5 Western Tv Shows That Need A Remake

NBC

In case you haven't heard, the Western never actually died. Sure, the genre fell out of favor in the 1970s and has never ascended to the same heights. But in a post-"Yellowstone" world, you simply can't say the humble oater is dead. In fact, you might say we're experiencing somewhat of a Western renaissance, with Taylor Sheridan's hugely popular raft of neo-Western melodramas having seemingly reinvigorated interest in this long dormant genre.

We've seen plenty of "Yellowstone" clones crop up over the last decade, including shows like Netflix's would-be "Yellowstone" replacement "The Abandons" and the Netflix charter dominator "Ransom Canyon." Elsewhere, Amazon debuted "Outer Range," ABC launched "Big Sky," and The CW premiered its own "Walker, Texas Ranger" reboot.

Put simply, there are plenty of shows to watch if you love "Yellowstone." But Westerns have a long and proud TV history that stretches back to well before the Sheridanization of the genre. In the 1950s and '60s, the most popular shows on TV all played out in the Old West, with "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza" being two of the most prominent examples. Beyond those two legendary small screen horse operas, there really were an astounding number of Western series produced in the mid-20th Century. With that in mind, TV executives would do well to take a look back over the various offerings to see what might work amid the Western renaissance of today. 

Lucky for them, we've figured it out already. Here are five TV Westerns that should be immediately wrangled into the present.

CBS

After "The Twilight Zone" was kicked off TV by a now forgotten sitcom, creator Rod Serling turned to Westerns. "The Loner" was the result, a short-lived but memorable show that followed ex-Union captain William Colton as he headed west in the post-Civil War United States. Running for just one season on CBS between 1965 and 1966, "The Loner" starred Lloyd Bridges as the title character, who would traverse the country and encounter all manner of characters, from power brokers and pacifists to outlaws and even white supremacists.

An itinerant hero going from town to town, taking on bad guys and refusing to countenance injustice. Sounds a heck of a lot like another show that's proved particularly popular in recent years. Prime Video's "Reacher" has broken viewing records with its addictive mix of pulp action and ... well, it's mostly action. But the central character is essentially a modern-day William Colton. Alan Ritchson's Jack Reacher similarly travels the United States, taking on the problems of the aggrieved and restoring justice.

All of which is to say that Prime Video could do worse than adding an actual Western to its roster of peripatetic loner action shows. Whether it's "Cross," "Jack Ryan," or the upcoming "Reacher" spin-off "Neagley," the streamer has had great success in this space, and a "Loner" remake would fit in nicely. Serling did intend his original series to be a much more serious affair than other Western TV shows of the era. But there's no reason why a modern day version couldn't be equally serious. A modern-day "Loner" could combine the best of Serling's original vision with the best of contemporary action and throw in some prestige "Yellowstone" production values. That's a hit.

ABC

CBS recently debuted its "Yellowstone" spin-off "Marshals," which essentially turns Luke Grimes' Kayce Dutton into an action hero at the heart of his own crime procedural. Unfortunately, it's not very good, though /Film's Kieran Fisher makes a compelling argument as to why "Yellowstone" fans should give "Marshals" a break. What we really need, though, is a remake of the ABC series "The Rifleman," which ran from 1958 to 1963 on the network.

The show starred Chuck Connors as rancher and Union Army veteran Lucas McCain, with Johnny Crawford playing his son Mark McCain. Put simply, this was a show about a sharpshooting former military man who acted as a de facto protector of the fictional small town of North Fork in the New Mexico Territory. Like Kayce and his son Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill), Lucas and Mark McCain were still reeling from the loss of their wife/mother, Margaret, but often didn't have much time to dwell on their grief as their ranch and the nearby town were frequently visited by an assortment of characters, many of whom faced the business end of McCain's famous Winchester Model 1892 rifle. But the show also had a significant moral core, and it would try to offer some sort of guidance to viewers, often through conversations between Lucas and his son.

In late 2011, CBS announced plans to remake the original "Rifleman" series, but those plans fell through. With the increasing popularity of Westerns, now is the time to realize such a remake — especially if it essentially gives us a good version of "Marshals." If nothing else, as "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" proved almost 40 years after "The Rifleman" went off-air, spin-cocking never goes out of fashion.

CBS

If the Western fell out of favor in the 1970s, the archetypes that populate its storied history never did. The mysterious lone stranger is one of the most prominent examples, and it's been used to great effect in everything from "Fallout" to the aforementioned "Reacher." Between 1957 and 1963, Richard Boone helped further bolster the popularity of that very archetype by playing "Paladin" on "Have Gun — Will Travel."

The title says it all. Audiences will never tire of a traveling badass with a deadly aim, which essentially means CBS could have remade this Western series whenever it liked over the last few decades. But you've got to imagine that such a remake would benefit from debuting in a post-"John Wick" world where the lone stranger archetype has evolved into a supercharged version of itself.

Back in the late 1950s and early '60s, Richard Boone's Paladin — whose real name was never revealed — was traveling the Old West offering his investigative services to anyone willing to pay. The former Union army officer was the Western version of a comic book superhero, living as an urbane socialite in San Francisco but donning an all-black costume for his exploits. Paladin occupied a space between the white hat/black hat simplicity of the John Wayne era and the anti-hero revisionism of the Clint Eastwood age, helping the downtrodden whenever he could while maintaining his own self-interest and living the life of an upper-class playboy. As superhero fatigue grips the populace, it might be time for superhero movies to take a long break. But what about a classic Western hero reinvented for a modern age?

CBS

They tried it once and it didn't work. 1999's "Wild Wild West" was one of the most expensive Westerns of all time and one of the biggest missteps of Will Smith's career. (He's since managed to outdo himself in that regard.) But does that mean every attempt at reviving the 1960s TV series is doomed to be a complete disaster? Surely there's a way to remake "The Wild Wild West" in a way that doesn't bring shame upon the entire industry. There has to be, if only to make up for the late 1990s debacle.

It would be nigh on impossible to give this particular show into a modern day setting since its appeal came largely from the combination of its Old West setting and more modern gadgetry. James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) were the James Bond and Q of the Old West on the series, taking on outlandish villains in a fun attempt at updating the then-flailing Western genre. It was a formula that worked for four seasons between 1965 and 1969.

If there was one positive thing to come out of the 1999 film, it was the technology, which had a more overt steampunk aspect as a way of acknowledging the original show's influence on that very aesthetic. Perhaps doubling down on that element is the starting point for a "Wild Wild West" remake. Beyond that, if James Bond can be updated for the modern age, then surely James West and Artemus Gordon can, too.

NBC

Having originally aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971, "The Virginian" is the longest-running of all the shows on our list, and it remains one of the all-time classic Western TV shows. Loosely based on Owen Wister's 1902 novel "The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains," the show starred James Drury as the titular foreman of the Shiloh Ranch in Medicine Bow, Wyoming. A tough man respected by his peers and the nearby town folk, The Virginian did all he could to keep his ranch in order even as it changed hands multiple times throughout the series.

This is the main aspect that makes "The Virginian" interesting from a remake point of view. Unlike "Yellowstone," its prequel series, or any number of "Yellowstone" clones, "The Virginian" focused on the ranch foreman rather than the owners. Imagine, if you will, a show that's essentially a Rip Wheeler action drama set prior to his relationship with Beth. A series where the trials and tribulations of ranch ownership are seen only through the eyes of an undeniably badass foreman, who must do all he can to ensure the owners' happiness while also keeping his rambunctious ranch hands in line and defending the land from all manner of threats. Make it dark and gritty. Play up the Virginian's mysterious past and the fact nobody knows his real name. It's time for the foreman to once again be the hero.