ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS SUMO-SIZED WESTERN, ‘THE WIDE WEST’, RUTA LEE ON AUDIE MURPHY AND ‘BULLET FOR A BADMAN’, PLUS ‘EDDINGTON’ AND ‘BURY ‘EM DEEP'’ REVIEWED!

 

HIGH, WIDE AND HANDSOME!

ALEXANDER NEVSKY ON HIS NEW FILM, THE WIDE WEST, AND HIS LONG, EVENTFUL JOURNEY FROM MOSCOW TO AN ARIZONA MOVIE RANCH!

(The Wide West trailer. A link to the film follows the article)

The Wide West, following Gunfight at Rio Bravo and Taken from Rio Bravo, is the 3^rd Western movie collaboration of star and producer Alexander Nevsky, director Joe Cornet, screenwriter Craig Hamann, composer Sean Murray, and cinematographer Sam Wilkerson. The seemingly absurd premise of a pair of Sumo wrestling stars stranded in the Old West is, surprisingly, based on – or suggested by – facts: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. In gratitude, and knowing the President’s interest in martial arts, particularly Judo and Jiu-Jitsu, a contingent of Japanese athletes, including Sumo wrestlers, was dispatched to Washington to entertain Roosevelt, sailing to California, then making their way to the East Coast.  In The Wide West, two of those Sumo wrestlers, Daiki (Hiroki Sumi) and Ichi (Takashi Ichinojo) find themselves stranded in a Western desert town, in mortal conflict with an outlaw gang led by villain Jarrett Kingrey (director Joe Cornet), and reluctantly befriended by a Russian immigrant, a gambler known as Max (Nevsky). It’s an amusing film that, happily, doesn’t take itself too seriously, except when it comes to action.

Alexander Nevsky is himself a world-class athlete and an immigrant. The three-time Mr. Universe, actor, producer, director, grew up picturing himself in movies, but not necessarily in Westerns. He loved the genre, but getting access to them in Russia was no simple task. “When I was a kid, we couldn't watch westerns from the United States, but we still watched some Easterns, as they call it, because in East Germany, they will make westerns. In Yugoslavia, they made westerns with Gojko Mitic, who was a big star at the time, playing Chingachgook (note: from James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer). And in Easterns, Indians were good guys, and all the cowboys, the army, they were bad guys, so basically it was all in reverse. But we loved it and we loved the culture.”

Don't mess with Max!

Nevsky wouldn’t have a chance to see the real Hollywood product in Russia until the 1990s, with the rise of bootleg videotapes. “The Soviet Union was collapsing, and pirated videos suddenly appeared at all those kiosks close to subway stations. They put two Hollywood movies on one video tape, and I was buying them every evening when I was going back home from my University or from the gym. I had old Korean VCR with my old Russian tv, only black and white picture,” he recalls with a laugh. “But even in black and white, it was almost like a window to completely different, magic world. And the funny thing is, those Soviet pirates who made those tapes, they didn't understand the difference between huge movies and small movies, right? They can put like Arnold's $40 million Commando or Predator, and second movie could be Lady Dragon with Cynthia Rothrock, or a Don “the Dragon” Wilson picture, because it was also action picture. It was all Hollywood, right? It was all magic. And now as a producer, I understand that piracy's bad. But sometimes it could be good, and it could give a lot of people a great escape, at least for a couple of hours. So you never know.”

He wasn’t a natural-born Mr. Universe. “I had a little scoliosis. I was tall already, but when I started to lift weights, I was young and very skinny, I didn't have muscles at all.” So he trained.

“My background in bodybuilding and in boxing taught me to be prepared for hard work. I was happy when I won Mr. Universe, and when I won a second and third one, but before I started to win, it was like decades of preparation and training.”

He came to the United States in 1999 well-prepared not only physically, but educationally. “I graduated from Moscow State University of Management, and I had my PhD in Economics.”  He’d already had considerable success at home. “I was established TV star in Russia, a bodybuilding star. I had my own TV show on Channel One Russia, and 20 million people watched my TV show every week. I already wrote three books about bodybuilding and believing in yourself, and they sold like hundreds of thousands of copies.  When I moved to Los Angeles, I just had student visa, because I became a student at the UCLA, I started to study English, and later, I transferred to Lee Strassberg Theater Institute where I started to learn acting.

“It was kind of like trip to the moon, because Russian Americans all knew who I was, but Americans, they didn't have a clue. I started from scratch and, like six months after I came, I started to get some callbacks from auditions.”

Max's nemesis, played by Joe Cornet

His first big opportunity was an athletic competition series. “Battle Dome was Columbia Tristar TV show, kind of like American Gladiator. It was open call. I saw probably 300 huge guys. They told me, just wear black t-shirt, blue jeans. So when I came, I saw like hundreds of huge guys in black t-shirts and blue jeans. Someone was a little taller, someone was a little shorter, someone had smaller biceps, someone had bigger biceps, but volumes of them! So when they call us back a month later, it was just fifty guys, just 15 guys two months later, then it was just five of us who they want to sign. When I saw the contract, of course it was almost no money. It was scale and whatever, but it was the first time when they described my character. It was like stupid stereotypical Russian, wearing a red star on the back. And when I said to casting director and to producers, I cannot play it, they looked at me like I was an idiot, because they chose me out of 300, and I didn't want to do it. But again, Henry, I didn't come here to promote stereotypes. I came here to crush stereotypes, but to be completely honest with you, it was heartbreaking.

“Then one of my idols, Jean Claude Van Damme, invited me to make a movie with him, called The Order, with Charlton Heston and Brian Thompson, in 2000. Jean Claude was playing an adventurer who was stealing things from museums. The great, late Jack Gilardi, vice President of ICM, introduced me to Jean Claude and Sheldon Lettich, the director of the film, who directed, in my opinion, best of Jean Claude's films in ‘90s, like Double Impact. Sheldon and Jean Claude right away created a part for me. I was happy, but when I read it, it was a security guard in some museum in Kazakhstan: just scream something in Russian, and fight with Jean Claude, and get killed by Jean. I explained it to them that I couldn't play these stereotypical roles, because my Russian audience will not understand it. And it was Sheldon who told me that, if I want to be a star, I should find a way to produce, because here, unfortunately, if you big Russian, you will play stereotypical roles. Back then it was heartbreaking. But I still think it was the right choice because, how Sinatra sang it, I did it my way. And 11 years later, Sheldon became executive producer of my director debut, Black Rose.”

I told Nevsky that my first job as a screenwriter had been a film called Speedtrap (1977), which I’d co-written with producer and Romanian immigrant Fred Mintz: we worked out the story together, I did the actual writing, particularly the dialog, and we’d rewrite it together. Nevsky’s first film as producer and star came in 2004. “I co-wrote my very first English-language motion picture, Moscow Heat, which was the great Michael York, and Joanna Pacula. It was the film which opened the door for me into action genre. I was executive producer, it was my first starring role and I co-wrote it with my American friend, Robert Madrid exactly the way you worked with your friend from Romania. I'm proud to say that I also created a story for my biggest one, Maximum Impact, which was written by Ross Lamanna, who wrote the Rush Hour movies for Jackie Chan.”

Max riding to the rescue!

So, how did Alexander Nevsky move on to Westerns? It was because of a meeting between Nevsky and Western director Joe Cornet, who were brought together by their composer. “Sean Murray, great composer, introduced us to each other. Sean wrote music for Joe's Western, The Promise, and he wrote music for my Black Rose. Sean told me that he wants me to meet with his friend because he wants me to try a Western. Sean, he's a great composer, but also he's a great friend. So I was honest with him. I told him, of course I'll meet you with your friend, I'll be happy to, but come on: me in a Western?” But they hit it off immediately.  “Joe’s like a walking encyclopedia of Westerns. I mean, all the knowledge he gave me, it was amazing. (With the) pirated videos in Russia, that's when I became a huge fan of spaghetti Westerns, of Clint Eastwood, the Sergio Leones, and John Wayne. John Wayne, I like him a lot because he was tall and big, right? And his movies, they were kind of like, if I can say, like clean Westerns, not so down-to-earth, like Sergio Leone kind of Westerns. John Wayne's Westerns were bigger and brighter and more positive. I just love him. But my point is, I was huge fan of Westerns, but I never really imagined myself in a Western. So going back to end of 2020, those conversations with Joe, he told me we should do a Western. ‘Trust me, you will love the experience, you will love the film.’ And I told him, Joe, if we doing something together, it shouldn't be just straight Western. Because my background is in sport and bodybuilding. I was a boxer and kick-boxer. And good thing about sport: sport will give you discipline.  So you always know your strong points and your weak points. I said, Joe, if we're making a movie together, it shouldn't be just a Western. It should be an action western, so we can bring together my favorite genre, which is action, and your favorite genre, which is Western.

“And that's how Gunfight at Rio Bravo was born. And Joe did an amazing job because he was always positive, he was always prepared, he was always very supportive. And before we started, we had like four-and-a-half months, and he even gave me his horse to train with, because I never rode a horse before. I never shot Western guns like Winchester or Colts. Of course I shot a lot of modern guns. He helped a lot. And by June, 2021, when we came to Arizona to make our first Western, I was prepared. And it was complete fun. It wasn't easy at all, but it was complete fun. And I brought my action guys with me. I brought Olivier Gruner and I brought Art Camacho, who is a great fight choreographer, and I brought Matthias Hues, and we all had fun. And thanks to Joe, we got a Western, like a real Spaghetti Western. And thanks to my team, we also got an action movie.”

Nick Baillie as the Judge, Tatiana Neva as a stylish shopkeeper

Also turning in a dynamic guest performance in one of Nevsky’s Westerns is another martial arts legend, “My great friend and colleague Cynthia Rothrock. I hope it was me and Joe who inspired her to make her great action Western, Black Creek. Because right before that, she made our Taken from Rio Bravo, and she was amazing in it. We introduced her to everyone over there in Arizona, to John Marrs, our armorer and also costar, and to other guys. She made her own Western, which is great.” You can read my article about Black Creek, and my interview with Cynthia Rothrock, here:  https://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2025/04/black-creek-action-star-cynthia.html

Now that he’s had extensive experience in both Action films and Westerns, which genre presents more challenges? “To be honest with you, making Westerns is harder. It's much more fun, but it's harder, because every time you're doing a film about something which happened many years ago, you really should be authentic.” I wasn’t going to say anything about his somewhat anachronistic costume, but he brought it up.  “Now, saying that, of course you know I was criticized because of my outfit in the films. Because even in the Westerns, I always have cool leather jackets. With one simple reason, Henry, and again, I'll be completely honest with you, because if we talk about business for a second, I understand that a lot of your readers, they're huge fans of Western genre, and they don't want to read about business side of film making. But we both understand that it’s really important. If you talk about sales, if you make any Western, you will almost always sell it in the United States. Because United States has a huge culture of Westerns, huge fan base for Western genre historically. But internationally, it's really hard to sell the Western, even if it's a huge studio Western. And that's the reason why studios actually stopped making big Westerns. So what I was doing as a producer, I was trying to put together Action and a Western. So in America, film will be sold because it's a Western, but internationally, we can sell it because it's an Action picture, because Action always sells. And that's why even in Gunfight at Rio Bravo, last 25 minutes of the film, I don't have my hat anymore. I just have my leather jacket, and I’m killing people, right and left, in very cool way. It's an Action picture, not just a Western. It's kind of the same thing in the Wide West, because in the end I have, yes, old-fashioned sunglasses, old-fashioned jacket, but still, I look like a Terminator,” he laughs, “in the Wild West. The cigar, of course, is in homage to Arnold's movies. So that's how I approach it.”

ICHI takes aim!

As international as The Wide West is, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that one of Nevsky’s major influences in creating it was the Western that James Bond specialist Terrence Young directed in 1971, Red Sun. “I think it was first Charles Bronson film released in Japan. And it was first Toshiro Mifune film that really made him popular in Europe and the United States. And Ursula Andress, she already did the Bond picture, Dr. No. The producers, they played their cards so smart, because they got American star, they got Japanese star, they got established European star -- because Alain Delon wasn't just a French star. He was one of the biggest European stars at the moment. They basically sold all the territories, even before they made the movie. So it was a terrific business model. Bronson, in Red Sun, he was my inspiration for my character Max. Because when you watch my action pictures, and both Rio Bravo movies, I always played like a stoic, hard-boiled action heroe. You don't have to ask me twice to protect you, to help you,

In this one, I was playing a different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”

The Wide West is currently available exclusively on XUMO Play, for free!

In this one, I was playing a different character, and Charles Bronson was my inspiration because in Red Sun, if you remember, he is not playing your hero. No, he's just the guy who's having fun. He wants to make money, he wants to get some revenge, but mostly the money. And of course, basically, he's changing over the course of the movie, but it's a different Charles Bronson.”

The Wide West is currently available exclusively on XUMO Play, for free! Just click the link below:

https://play.xumo.com/free-movies/the-wide-west/XM0XFMQGKZICWS

RUTA LEE REMEMBERS AUDIE MURPHY AND MAKING 'BULLET FOR A BADMAN'

Here's the trailer!

 Kino Lorber has just issued Collection V – that’s 5 for you non-Romans – of the Westerns which Audie Murphy starred in at Universal in the 1950s and ‘60s. Each collection features 3 films, and this set contains Seven Way from Sundown, Walk the Proud Land, and Bullet for a Badman.

While I’ll soon write reviews for all 3, I recently had the pleasure of discussing one film from the set, 1964’s Bullett for a Badman, directed by R.G. Springsteen, with one of its stars, the still-lovely Ruta Lee, who recently turned 90. I highly recommend her hilarious, fascinating memoir, Consider Your Ass Kissed.

Ruta with Berkeley Harris

In Badman, Ruta plays the third point of a, while not a truly romantic triangle, a practical one, between Audie Murphy and Darren McGavin. If the other actors’ names that she mentions are not familiar, their faces would be. Alan Hale, Jr. was Skipper on Gilligan’s Island. Genial George Tobias, a comic character in 100 movies, mostly at Warner Brothers, is best remembered as Elizabeth Montgomery’s neighbor, Mr. Kravitz, on Bewitched. Skip Homier made his name as a child actor playing a Hitler Youth in Tomorrow, The World, and played many Western villains, memorably in The Gunfighter. If you haven’t seen Bullet for a Badman, you’re warned that there’s a big spoiler in Ruta’s first sentence. “Audie was of course the good guy, Darren was the bad guy, and I got shot with a bullet in my forehead somewhere in the movie. And my little grandmother, that I had brought over from Lithuania, had never seen television or the movies. She went screaming to my mother that I had been shot, and having hysterics when she saw that movie. I had such fun, because Alan Hale was in that movie, George Tobias, Skip Homeier. We laughed so hard. You know, it's surprising that they ever got a clear shot of us not laughing because we'd be out there and R. G. Springsteen, and God love him, he had a sense of humor too, but we laughed and laughed and laughed. And darling, the leading man of course was Audie, who was somewhat remote. You know, he didn't mix and mingle a lot, which is kind of sad because he would have had such laughs with us. When you have someone like George Tobias, who's been there, done it, seen it all, and has a story to tell about everything he's ever done, when you've got Alan Hale Jr., who carries on like a lunatic about things, and of course, Skippy Homeier as well. And my darling, Darren McGavin who's full of piss and vinegar, oh God, it was such fun! We were in St. George, Utah, but we travelled to a lot of different places. But I loved the Westerns. I didn't like the idea of having to get up at four to make it to the studio by five, so that you could be out on location at six. But what was really nice was that chuckwagon, the trailer that was the cooking wagon would be there at the location already. And you learned from the cowboys what to eat and you'd have every day, a bacon and egg and sausage and onion and tomato sandwich for breakfast. Boy, was that good! I can smell it now. You know, when you're sitting outside and it's cold and the coffee is there, and the sandwich is ready when you want it. Oh, that was great!”

Some of the spectacular mountain scenery!

You can read my Ruta Lee Western career article at the INSP blog, by clicking the link below:

Ruta Lee – Lithuanian-American Queen of the West

You can find Ruta Lee’s memoir at Amazon by clicking the link below:

Consider your Ass Kissed

And you can purchase Audie Murphy Collection V from Kino Lorber, including Bullet for a Badman, by clicking the link below:

https://kinolorber.com/product/audie-murphy-collection-v-walk-the-proud-land-seven-ways-from-sundown-bullet-for-a-badman?srsltid=AfmBOor-p5NVTnb6lc8ZBY9YcjU-Sq5B04LP4CPXhG6ujmhd-yWnNObF

 

FILM REVIEWS:

EDDINGTON

EDDINGTON TRAILER

Eddington is the new ‘Contemporary Western’ from the much-lauded writer-director of the Horror films Hereditary and Midsommar, Ari Aster. He has a wonderful cast – Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, double Oscar winner Emma Stone, 4-time Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal, Oscar nominee Austin Butler. There are strong performances, and an intriguing premise – what happens in a tiny New Mexico town when Covid divides its mask/no mask residents politically during an election? I guess all that it lacks is a plot. There are countless mystifying loose ends, absolutely no characters you care about, and nothing Western besides the locale. It’s pointlessly, brutally in-your-face violent, and if you’re going to call your movie a ‘black comedy’, you need something comic to happen at some point. I counted 3 smirks in two and a half hours.  It’s currently in theaters.

 

BURY ‘EM DEEP

 

Bury ‘Em Deep is as unexpectedly enjoyable as Eddington is disappointing. A slim-budget, legitimate period Western, it stars Robert Bronzi, a Hungarian-born actor who has built a leading-man career – over a dozen films so far – based on his uncanny resemblance to Charles Bronson. Here he plays legendary bounty hunter Link Maddock; the kind they wrote dime novels about. He makes a bad choice when he delivers a corpse to Sheriff Michael Pare for the reward: the stiff is a relative of the lawman, and Maddock is shot down, only to revive some 3 weeks later, nursed back from the brink by an orphanage-running nun, Sister Marie (Rosanna Wyant). And wouldn’t you know it? The bank is foreclosing on the orphanage. Maddock heads out for his hidden cache of bounty cash, but is jumped, beaten, and again left for dead.

With the mortgage clock ticking, Maddock is hunting down each member of the ‘posse’ that robbed him. While in lesser hands, a simple checklist of killings would follow, the script by Eric Zaldivar, from a story he devised with Mike Malloy, gives each malefactor their own personal vignette, ala Hang ‘Em High or Chato’s Land. The actors are not familiar, but the performances are varied and original. Wisely, they are given most of the dialog, keeping Bronzi’s speeches down to semi-intelligible bon mots. Incredibly, it’s the 60^th feature Michael Fredianelli has directed since 2008, and his skills as an editor and cinematographer are also very much on display. It’s an often-stunning looking film, and the final shootout in a pumpkin patch, while perhaps too long, is a remarkable accomplishment of direction, photography and cutting.

Bury ‘Em Deep is available on Amazon Prime, currently for $4. Below is the trailer.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Please check out the July/August True West – here’s a link to my column looking at Val Kilmer’s first starring Western, Billy the Kid, an update on the progress of Young Guns 3, a DVD review of Was Once a Hero, and a chat with the director of the new Pierce Brosnan/Samuel L. Jackson Western, Unholy Trinity.

https://truewestmagazine.com/article/val-kilmers-billy/

Here’s my most recent INSP blog, Grit, Guns & Getting it Right!

https://www.insp.com/blog/what-tv-and-movies-get-right-and-wrong-about-cowboys/

And coming soon to the Round-up, I’ll be reviewing Ron Howard’s new film, Eden, looking at recent Westerns on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, and sharing my Lone Pine interview with Robert Carradine, remembering John Wayne and The Cowboys!

Much obliged,

Henry

Copyright August 2025 by Henry C. Parke – All Rights Reserved

This material is not to be used for Artificial Intelligence training.

 

Get-TV ADDS ‘TALL MAN’, ‘WHISPERING SMITH’, ‘LAREDO’ TO SATURDAY SHOWDOWN! PLUS ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’, ‘WESTERN RELIGION’, OPEN THIS WEEK!

Get-TV ADDS ‘TALL MAN’, ‘WHISPERING SMITH’, ‘LAREDO’ TO SATURDAY SHOWDOWN! 

A TALK WITH get-TV PROGRAMMER JEFF MEIER

Audie Murphy in WHISPERING SMITH

Get-TV, a SONY antenna movie network, or digi-net, has doubled-down on their Saturday Western series offerings.  In September they premiered NICHOLS, HONDO, and A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH (you can read my coverage HERE.)

On Saturday, October 3^rd, they added three more Western series to their schedule: THE TALL MAN (1960-1962), WHISPERING SMITH (1961) and LAREDO (1965-1967).  While LAREDO played on Encore Westerns a few years ago, the other two have rarely been seen since their brief initial runs.  All are from Universal Studios. 

THE TALL MAN tells stories about Billy the Kid (Clu Gulager) and Pat Garrett (Barry Sullivan) when they were still friends (you can read some of Clu’s memories of the series – and a lot of other memories – HERE .) .   In WHISPERING SMITH, Audie Murphy, America’s most decorated soldier of the Second World War, takes on the role of the railroad detective popularized by Alan Ladd in the 1948 Paramount feature of the same title.  Based on the Frank Spearman novel, four earlier WHISPERING SMITH films was made starting in 1916, with the character variously portrayed by H.B. Warner, J. P. McGowan and George O’Brien.  In the series, Guy Mitchell plays Smith’s right hand, George Romack.  LAREDO, sort of a GUNGA DIN out west, is the story of three Texas Rangers, played by Peter Brown, William Smith, and Neville Brand (also one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War II), plus Robert Wolders in season two (read my interview with star Robert Wolders HERE ), and their long-suffering captain, played by Philip Carey.  

Earlier this week I had the chance to talk with Jeff Meier, get-TV’s Senior Vice President of Programming, about all of the exciting recent additions to the get-TV line-up. 

Audie Murphy and Guy Mitchell in

WHISPERING SMITH

Q: Most of the talk about ‘cord-cutters’, dropping satellite or cable service, is about people who decide to get all of their TV from the internet.  But there’s a whole other kind of cord-cutter, folks who are switching from cable back to antenna TV, and Sony’s Get-TV is a big part of that.  Why do you think it’s happening?

A: Well, the technology in the last few years has enabled the birth of a whole new group of channels, and that technology allows all the local (channels) to have the capacity to air three or four digital channels in addition to their regular feed.  Because there were already many millions of people who were just getting their television through the antenna, it created a market for these channels to develop, and it feeds upon itself.  Once you have another dozen channels available over the air, it makes people feel comfortable about using that as their main way to get entertainment.   

Q: How long have you been on the air?

A: get-TV’s been on the air since February of 2014.  So it’s been a little over a year and a half. 

Q:  I would classify you as a classic movie channel.  Initially, what audience were you aiming for? 

A:  We were looking for a classic movie audience.  We had looked at the landscape of digi-channels that had already launched, and it felt like there was a hole in the market for a classic movie channel.  And we were working at the Sony lot, and it’s something that I felt we could do really well.  We had always thought of the possibility of adding series to the channel, being generally classic across both TV and movies.  Now we’re at the beginning stages of adding some series to the mix.

Q:  Who watches – is it a rural or city audience, older or younger?

A:  Interestingly enough, our demographic information is not too extensive.  We gather a lot of our understanding of our audience by both social media, and by who writes to us.  I would imagine that our demographic is on the older side of the TV demographic.  It’s no surprise that when you’re airing classic TV and movies, the people who are most interested in that are people who experienced some of that content when they were growing up.  I wouldn’t make a guess as to whether we’re more rural or urban.  We’re carried in all of the top twenty-five markets, so we’ve got a lot of coverage in major cities.  By default, the most rural of places don’t get these stations because there’s not a local channel to carry our feed.

Q: Thus far you’ve drawn your content primarily – maybe exclusively – from the Columbia Pictures library, owned by SONY.  And you’ve had a particular focus on Westerns, both As and Bs.  Why?

A:  There’s such a passionate audience for Westerns.  When you look around the dial, whatever channels air westerns, they always get a tremendous audience.  So I knew there was a hunger there.  And I knew we had the potential to explore some Westerns that don’t get seen as often.  Since the very beginning of the channel we’ve been airing the Durango Kid movies, the Tim McCoys.  And those movies are a little bit on the older side, so they’re not the every-day fare of most of the channels that are airing Western content.  It felt like we could offer something new to an audience that was really hungry.  And that’s proven to be the case; we get a lot of great response about all of the Westerns that we air.

Q: How should viewers communicate with you, if they want to get in touch to say they’re enjoying something?

A: If you go to the get-TV website, on the bottom of the home page, there’s a section called ‘contact us.’  You can get in touch that way, if you want to reach us directly.  And on Facebook you can go to the get-TV page, like us there, and join that community – we have a very strong social media community, and we’re always looking to see what people say there.  And you can also engage with other viewers about the channel, and share your opinion.

Q: You’ve introduced an exciting new Saturday Line-up, Saturday Showdown, featuring NICHOLS, HONDO and A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH.  And now you’re adding three more: LAREDO, THE TALL MAN, and WHISPERING SMITH.  Why did you choose these particular shows?

A:  I had both an overall goal and some specific goals.  I’m really interested in the whole area of how popular culture gets passed down from generation to generation.  It often seems like only a few big hits ever make it through the clutter.  Whether that’s a few big Beatles songs that make it through the clutter of music, or whether it’s things like BONANAZA and GUNSMOKE – they’ve made it through the clutter of Westerns, and they’ll be here forever; and those are great.  But there’s a lot of other really good stuff out there, and nobody’s let it see the light of day.  And I really think that there’s a lot of rabid interest, particularly in the Western content arena, and I thought that (viewers) deserved to have a few more options.

Then with each of the specific shows, there were different things that sold me on them.  In some cases it was star power: you can’t go wrong with James Garner in almost anything he does – he’s just wonderful.  So NICHOLS was important to me for that reason.  Others of the shows, because these are the first series we’re putting on the air after being primarily a movie channel, I wanted to have connection to movies.  HONDO is based off a movie; WHISPERING SMITH is based off a movie.  And WHISPERING SMITH stars Audie Murphy, who has been in a ton of movies, so I liked that connection.

Q: I suspect you’re going to be introducing Audie Murphy to a lot of people, because although he was a very big star in his day, his movies are very rarely shown.

A:  We’ve actually had some experience with Audie Murphy, because at one of the other channels we work on here at Sony, The Sony Movie Channel, we’ve aired a bunch of Audie Murphy movies, and they do really, really well for us, so I already knew he had that potential.  Frankly I hadn’t known he’d done a series, and when I discovered that he had, I crossed my fingers that it would look good, that we could get the materials, that we thought it would be a good hit for the channel.  And we were really happy that we could get it.  I was really interested in LAREDO because there are not that many Westerns series in color from those later years of the Western.  It’s important to me to have a mix of black and white and color on the channel, and this series has a sense of humor, and was well-regarded.  For all of the series we looked through information on-line that fans had written.  And we watched them and we tried to figure out which held up over time, and these all made the cut.  It’s an interesting mix, and it’s one that we expect in the future to be folding new series in on.  Viewers, if they have some particular favorites, they can use that contact information.  We’d love to hear their ideas of what they’d like to see, that they haven’t seen in a long time.

Clu Gulager, center, Barry Sullivan, right,

in THE TALL MAN

Q: What in particular attracted you to THE TALL MAN?

A: What I liked about TALL MAN was it’s Billy the Kid and sheriff Pat Garrett.  And even though it’s a series people have forgotten about, they’re iconic Western characters that people can still tap into now.  It provides an entry point that isn’t obscure, and allows Western fans of today to have a context with which to watch the show.   It’s a different take on that relationship.  And on A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH, Robert Horton is from WAGON TRAIN, so he’s an established Western star.  This show didn’t fit a lot of my other parameters: it wasn’t based on a movie, it wasn’t in color, it wasn’t with a movie star.  But we watched it, and we just thought it felt like such a quintessential Western story that we couldn’t not try it out.  It also has a lot of great guest stars, and a great creative pedigree, and felt like it would be a fun show to watch.

Q: Does the smaller number of episodes in these series concern you?

LAREDO stars William Smith, Peter Brown,

and Neville Brand

A: No actually.  Because we’re airing our Saturday Showdown once a week, having a smaller number of episodes is fine.  If we were trying to air these episodes Monday through Friday for two years running, then I think they’d burn out pretty quickly.  But in the context of how we’re using them, I think they’ll be just fine.  And we hope to refresh the line-up and mix it up from time to time, too, so I think it’s just the right number of episodes.

Q: With adding these series, with adding THE JUDY GARLAND SHOW and THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW, are you redefining get-TV away from being a ‘movie channel’?

A: I think we are trying to redefine it a little, to be a channel that runs classics, and the classics can be classic movies or TV, but in no way are we going away from the core of being a classic movie channel.  Later this month we’re working with the Bogart Film Festival in Florida.  We’re always trying to figure out some classic movies we could help preserve, or premiere again.  And that remains very important to us.  We just wanted to add the extra elements and see how it goes.

Q: Did you grow up watching westerns?  Did you have favorites as a kid?

A: I’m probably too young for the core era of the Western.  I very specifically remember watching BRET MAVERICK, which was a sequel to MAVERICK, probably in the early ‘80s, with my father, who was always a James Garner fan – I remember that very vividly.  And we also watched a year-long mini-series called CENTENNIAL (1978-79), based off of the James Michener book.  I would say that was my first really big experience with an epic Western, and I thought that was a phenomenal show.  But like I was telling somebody yesterday, I’m from the LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE era of Michael Landon, not the BONANZA era of Michael Landon.

Q:  The kinder, gentler Landon.  What are your favorite western features?

A:  Oh gosh, it’s too hard for me to pick.  The most famous, classic ones, I fall in line with those:  HIGH NOON, SHANE, some of the big John Wayne ones.  Not an atypical general fan kind of point of view.   I have people here on my team who help us program all this, who are more specialists in Westerns than I am.

Q: What was your first job in television?

A:  I was an assistant in the scheduling department at Comedy Central before it was Comedy Central, when it was Comedy Channel in New York. 

Q: Are you a New Yorker?  I’m a Brooklyn boy myself.

A: I actually grew up in southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia.

Q: Anything else I should know?

A:  We’ll have more shows on the way, and more movies on the way.  And I hope people keep on watching, and let us know what they like.

Here’s the Saturday Showdown line-up:

Noon - THE TALL MAN

12:40 p.m. - WHISPERING SMITH

1:20 p.m.  – A MAN CALLED SHENANDOAH

2 & 3:15 p.m. – LAREDO

4:30 p.m. – HONDO

5:45 p.m. – NICHOLS

You’ll notice that the half-hour shows are in 40-minute slots, and the hour shows are in 75 minute slots.  That’s because the episodes are being show with commercials, but uncut.

‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ PLAYS TUES 10/6 AT HOLLYWOOD EGYPTIAN!

As part of the Beyond Fest the much-anticipated new Western with horror overtones (if you consider cannibalism horrible), BONE TOMAHAWK, written and directed by Craig Zahler, and starring Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Sean Young, Matthew Fox and many other notables, will play at 7:30 pm at Hollywood’s famed Egyptian Theatre.  Director Zahler and star Matthew Fox will attend.  For more information, go HERE.  

On October 23^rd, the limited national release will begin. 

‘WESTERN RELIGION’ CONVERTS HOLLYWOOD OCT. 10-15!

WESTERN RELIGION, James O’Briens’s exuberant Western fable about a gathering of high-rollers for a legendary poker tournament, kicks off its national release with a private red-carpet opening on Friday, Oct. 9^th, followed by six days of screenings at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood, at 1625 North Las Palmas Ave., 90028.  It will also play dates in Austin, Iowa City and New York City.  Go HERE to buy tickets.   .  Go HERE  to read my review, and interview with James O’Brien.  Go HERE here to read about my on-set adventures: 

TED TURNER BUYS ‘DANCES WITH WOLVES’ RANCH!

Thanks to author and ‘Dances With Wolves’ soldier Bill Markley for passing this on to me!  Recently I wrote that the historic TRIPLE U RANCH, location for much of ‘Wolves’ was up for sale.  Good news: it has been bought by the man who created Turner Classic Movies, Ted Turner.  Details HERE.  

THAT’S A WRAP!

Angie Dickinson & John Wayne in RIO BRAVO

I’ll be at the openings for BONE TOMAHAWK and WESTERN RELIGION this week, and report back.  And hopefully I’ll have part two of my SILVER SPURS coverage in the next Round-up.  And speaking of the Spurs, Wednesday was the 84^th birthday of Angie Dickinson.  At the Spurs I had the chance to interview the talented and beautiful actress about her work on GUNSMOKE, RIO BRAVO and her other Westerns, and she could not have been more charming and funny.

And Monday was the 81^st birthday of Brigitte Bardot, a fine actress and eye-popping delight in VIVA MARIA, SHALAKO and FRENCHIE KING, and a lifelong advocate for the protection of animals!

And Friday would have been the birthday of the great singing cowboy, actor, filmmaker, sports lover, visionary Gene Autry!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright October 2015 by Parke – All Rights Reserved