Watched this occasionally as a kid in the 1950s, but it was more adult oriented than some of the other westerns. Rediscovered the show recently, and after the first half dozen episodes I found that it kind of grew on me.
There's a certain simplicity about each half-hour that I find very pleasing. In today's world, TV dramas have the same plastic, overly noble characters, twist-laden scripts, far too many closeups, annoying background music, and gratuitous action.
There are no silly surprises in this show, no cut-after-cut-after-cut editing. Just sensible (for the most part) stories with logical conclusions. Additionally, story continuity is excellent, and some characters (often historical) reappear after several episodes, many times with revenge on their minds. Hugh O'Brian plays his role perfectly, and his Earp has no problem just running up and whacking a bad guy with a shotgun! My only real negative is the actor playing Bat Masterson -- bad casting there -- and the gunplay's pretty silly and the episodes started getting boring in season 3.
There's a certain simplicity about each half-hour that I find very pleasing. In today's world, TV dramas have the same plastic, overly noble characters, twist-laden scripts, far too many closeups, annoying background music, and gratuitous action.
There are no silly surprises in this show, no cut-after-cut-after-cut editing. Just sensible (for the most part) stories with logical conclusions. Additionally, story continuity is excellent, and some characters (often historical) reappear after several episodes, many times with revenge on their minds. Hugh O'Brian plays his role perfectly, and his Earp has no problem just running up and whacking a bad guy with a shotgun! My only real negative is the actor playing Bat Masterson -- bad casting there -- and the gunplay's pretty silly and the episodes started getting boring in season 3.