One of the things I mention a few months back was that COZI TV was running episodes of the Life and Times of Wyatt Earp. It has been interesting to watch the show that I watched as a child in a different perspective. As an adult I know that the show used only the bare bones of the historical Wyatt Earp. If you have read any books or seen any of the recent films of Wyatt Earp you get a more realistic picture of the historical Wyatt Earp. Still I am enjoying despite knowing the historical Wyatt Earp.
The stories are interesting to watch. Many of them are nice vignettes of incidents happening in the town whether it is Wichita, Dodge City or tombstone. One surprise is to see that some stories would have several parts. Another enjoyment is to see various character actors such as Denver Pyle who later played Uncle Jessie on the Dukes of Hazards and Paul Brinegar who later played Wishbone on Rawhide.
Watching today, I noticed how the show reused actors in various roles. I spotted Don Diamond who played Crazy Kat on F Troop twice once as a bandit and another time as saloon owner. Another one I have spotted was Morgan Woodward who played Shotgun Gibbs in the tombstone stories as a prize fighter and as Texas ranger captain. Finally we have Douglas Fowley who played Doc Fabrique in the Wichita series and Doc Holiday. To see Fowley is delight in either role. The writers must have loved the Doc Fabrique character as they brought him back in one of the Dodge City stories.
Watching Douglas Fowley as Doc Holliday, you can see he really enjoyed playing that role. For a period of shows the role of Doc Holliday was portrayed by Myron Healy billed as Mike Healy. While I enjoy Myron, I miss Fowley’s little nuances that he gave the character. The reason Myron took over the role was Fowley had committed to a film in Germany which ran over its time not allowing him to return. Thankfully the producers brought Fowley for the Tombstone stories.
The show had a number of items merchandised including the Buntline special that Wyatt used on the show. I had the pistol, but I never got the Marx Wyatt Earp figure until I was an adult. I know if I had gotten him as child he would had been one of chief good guys in my stories.
If you want to know more on Douglas Fowley go to the link below. It is an great article by Western clippings.
http://www.westernclippings.
Interesting side note, me and Wyatt share the same birth date, no, not the year and it was yesterday.
Happy belated birthday Ed.
Paul some great info on the show.
This is a little bit off topic but I don’t know where else to post it. I was at my local Barnes and Noble today and saw a dump display of Horror/Sci FI ” action” figures made be a company called ReAct [ if I remember right]. They were in single figure blister packs retailing at $9.99 each. They are in full color injected hard plastic. I saw The Bride of Frankenstein, Freddy Kruger and figures from The Terminator and Aliens. Has anybody else seen them? They look to be about 56mm in size [ too small for 60 and a scooch larger that 54].
Mike
Checking Barnes and Nobles they have a series from Funko called Reaction which are 3.75 inches tall. Check and see if they are the same ones.
I haven’t seen them anywhere yet, but if they are priced at $9.99 per figure in a dump bin, then I will quit complaining about new plastic toy soldiers priced at $3.00 – $4.00 per figure.
They are much bigger than 60mm. Went by ours today and they are on hangers.
Paul, your mention of Paul Brinegar (“Wishbone”) Just reminded me of a story my uncle (a WW2 veteran, now-deceased) told me when we were in Vegas together back in the 70s. He had lived in Vegas during the late 50s and early 60s. He told me about the time one of the casinos sponsored a fast-draw contest in town. All sorts of folks showed up for the prize (can’t remember what it was) or just bragging rights – including several Hollywood Western stars. Maybe that was the point, a publicity contest.
The idea was the guy who could draw the fastest and still hit the target. He said they had some pretty high-speed, low-drag equipment for the day to time the shots and the difference among the top shooters was within the 1/100s of seconds.
Anyway, my uncle told me he thought he was a hotshot with a six-gun but realized he was totally outclassed in the competition. What I found interesting was that of all the big names Clint Eastwood came in second place as the fastest draw. The number one fast draw? His co-star on “Rawhide,” Paul Brinegar – “Wishbone.”
Who’da thunk it? Thought y’all might get a kick out of the story.
Wayne
Yes it is a great story.