Clint Eastwood first made his name as a western star when he appeared in the classic TV showRawhide, and even after 66 years, it’s still worth watching.Eastwood has many iconic movies now, but he had an interesting journey to stardom. He scored some of his earliest leading-man roles in Italian westerns directed by Sergio Leone, which found an unexpected international audience.
The success oftheDollarstrilogyallowed Eastwood to land starring roles in Hollywood movies likeDirty Harry,Hang ‘Em High, andWhere Eagles Dare. He soon had the clout to start directing his own movies, likePlay Misty for MeandHigh Plains Drifter, and before too long, he was a global icon. But before all that, he was a TV cowboy.
Clint Eastwood Starred In A Classic Western TV Show Called Rawhide
Eastwood Played Rowdy Yates
From 1959 to 1965, Eastwood starred in a classic black-and-white western TV show calledRawhide. The series ran for a whopping 217 episodes across eight seasons. This made it the sixth-longest-running American TV western afterWagon Train,The Virginian,Bonanza,Death Valley Days, andGunsmoke— and today, it holds up a lot better than most of its fellowTV westerns.
Set in the 1860s,Rawhiderevolves around a crew of drovers working on a cattle drive. Eric Fleming played the lead role of Gil Favor, the trail boss who introduced each episode with a monologue, but Eastwood was the second lead in the role oframrod Rowdy Yates(who eventually succeeded Gil as the trail boss in the final season).
In a typicalRawhideepisode, the crew would come across a group of new characters on the trail and end up getting involved in their affairs. Over the course of 217 episodes, they encountered all kinds of threats and conflicts, from bandits to wolves to cattle raiders to killers to anthrax to ghosts.
Why Rawhide Is Still A Must-Watch, Even 66 Years Later
Even all these years later,Rawhideis still worth watching. Not only is it the project where Eastwood cut his teeth as a western hero; it was also way ahead of its time for the ‘50s and ‘60s. The series was notorious for dealing with controversial issues that other shows at the time wouldn’t dare to touch on.
Robert Culp played a war veteran who got addicted to morphine. The Mexican wrangler, Hey Soos Patines, faced racist abuse from people outside his crew. One of the show’s recurring themes was the aftermath of the American Civil War.Rawhidestill holds up today, because it was bold enough to break free from the boundaries of contemporary network television.
