I am watching old TV Westerns that I saw with my Grandmother.
Paladin in Have Gun Will Travel was an asshole. He was more educated than anyone else on the show in history and literature. He spoken some fifteen or twenty languages. He used it all to be an asshole and push people around to his own ideas.
Wagon Train has lots of assholes. They usually aren’t as much of an asshole as Paladin, they usually just have a single asshole idea that they sponsor. That isn’t counting the Bad Guys.
In the old westerns, there was usually the core characters who were all good guys, and then a whole host of bad-guys-of-the-week. I watched most all of them back in the day and really can’t remember a regular who was a dick.
Dr. John Holliday in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. I understand Holliday was an asshole in real life, though. I guess you would be too, if you were dying from tuberculosis and didn’t have much longer to live.
The Lone Ranger TV show as on Netflix a while back (not sure if it’s still there or not) and I fondly remember watching it on Sunday mornings as a kid. With that in mind, I watched the first episode to see how it was. I wasn’t entirely expecting it to hold up but I’ve never seen the first episode either so I was interested in seeing the Lone Ranger’s origin.
And boy, Lone Ranger is a bit of a dick to Tonto. He was ambushed and left for dead when Tonto finds him and nurses him back to health and Lone Ranger was so grateful that he started ordering the poor guy around. “Make another grave so it looks like I’m dead. Good, go into town to get food and medicine. Now find me a pale blue outfit and a domino mask contoured to my face. Now I need a lasso, a faithful horse, and some silver bullets. Now help me find Butch Cavendish so I can bring him to justice and/or let him fall to his death from a cliff.”
I know attitudes have changed a lot since the show was produced and I’m sure it may have even been seen as a progressive partnership back then. I also know that the partnership between the two was more equal as the show progressed (I like to think that Tonto is more than just a sidekick ala early Robin or Bucky) but wow. After the first couple of orders, I could see Tonto saying “Screw you, paleface. I’m out of here.”
Blasphemy !! None of the Barkley boys (even the “bastard”) were assholes. Quite the contrary. They were the most moral and decent family in the whole valley.
Nick Barkley was a “hot head” and prone to violence, but not an asshole !
Tonto means “stupid one” in Spanish. Kemo sabe can be understood as a deformation of quién sabe (who knows) or el que más sabe (he who knows best). The two names could be coincidence, but if they’re not, they pack enough assholism to keep a proctologist busy for a year.
In the same vein, I disagree with the OP that Paladin was an asshole. Not in the slightest. Brought into a dispute, he almost always tried to (and usually successfully) come up with an outcome favorable to both sides. He didn’t push people around to his own ideas, he pushed them to a solution they never would have come up with while angry enough to hire a gunfighter but were happy with when he was done. An asshole would have found it a lot easier to just be the gunfighter/hitman he was hired to be at the start of the episode.
Paladin as a jerk I could agree with. He’s often condescending and often doesn’t bother to explain what his solution is until he’s worked though all his machinations. But a jerk – or a dick, in the same way that Superman can be a bit of a dick – is not an asshole.
Precisely, these are morality tales and the Barkley’s were always either the moral authority—or learned their lesson but good. I came in to say Nick was a reluctant warrior, always having to defend the Barkley name against a bunch of drunken barflies who resented their truly earned wealth. However, there was one time (perhaps more than one time) when Nick flew off the handle and accused some Gypsies of stealing a small barrel of wine or whiskey. He disabled the only male in the group before his brothers could show him his error. He then had to escort the women to their destination. Being TV, the clothes he had worn for (I don’t know, maybe??) six seasons were suddenly unavailable and he had to wear Gypsy clothing. So there he was driving a Gypsy wagon in Gypsy clothing—learning how unjustly they are treated and how dangerous it was for them to just try to survive meaning no one any harm.
Nick was by far the most Rash of the Barkley’s, but even he learned his lesson (every single week). Long before I had any familiarity with any Old Testament stories, the Barkley’s and the Rifleman taught me a broader sense of morality than I could have ever known otherwise. When Nick genuinely was an asshole, it was to serve a greater purpose within the story. Mostly he was just a mouthy, proud man (fortunately he had things to be proud about).
In later years when I worked on construction sites I was often reminded of the short-sighted, uneducated resentment expressed for contemplation by the common cowboy/construction worker. Living the daylight hours in a world of strapping men with leather belts surrounding their waist and a shiny metal tool hanging at their fingertips (in our case a hammer rather than a six-shooter) , one can see the 1970’s were not as far removed from the 1890’s as one might believe. Gut instinct was the rule of the day, and a rash over reaction more justifiable than a serious thought based upon contemplation. Not all, but many of the guys had very little use for any of that book learnin’ nonsense.
In those days I worked with (well many, but one specific) this big burly guy who looked very scary. Turned out he was a good, moral, and decent man who is still one of my best friends; a very devout family man and leader within his church. In his role within the company, he would visit other crews to perform tasks and use tools the company didn’t want to go to the expense of duplicating (he just did it on every lot then went back to his usual crew). One day he was working at another crew’s site and became very fed-up with the use of the N-word. It was pretty common in those circles in those days, but one crew especially abused the word. They were sitting taking their break while he went about his tasks, listening to the chatter. When he was done he stowed his tools, then went back to the biggest offender and got right into his face. (Many versions of the story include the words “get on your feet” but it didn’t really happen.) He then loudly proclaimed that he was married to a black woman and he didn’t care for the kind of talk he was hearing. The guy DID shrink away and nearly shit his pants. Everyone there was remarkably eager to assure him they meant no disrespect and were genuinely fond of Nig…… blacks. Even years later people would come up to me and warn me: Rob is here today, be careful what you say, his wife is (evenly split between polite and impolite term for of African descent). Now my good friend Rob has been married to same woman since they were both old enough to marry and she looks just like Charlene Tilton of Dallas fame. Now, is my friend Rob an asshole? No, like Nick Barkley he is just a guy who took a stand and put himself in harm’s way to shut up some ignorant nonsense. And like Nick Barkley, he was quite progressive in his own time.
(Sorry I went on so long, this just seemed like a good real life example of what I am trying to convey.)
On The Rifleman, Lucas McCain was not an asshole. He was a stone cold killer psycho quite often though.
But then, North Fork always seemed to have a weekly order of assholes coming into town. Roughnecks who only came in to growl and leer and snarl for no reason. It was weird, they even had their own theme on the soundtrack. (Zoom in on scruffy louts) “BOM-BOM-BA-BOM-BOOOOOMMMM!!!”
Adam was stubborn and less verbal than any other Cartwright, but not an asshole. I think he was drawn to be, or tried to play, the strong silent type. The epitome of don’t start no shit there won’t be no shit. Of course that implies that once shit has been started . . . it will be forcefully resisted.
He used his powers only for good, he never went out looking for trouble, never started a fight without cause. He was always perfectly willing (if not downright eager) to treat others with dignity and respect. But once things went to hell, he could still manage the situation with a quick draw, or a crushing right hand.
The reason we admired the American frontiersman was because when debate and reason failed they could still resolve things in a more rugged manner. Even Jarrod Barkley, the least macho of all fictional cowboys would strap on his Colt and ride into harm’s way for a just cause. I believe all those TV cowboys were based upon the returning combat veterans from WWII; they didn’t want to fight, they never picked a fight—but if they have to defend themselves or others, look out.
He’s often condescending and often doesn’t bother to explain what his solution is until he’s worked though all his machinations. But a jerk – or a dick, in the same way that Superman can be a bit of a dick 
