Western Writers tips their Stetsons to Gunsmoke, Lonesome Dove

According to members of the Western Writers of America, a nonprofit organization of more than 600 scribes, the Greatest TV Western Series of All Time is – drum roll, please! – Gunsmoke, the enduring popular drama starring James Arness as the slow-talking, straight-shooting Marshal Matt Dillon. But wait, there’s more: The WWA has also honored Lonesome Dove, the Emmy Award-winning 1989 miniseries based on Larry McMcMurty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, as Best TV Western Miniseries/Movie.

Winners in both categories – voted by WWA members, with ballots tabulated at the WWA offices at the University of New Mexico – were announced Thursday, June 18, during the association’s annual convention in Oklahoma City. "Gunsmoke teleplays won six Spur Awards from WWA, and McMurtry's novel also won a Spur, so neither choice is a surprise," WWA President Johnny D. Boggs says. "Many of our members study Gunsmoke episodes and Lonesome Dove, both the novel and the miniseries, as examples of great writing."

Rounding up the top ten in the Greatest Series category was Maverick at No. 2, followed in order by Rawhide, Bonanza, Have Gun, Will Travel, The Rifleman, Wagon Train, The High Chaparral, Death Valley Days and The Virginian. Centennial was second in the Miniseries/Movie category, followed by The Sacketts, Conagher, Monty Walsh, Walt Disney’s Davy Crockett, The Last Stand at Saber River, Broken Trail, Riders of the Purple Sage and Into the West.

You can see the complete list of 50 titles in either category here. And you can see the WWA’s 2008 list of 100 Greatest Western Movies of All Time – topped by Shane – here.

CMA Music Festival news: Hot stars, big crowds

Taylor Swift and Jamey Johnson will be among the galaxy of Country music stars performing this weekend at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville. What sets them apart from the crowd? Music writer Chet Flippo insists that they're "the best things to hit Country music in recent history." And he makes a strong case for that claim here.

Looking elsewhere: The Tennessean notes that roughly 52,000 people a day are expected in downtown Nashville Thursday through Sunday for the various CMA festivities. But even more folks will be converging at another musical extravaganza nearby. And not just because Merle Haggard will be performing there.

Jack Ingram -- the subject of a "Live From" Q&A in our June issue -- is looking forward to signing autographs and performing for fans at the CMA Fest. "Only in country music do the artists come together to celebrate the fans," Jack says. "To see all the stars coming together in a place and throwing a party for the fans, well, that's cool. I love being part of letting the people who love this music know how much they mean to us."

R.I.P.: David Carradine (1936-2009)

David Carradine worked with everyone from Ingmar Bergman to Quentin Tarantino, Charlton Heston to Rob Schneider, Tom Selleck to Mel Gibson, in movies and TV series of wildly uneven quality, in just about every conceivable genre, during a screen acting career that spanned five decades. But it’s the role that made him a ‘70s icon – Kwai Chang Caine, the mystical martial artist adrift in the Wild West of Kung Fu – for which he remains, now and likely forever, best known. He seemed to be a good sport about being so closely identified with Caine, even to the point of more or less reprising the character in an updated ‘90s spin-off series (Kung Fu: The Legend Continues) and frequently spoofing it in various movies and TV commercials. But he also demonstrated his versatility in an impressive variety of roles while amassing scads of credits as a steadily employed character actor. That he often appeared in Westerns -- Heaven with a Gun (1969), Macho Callahan (1970), The Long Riders (1980), and Last Stand at Saber River (1997), among others -- seemed altogether appropriate for an actor who made his first major breakthrough as the lead in Shane, the short-lived but fondly remembered 1966 TV series based on George Stevens' classic Western film. He also played the bad guy who tried to get medieval on Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade, which you can watch here.

Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo

After rounding up some rave reviews at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo -- Bradley Beesley's close-up look at cowgirl convicts who compete in the 2007 Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo -- has been lassoed by HBO Documentary Films. The film is tentatively set for a September broadcast premiere on the Cinemax cable network. Director Beesley talks about Sweethearts in the July issue of Cowboys & Indians. And he can be seen (and heard) along with producer James Payne in this video clip.

Patrick Wayne remembers his dad, The Duke

While recalling life with his famous father during a recent interview with Cowboys & Indians, Patrick Wayne noted that, even though he appeared opposite The Duke in several films – most notably, The Searchers, Big Jake and The Comancheros – John Wayne seldom offered his son much in the way of acting tips.

“My father wasn’t big on advice,” Patrick says. “In fact, I would say that anything I gleaned from him, or learned from him, were lessons given by his behavior rather than what he said.”

Patrick remembers getting an invaluable opportunity to learn by example while watching his father on the set of Hondo, the gritty 1953 Western based on Louis L’Amour’s novel. By the time The Duke had to shoot a key scene in which he shoed a horse while conversing with leading lady Geraldine Page, “My dad had worked out every detail of how you actually shoe a horse – how you handle the horseshoe, how you approach the horse, all that – so he could just do it all without thinking about it, and just carry on the scene, which is the important thing. See, if you have to do something like that, but you hesitate at any time because you have to think about what you’re doing, the audience is going to know that something’s wrong. They may not be able to put their finger on it, but they’ll know something is not right.”

Unfortunately, Patrick recalls with a laugh, he had to have that lesson reinforced while acting opposite his father in The Comancheros, a 1961 Western that cast him as a Texas Ranger.

“We had shot this scene where there was a camera moving alongside me while I’m riding on a horse. And I was bouncing up and down all over the place. And it was even more exaggerated because the camera was so close up. Well, we watched the scene dailies, and my dad got kind of mad, and he told me: ‘Man, you’re going to have to learn how to ride a horse, or you’re getting out of this business.’ It was a humiliating experience.

“And so I spent a lot of time of time over the next few days on my skills. So when they shot the scene again later – I was much better.”

Patrick joins his siblings Ethan, Melinda and Marisa Wayne to pay tribute to their father in the July issue of Cowboys & Indians, on sale June 9 at fine newsstands everywhere.