to be very important. And all my adventures are peeling potatoes, carrying water, washing pots and pans and itching Mr. Wishbone's back when it needs scratching. I'm a cook's louse for Mr. Favor's trail drive. They call me Mushy, because, well, I guess maybe because it's my name."
10. Incident of the Buffalo Soldier
Rowdy Yates: "They tell us just since the war this beef cattle we drive north are changing the eating habits of the whole country. Changing the farming ways, too, I understand. Well, I don't know. These beeves might mean a square meal to some, but they just mean trouble to me. My name's Rowdy Yates. I'm ramrod of this herd. And sometimes I wish I wasn't."
21. Incident of his Brother's Keeper
Gil Favor: "There's one good thing
you can say about driving a herd up the Sedalia trail: beeves stay
beeves. The drovers stay human, and trouble is always saddling up a
fresh horse, preparing to ride with you. What you can't be sure of
is the direction it's coming from, the face it's gonna be wearing,
the name it'll be traveling under. What you can be sure of is that
trouble knows your name. Mine's Gil Favor. Trail boss." Cf. the intro to Incident of the Phantom Bugler.
23. Incident of the Phantom Bugler
Gil Favor: "There's one good thing you can say about driving a
herd up the Sedalia trail, if you're fresh to it. It don't make much
difference if you're starting out from Texas at the one end or
approaching Missouri at the other. The beeves stay beeves. The drovers
stay human, and trouble is always saddling up a fresh horse, preparing
to ride with you. What you can't be sure of is the direction it's
coming from, the face it's gonna be wearing, the name it'll be
traveling under. What you can be sure of is that it knows your name.
Mine's Gil Favor. Trail boss." Now, this is pretty neat: cf.
the intro to Incident of his Brother's Keeper.
26. Incident of the Painted Lady
Gil Favor: "Sometimes it gets right peaceful on a trail drive.
You're traveling easy in pretty country with the trail-broke herd
acting gentle as lambs. Weather's fine. Air's fresh. Sun's warm. That's
when I begin to worry. Something's bound to happen. And out of all
the bad things it might be, it usually turns out to be the kind of
trouble you least expect. My name's Gil Favor. Trail boss."
|
|
Rawhide: 1959-65 (CBS)
Eric Fleming as Gil Favor
Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates
Sheb Wooley as Pete Nolan
Paul Brinegar as Wishbone
James Murdock as Mushy
|
Theme performed by Frankie Laine
|
|
Eric Fleming movies
|
 The Glass Bottom Boat
Doris Day mistaken as a spy! Sounds like a light-hearted 60's romp to me. In addition to our man Eric Fleming, the movie also features Arthur Godfrey (by the way, am I the only one who can sing about dotting the "i" for the inventors?), Paul Lynde, Dick Martin, and Dom DeLuise.
|
 Curse of the Undead
Eric Fleming stars as Preacher Dan Young in this, yes, vampire western. How cool is that?
|
 Queen of Outer Space
Eric stars with Zsa Zsa Gabor, dahling, in this hilarious sci-fi flick. A reviewer at the Internet Movie Database says the movie "reeks of cardboard sets, silly dialogue, and more phallic symbols, hot babes, and sexual innuendo than you can wave a stick (or laser gun) at."
|
 Conquest of Space
Eric stars as Captain Barney Merritt in this story about the first manned expedition to Mars. A reviewer at amazon.com numbers among the movie's merits its inclusion of: "MST3K ready dialog! The obligitory accidental weightlessness scene! ... The first ever burial in space! The first ever snowfall on Mars!" In other words, you can't lose!
|
|
The Rawhide theme
|
 Rockin'/Hell Bent for Leather
Head 'em up, move 'em out! Frankie Laine performed the rousing song played over the opening credits of Rawhide. The Rawhide theme is among the 24 tracks on this CD.
|
|
Sheb Wooley Sings
|
 The Purple People Eater
31 tracks including the classic title song
|
 Wild and Wooley, Big Unruly Me
29 tracks
|
 Rawhide/How the West was Won
24 tracks including Sheb's version of the Rawhide theme (this is not the version performed in the opening credits of the show!)
|
 That's My Pa
Four box set totaling 47 tracks
|
|
