Cheyenne Bodie. RIP. (Link to New York Times obit.)
I watched Cheyenne (with Clint Walker as the eponymous Western hero) throughout my boyhood and youth. It ran from September 1955 (I was about to turn 11) through September 1963 (I was about to turn 19). It was on Tuesday nights (7:30-8:30), then Mondays, then (its final season) Fridays.
It was the era of the TV (and movie) Western. There were many on the tube, every week--and the "picture show" each week offered a steady diet of them, as well. And I devoured them. I grew up in Oklahoma, and although I was a "city" boy (Enid!), I still felt a swoop of emotion whenever I saw the terrain that reminded me of home--or of our car trips into the West to see my dad's family in Oregon.
Oh, my boyhood heroes! Hopalong Cassidy. The Range Rider. The Cisco Kid. Wild Bill Hickok. Billy the Kid (the "good" version). The Three Mesquiteers. Whip Wilson. Lash LaRue. Wyatt Earp. Matt Dillon. Paladin, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry (these latter two were "singing cowboys"--not my favorite but better than no cowboys at all). ...
... Cheyenne Bodie.
He was big (I wasn't), strong (I wasn't), knew right from wrong (I didn't), acted ethically (I didn't), defeated the Bad Guy(s) (I didn't). You get the picture.
I remember one show that ran around Christmas time. Cheyenne was alone in a remote cabin in a blizzard. His only companion? A mule. On Christmas Day, he invited the mule into the cabin, said, "Merry Christmas, Mule." To this day, when I call my younger brother on Christmas (he, too, was a Cheyenne fan), I say, "Merry Christmas, mule."
And we remember those evenings (homework done, of course!), lying on the living room floor, stacks of saltines, some Tang, Cheyenne on our black-and-white TV ... You can buy all of the seasons on DVD (Amazon has them; I don't).
Cheyenne still has a pretty good presence on YouTube (link to one clip), and I can still sing a lot of the theme song--and when I just listened to this clip on YouTube? Tears.
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