Thanks mostly to Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, and, yes, Quentin Tarantino, Western-themed feature films have been able to survive, but only by a thread. Having reached their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, Westerns were the go-to, backbone, mainstay of, not only the movie industry, but TV, as well.
Shows such as “The Big Valley,” “The Rifleman,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Virginian,” “Bonanza,” “Rawhide,” and “Wagon Train” all had long runs, and rightfully claimed their places in TV lore.
