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.