Rating: - Rawhide - The Complete First Season
Rawhide was an excellent Western that ran on CBS 1958-1965. This wouldn't have been my first choice for a TV Western though, that would've been Maverick if Warner Bros. will ever release it. Rawhide is a CBS/Paramount product so it's not their fault. Rawhide was the launching pad for Clint Eastwood's career. He had been around for several years acting in movies ranging from bit roles to substantial roles but never actually being in a major featured role. Some of his credits from the fifties include the movies Tarantula & Francis the Talking Mule. Clint Eastwood learned many things while on Rawhide: acting & directing being the main two. It was unfortunate though, Hollywood wouldn't give Eastwood an opportunity to be a leading man, he had to go to Italy & star in three spaghetti Westerns for Sergio Leone before he would get his chance in America.

The TV series actually stars Eric Fleming as Gil Favor, trail boss. Fleming wasn't a household name either, he had also been around Hollywood for a while, not really getting somewhere either. He had starred in some grade C movies but stardom eluded him. It's unlikely that anyone remembers Fleming other than viewers of Rawhide or movie buffs. It's for that reason that Eastwood is more featured on the covers, he is, after all, the most recognizable face from the series.

The DVD set features all 22 episodes of the first (actually a half) season of Rawhide. The picture quality is excellent but bonus material is scant. The bonus material consists of production notes for each episode & a short Clint Eastwood biography, one per disc. Rawhide also featured Paul Brinegar as Wishbone & Sheb Wooley as Pete Nolan,both were good friends of Eastwood who would later use them in a few of his movies. Robert Cabal is in one episode as Hey Soos (which just goes to show that Hollywood was ignorant and/or extremely scared they would offend somebody, it's spelled J-e-s-u-s.). The one thing I found to be odd occured in the final episode. Sheb Wooley had the starring role for that particular episode, "Incident of the Roman Candles". Producers nowadays wouldn't ever have a featured cast member starring in the final episode of the season.

"Head 'em up! Move 'em out!" Rollin', rollin', rollin'....