The first Western anthology series on our list birthed some of the great Oaters of the 1950s and ’60s. “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre” aired on CBS from 1956 to 1961 and during that time launched the shows “Trackdown,” the classic Chuck Connors series “The Rifleman,” “Johnny Ringo,” “Black Saddle,” and, of course, “The Westerner.” Oddly enough, the anthology series itself was initially based on the stories of author Zane Grey, who mythologized the Old West and helped establish the kind of simplistic good guy vs. bad guy dynamic that Sam Peckinpah eventually railed against with “The Westerner.”
“Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre” was, then, a fairly traditional take on the Old West, But its writers quickly realized that compressing Grey’s stories into half-hour episodes was a tricky task and began writing their own original scripts early on, telling stories of outlaws, cowboys, sheriffs, and pioneers. That was all it took to impress viewers.
With Dick Powell as host, narrator, and sometimes star, the show debuted to solid ratings and reviews. When it first aired in October 1956, The Billboard hailed “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre” as “one of the strong contenders for the title of most important new show, according to many of its ratings.” Each episode told a new tale, and throughout its five-season, 146-episode run, the show welcomed esteemed guest stars like Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine, Rory Calhoun, Dennis Hopper, and Cloris Leachman. Oh, and Ronald Reagan showed up, too.
This is also the series that indirectly gave us “Wanted Dead or Alive,” itself a “Trackdown” spin-off. With all that in mind, “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre” was one of the most quietly influential shows of its time, and it deserves to be more well known than it is today.
