Gene Autry Show: The Posse

The Gene Autry Show: The Posse

Originally Broadcast: Sunday, September 17, 1950 at 7 PM ET on CBS

Plot: While trying to hunt down a gang of bank robbers, Gene and Pat help an old friend impress his daughter visiting from the East.

Analysis: First off, for whatever reason, Image skipped the September 10, 1950 episode Doublecross Valley in the order of episodes. The episode does still exist, thanks to Flying A Entertainment keeping all the episodes, so the reason why it was skipped are a mystery to me.

As for this episode, this is the first Autry that I can think of that tended to be more humorous than dramatic. It is a nice change of pace for the series, even if the “big misunderstanding” episodes would become par for the course, especially among sitcoms in the future.

Bottom Line: We must have circuses with our bread, as the saying goes, and this isn’t a bad break from routine at all.  Humorous and entertaining with a little mix of the action that Autry is starting to establish as a staple of the show, it’s a nice addition to the series.

The Last Word: Last word on the DVD first. The episodes do tend to have a bit of grain on them, but that’s understandable after fifty plus years. It’s still watchable and a nice piece of entertainment from television’s early days and not at all a bad way to start if you want an idea of what TV Westerns were like in the beginning. The only parts of the episodes that seem really worn, understandably, are the original Wrigley commercials. Given they haven’t been seen since the show originally aired, it’s reasonable to assume they’re not going to be kept in as good shape as the episodes themselves. As for extras, Image just duplicated the extras from Gene Autry Show – Gold Dust Charlie for this DVD, so nothing revolutionary on that score. If you are interested in picking up the DVD, Image did discontinue it, but Gene Autry Show – The Double Switch (http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Autry-Show-Double-Switch/dp/B00005B6KF/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1285101803&sr=1-1) can still be found either at Amazon Sellers or eBay.

The Gene Autry Show enjoyed a good run on television, lasting until 1955 for a total of 91 episodes. In fact, the last season actually had its episodes filmed in color, something that was attempted for a few first season episodes, but didn’t last. It can be surmised that expense may have been part of it, plus color televisions wouldn’t really start to be prevalent in American homes until the late 1960s when affordable models finally debuted. We’ll discuss that part of television history as we go along.

As stated earlier, Gene Autry’s own production company, Flying A Productions, kept all the episodes, which is why they were able to survive when other shows have since been lost. Starting in 1999, a joint effort between Flying A Productions and the Encore Westerns channel was made to restore the episodes, which resulted in the two DVDs we’ve been looking at from Image as well as a run of the restored episodes on Encore Westerns from 2000 all the way until February of 2010, when Gene Autry finally was taken off the air, a run almost double the length of the original run of the show. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Image never finished releasing Gene Autry on DVD, meaning 83 episodes remain unseen on DVD. Given the episodes were restored and are, as seen by this, in reasonably good shape and with the commercials apparently still existing, it may be a project worth revisiting someday for those Autry fans still out there.

As for Gene himself, after the cancellation of The Gene Autry Show, he would be a part of the single season run of Champion, The Wonder Horse and make periodic television appearances until finally retiring in 1964 after a career for some 30 years in show business. By then, he was involved in two other projects: his Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, California (now the Museum of the American West) and as owner of the Major League Baseball team, the California Angels, later the Anaheim Angels. Autry would remain involved in both areas until his death in 1998.

Pat Buttram still had a television career ahead of him beyond the Gene Autry Show, most notably on Green Acres and as a voice over actor. We’ll be discussing those parts of Buttram’s career as they come up, of course.

And that wraps up The Gene Autry Show, but we still have some more material from 1950 to look at. Next time, the secret word is…