Rawhide is an American Western television series starring Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood. The show aired for seven seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights from January 9, 1959, 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 217 black-and-white episodes. The series was produced and sometimes directed by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced early episodes of Gunsmoke. The show is remembered by many for its theme song, "Rawhide".
Spanning years, Rawhide was the sixth-longest-running American television Western, exceeded only by Wagon Train, The Virginian, Bonanza, Death Valley Days, and Gunsmoke.
Set in the 1860s, Rawhide portrays the challenges faced by the drovers of a cattle drive as they drove cattle from Texas to Sedalia, Missouri which for a time was the western end of the railroad. Most episodes are introduced with a monologue by Gil Favor, trail boss. In a typical Rawhide 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 parched plains to anthrax, ghostly riders to wolves, 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 to morphine. Mexican drover "Hey Soos" faced racism at times from outside of the crew. Some American Indians demanded cattle as payment for going through their land and several episodes deal with the aftermath of the American Civil War, which ended four years earlier.
Regular cast members included:
Series producer Charles Marquis Warren based Rawhide on three sources:
Filming for the first season of Rawhide took place at Universal-International Studios in Hollywood. The extensive railroad scenes in the third season were filmed in one month on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California.
The premiere episode of Rawhide reached the top 20 in the Nielsen 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.
The theme song's lyrics were written by Ned Washington in 1958. It was composed by Dimitri Tiomkin and sung by pop singer Frankie Laine, with the orchestra and chorus conducted by John Williams (credited as Johnny Williams). The theme song became very popular, and was covered several times and featured in movies such as The Blues Brothers and Shrek 2.
The eighth and final season's title sequence was animated by Ken Mundie of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.
CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount) has released all eight seasons of Rawhide on DVD in Region 1.
On May 12, 2015, CBS DVD released Rawhide- The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.
In Region 2, Rawhide has been released in Scandinavia: Season 1, by Noble Entertainment, two boxes, 2009âÂÂ2010, 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. Season 4 will be released on March 23, 2015, followed by season 5 on June 22, 2015. 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. Season 8, the Final Season, was released on October 5, 2011. 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).
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.
In 1961, Signet Books published a paperback original novel called Rawhide by Frank 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.
The TV show was also adapted into a comic book by Dan Spiegle, distributed by Dell Comics.