Another 'Cheyenne' ripoff (or 'rewrite' if you like that better)

Warner Brothers To Sue Warner Brothers.
I'd Love To See That.

The episode entitled Storm Riders was a ripoff of the old Warner's film, They Drive by Night. That movie was based on a novel whose author later was a creator of The Big Valley

I just watched an episode called BRANDED which lifted the ending of ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES. Instead of Cagney, it was Edd ("Kookie") Byrnes who was asked by Cheyenne (not Pat O'Brien)to go to the hangman's noose as a coward. Byrnes did, but not as ambiguously as Cagney.

Todays episode... was "Prisoner of Moon Mesa". But, it was more "The Barretts of Wimpole Street". The 1934 and 1957 version's were produced by MGM. However, saying that...at the time of the original broadcast of "Prisoner of Moon Mesa" I probably wouldn't have knowN about the "Barretts of Wimpole Street". And enjoyed Cheyenne for what it was.

"The Trap" is one episode I remembered. Perhaps because the theme wAS repeated on "Wagon Train" and "The Big Valley" and "Magnificent Seven".

Much of art is inspired by other art - and why not? In the theater, you even see the EXACT SAME PLAY over and over again - but with different actors and directors. So it still is different every time.

I think it's interesting to take a known story and put it into another environment. By example, the "Dr. Jeckill and Mr. Hide" idea has been used in many SciFy series (I still enjoy watching the "good" and "bad" Captain Kirk). And how often has "Romeo and Juliet" been used and re-used in movies and series of any genre?

Don't call it ripoff - just call it quote. Sounds nicer ;o)

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WEST OF THE RIVER, which I watched yesterday, is a very blatant rip-off of THE CHARGE AT FEATHER RIVER. The poster complained about Cheyenne's hat, but the truth is Walker was costumed to match footage of Guy Madison as were several other actors in the show to match the originals.
Whole chunks of footage were lifted from the movie. I was expecting arrows and tobacco juice to come flying out of the tv screen.

I wrote my first screenplay a few years ago which was inspired by THE WAGES OF FEAR. Instead of four tough guys, I had women driving the trucks.

For myself, it isn't the "ripoff" part that I don't like, it's the fact that many of the episodes were attempting to be complete clones of the films they ripped off.

As they were, obvious rip off shows, they were less of "rip off" shows that "homage" and "showing honor to" shows. Much like kids playing make believe, only set down to the last detail.

If a show is a "rip off", it tries to disguise itself. They never disguised a thing. One thing that should be remembered, and isn't clear to people today, is that the films were shown in theaters, and then eventually some made it to TV, but the wait was long. Episodes like Cheyenne's treasure digging episode were for people who may never get to get TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, which at best would show once every five years on a movie special on one of the three major networks. The "movie special" was usually a classic on Sunday night, and that's the only time one could see a classic film. There were no DVDs. Only the Rockefeller family could afford cable.

Still, knowing this, I'd rather Cheyenne writers would make some changes. Maybe the Treasure of the Sierra Madre episode could have ended with the Bogie character coming back to his senses, and avoiding the catastrophe. Maybe the Along the Great Divide episode could have had the deputy character not turning bad. Or anything different. Why make the same show? to me, that's got to be Hell for a writer to do, to just copy completely.



Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time