Product Description

The tale of Gil Favor, the trail boss, as he drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36806 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2007-05-29
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 720 minutes

Amazon.com
It has the indisputably greatest TV theme song ever, not to mention the young Clint Eastwood in a starring role, but if that's all you know about Rawhide, then this four-disc, 16-episode set, the first of two expected volumes from the 1959-60 season, will likely be a revelation. Like many series of its ilk, and other ilks as well, Rawhide combines elements of action, drama, humor, and a little romance. But this is a horse opera of a different color. The action is muted; there's little in the way of gunplay, a lot of scenes are fairly talky, and even though the show is nominally about an endless cattle drive, Eastwood's Rowdy Yates (who appeared in all 217 episodes produced during an eight-year run) and the other hands (including the gruff but righteous trail boss Gil Favor, played by Eric Fleming, and the cook Wishbone, amusingly rendered by Paul Brinegar) don't spend a whole lot of time tending to their cattle, often finding themselves distracted by the turbulent personal lives of the folks they encounter along the way. In fact, while it may be a Western, the show emphasizes characters over cows: the cruel ranch owner (Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors plays a Mexican woman--go figure) whose husband, daughter, and employees all despise her; the punch-drunk old bare knuckles boxer whose widowed daughter-in-law harbors a secret agenda; the Indian cowhand (played by John Drew Barrymore, father of Drew) estranged from his tribe for joining up with the white man. There's also a pronounced psychological element (our heroes match wits as well as weapons with evil townsfolk, Indians, revolutionary Mexicans, and even a killer puma), and a little mystical mumbo-jumbo ("haunted" hills, a Druid curse, the appearance of St. Elmo's fire on the cattle's horns in a lightning storm) to boot. And while Gil, Rowdy and company are sometimes too trusting, they're fair and honest guys who defend strangers, stand up for folks in need, and invariably do the righteous thing. Add to that some nice transfers of the show's great-looking black & white cinematography and a chance to hear Frankie Laine sing "Rollin', rollin', rollin', keep them dogies movin'" twice in every episode, and what's not to like about Rawhide? --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

One of my favorite shows
The Second season aired from September 18th, 1959 until June 17th, 1960 for a total of 31 episodes and was rated even better than the First, ranking 18th out of the best 30 TV shows according to the Nielsen Rating and getting 25.8% of viewers (The Nielsen Rating is the percent of all TV-equipped homes tuned to the program on an average night, as measured by Nielsen Media Research).

The Second season Vol.1 will consist of 16 episodes and they are as follows:

24- Incident of the Day of the Dead 9/18/1959
25- Incident at Dangerfield Dip 10/2/1959
26- Incident of the Shambling Man 10/9/1959
27- Incident at Jacob's Well 10/16/1959
28- Incident of the Thirteenth Man 10/23/1959
29- Incident at the Buffalo Smokehouse 10/30/1959
30- Incident of the Haunted Hills 11/6/1959
31- Incident of the Stalking Death 11/13/1959
32- Incident of the Valley in Shadow 11/20/1959
33- Incident of the Blue Fire 12/11/1959
34- Incident at Spanish Rock 12/18/1959
35- Incident of the Druid's Curse 1/8/1960
36- Incident at Red River Station 1/15/1960
37- Incident of the Devil and His Due 1/22/1960
38- Incident of the Wanted Painter 1/29/1960
39- Incident at Tinker's Dam 2/5/1960

I really did not like the idea of having this season being released in two separate sets or volumes due to the fact that 7 more seasons remains including this season, and if each season will be devided into two volumes I think we will have to wait at least 3 to 4 years before we have the whole show.

I hope that the future seasons will be released in Complete season sets.

Thank you for reading my review and have a nice day :)

A show that is well worth the price
I believe someone else has already commented on this, but it bears repeating: Even for a half season, this is a better price than Columbia House ever was - either for the Columbia House DVDs of Rawhide or their VHS tapes.

And if ever there were a TV series that is well worth the money, this is it. A better western than Rawhide was never made. None of the other TV westerns of its era came this close to realism. That's a big reason why this western stands up to the test of time so much better than the others. These guys really looked like dusty, weary trailhands pushing a herd past any and all obstacles that turned up on their long, gritty trip to the railhead. I understand this series repeatedly won Western Heritage Awards during its original run, and deservedly so.

Also, none of the other westerns had the incomparable Eric Fleming lending his presence as the tough, relentlessly independent, intelligent, but not infallible boss of the drive. Of course, for the many Eastwood fans, there is also the chance to see a young Clint in the show that first made him famous.

We Rawhide fans have been waiting sooooooo long for our favorite series to become available uncut and in mint condition on DVD, and this is most likely our last chance to own remastered, complete Rawhide episodes. So no gambling on a boycott for me.

Powers-That-Be, if you're listening: MORE, MORE, MORE!! Please keep releasing more Rawhide episodes! I would gladly shell out the money here and now to buy all 8 seasons if only they were available.

Bucking the tide.....
Ok--I appear to be the only one with this opinion, but here it is: Of course, I am tremendously disappointed that the release will be only 1/2 a season, but...it's Rawhide...my all-time favorite Western. I have been waiting years for it to come out and I'm am definitely going to buy it. I would agree that this is most likely a marketing ploy to get more money out a season release, but as one commentor pointed out, 16 episodes at $29.99 comes out to $1.67 per episide, a bargain as I see it. I also wonder if the number of episodes in a typical Rawhide season, 31, has something to do with it being packaged in two parts. Season 1, which came out complete, was only 23. So, I will happily plunk down my money and enjoy watching a first-quality Western. There are several good episodes in the first 16 of Season 2 that I will be delighted to see uncut and uninterrupted.