# the Roy Rogers Show-----Huh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237 "2014-06-20T19:47:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/61 "2014-09-27T23:26:14Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > You’ve _got_ to be kidding! _ **St Elsewhere** _, _ **Hill Street Blues** _, _ **Remington Steele** _, _ **Max Headroom** _, _ **Cheers!** _, _ **Night Court** _, \*\*_Magnum_, \*\*_ **Dallas** _, _ **Hart to Hart** _, _ **ST: TNG** _, _ **Miami Vice** _, _ **Crime Story** _, _ **Tour of Duty** _, the new _ **Columbo** _ series, _ **Murder She Wrote** _, _ **Soap** _, _ **Benson** _—these were all _worse_ than what’s on today?!? :eek: > > Give me a break! :smack: > > Even sitcoms like _ **Facts of Life** _, _ **Diff’rent Strokes** _, and _ **Webster** _ were infinitely better than most of the dreck that’s on now. They (and their success) are all what producers today _try_ to emulate.\* > > I’m sure there are people out there who long for lesser fare like _ **MacGyver** _, _ **The A-Team** _, _ **Falcon Crest** _, _ **Knight Rider** _, _ **Airwolf** _, and _ **Pee-Wee’s Playhouse** _ too. > \*Yes, I know I left out _ **Cosby** _, but I honestly _hated_ that show. So sue me! Uh, _Soap_ was really a 70s show; _St. Elsewhere_ was good, but kinda nullified by its ending, and most of the rest pretty much make my point. Even the best shows of the 80s either just really weren’t that good, or are badly dated. If you really think that _The Facts of Life_ is better than anything on today, you must have been really little when it was on, and not have seen it since. I was its target demographic, and _I_ thought it was just horrid. Honestly, the only sitcom I watch now is _The Big Bang Theory_, but I have occasionally caught episodes of some of the really awful fare that’s on (_2 Broke Girls_? how has that not been cancelled?) and I grant that at least the 80s hadn’t discovered reality TV, but it was the era of the “Very Special Episode.” Words that couldn’t have me diving for the “off” button faster. (We did not have remote controls then. I was aware they existed, but we didn’t have them.) Not to mention, a number of great shows that premiered in the 70s seemed to take a nose-dive in the 80s, and I don’t just mean _SNL_. _One Day at a Time_, _M_A_S_H\*…it breaks my heart. ---
**Author:** ![DingoelGringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@DingoelGringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DingoelGringo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2014, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/62 "2014-09-27T23:36:11Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Did you ever follow the old [“Rick O’Shay” comic strip by Stan Lynde?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_O'Shay) Fascinating evolution. It started out as a pure gag strip, set in the modern “Old West.” People rode horses and carried cap-and-ball revolvers…and then they went to Hollywood to talk to TV producers! > > But in 1969, Lynde effected a Great Divorce, and removed his characters from the modern age. He decreed the comic strip was now set in 1869, and maintained the purported date at an even century behind “real time.” > > He also made the strip more and more serious, darker, grimmer, and, eventually heavily proselytized in it. > > Given the two extremes…perhaps the funny anachronisms are the lesser of two sins. Recently read a wild ass piece of fiction where the characters rode their horses across the prairie and when the Indians came they pulled out their cell phones and called for Blackhawk missiles to be entered into the equation. Delightful read. Don’t rember its name though. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/63 "2014-09-28T00:25:21Z")
I think the turning point of the traditional “cowboy” was when farmers and ranchers started going to town in Ford Model T’s and hauling stuff with trucks instead of horse-drawn wagons; maybe 1910-1920. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/64 "2014-09-28T00:34:45Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > If you really think that _The Facts of Life_ is better than anything on today, you must have been really little when it was on, and not have seen it since. I was finishing college and getting ready for grad school. I started watching _ **Facts of Life** _ because of the woman I was living with and found myself liking it. And I dug Jo. I still think she’s hotter than Blair. (I dug Mallory on _ **Family Ties** _, too.) :o _ **Soap** _ kind of segued into _ **Benson** _ in the late '70s–early '80s. I could look up the dates, but I’m just too damned lazy. I still associate it with the '80s more than the '70s, probably because I detested most of the '70s. I was tempted to include _ **The Rockford Files** _, but it died prematurely because of Jim Garner’s poor health. Just barely made it into the '80s, though I watched every episode multiple times in syndication up until I moved abroad. The new _ **Columbo** _ was more '90s, but I remember watching it just before I left the country, so I associate it with the late '80s too. I stand by my earlier statements. I’d rather watch shows from the '80s five nights a week than channel-surf today. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/65 "2014-09-28T00:39:17Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I stand by my earlier statements. I’d rather watch shows from the '80s five nights a week than channel-surf today. Paget Brewster wasn’t on TV until the 90s. :o ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/66 "2014-09-28T00:49:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Paget Brewster wasn’t on TV until the 90s. :o Judging from her Wiki page, she’s had a really interesting career. She also has the same birthday as my younger daughter, 10 March. > **[Paget Brewster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paget_Brewster)** > > Paget Valerie Brewster (/ˈpædʒɪt/ PAJ-it; born March 10, 1969) is an American actress. She first received recognition for her recurring role as Kathy on the fourth season of the NBC sitcom Friends. Her breakthrough role came as FBI Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss on the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. She was a regular cast member on the series from 2006 to 2012, then made two guest appearances before returning as a regular in 2016. > Her other roles include voicing Elise and Mr. Mumble... ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/67 "2014-09-28T02:21:21Z")
Perfectly good reason to watch Roy and Dale was Dale: [http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr\_lvhkcirDov1qzl13xo1\_500.jpg](http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvhkcirDov1qzl13xo1_500.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2014, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/68 "2014-09-28T19:29:36Z")
Guys still work cattle with horses around here, but they have mainly been supplanted by 4-wheelers. My wife, FWIW, would occasionally ride her horse to (one-room) school. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/69 "2014-10-13T11:28:21Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Paget Brewster wasn’t on TV until the 90s. :o I just hope her next show is better… ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/70 "2014-10-13T17:59:09Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Perfectly good reason to watch Roy and Dale was Dale: [Tumblr: Image](http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvhkcirDov1qzl13xo1_500.jpg) Hubba hubba! ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/71 "2014-10-13T18:46:46Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I just hope her next show is better… I liked _The Trouble with Normal_. Shows I like always get canceled. I liked the _Friends_ pilot, so I was sure it wasn’t going to last more than a handful of episodes. Actually, I like _Criminal Minds_, but for the wrong reasons. I like it in an MST3K kind of way. I still watch it. The fake TV genius really cracks me up. ---
**Author:** ![Shuham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Shuham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shuham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/72 "2016-01-18T21:31:40Z")
Just found this thread about The Roy Roger’s TV show. Hope people are still posting. I found discussions about Nellybelle and phones & such in the ‘Old West’. In a show that took place in the 1800’s there was a lot of 1950’s technology going around. The ‘Stage Coach’ was a 1936 bus, telephones and electric lights. What stunned me most as a kid was in 1957. Casually driving down main street in this old west town, was a new 1957 Mercury, full of people gawking at everything in sight. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/73 "2016-01-18T22:08:15Z")
> [@Shuham](#): > > Just found this thread about The Roy Roger’s TV show. Hope people are still posting. > I found discussions about Nellybelle and phones & such in the ‘Old West’. In a show that took place in the 1800’s there was a lot of 1950’s technology going around. The ‘Stage Coach’ was a 1936 bus, telephones and electric lights. What stunned me most as a kid was in 1957. Casually driving down main street in this old west town, was a new 1957 Mercury, full of people gawking at everything in sight. Welcome to the SDMB, **Shuham**. We hope you like this place, and stay here for a long time. But you’re mistaken. The show did not take place in the 1800s. It was set in the (more or less) modern day west,complete with electricity, telephones and Jeeps. The only thing that made it “Old West” was that some of the characters rode horses – which, we’ve noted, was not out of place in rural areas in the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/74 "2016-01-18T22:47:31Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Perfectly good reason to watch Roy and Dale was Dale: [Tumblr: Image](http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvhkcirDov1qzl13xo1_500.jpg) You take BACK that photo, and make it snappy, pardner. Get Dale BACK into her cowgirl outfit and BACK up on Buttermilk, her favorite horse. Why the very idea of seeing her that way BACK then is just shameful, shameful I say. We got a way o’ dealin’ with varmints like you. 😉 #39 Also, pleased to mention the terrific fried chicken, the well-done beef sandwiches(all you had to do was ask) and the terrific, warm apple/cheese dessert. I still dream of Double-R burgers. One of their restaurants on the NJ Turnpike brought them back several years ago, but the flavor was way different. RIP, Double-R. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/75 "2016-01-19T06:48:51Z")
I get my old time radio from OTRCAT, and one of the things they have is a series of “Samplers” containing an assortment of old time radio shows. There was a DELIGHTFUL Roy Rogers radio episode, with Porter Hall (motion picture villain, hamming it up wonderfully!) The show was witty and fun, and had a charming retelling of the Pecos Bill myth. I’d known about the TV show, but had never known of the radio show! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/76 "2016-01-19T07:28:04Z")
Zombie thread I know. But in a monster-related segue, let me point out another example of an anachronistic setting: the Universal horror movies of the thirties. While they’re based on nineteenth century novels and use plenty of items from that era, they’re actually supposed to be set in the nineteen-thirties. This doesn’t explain the armadillos however. The Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies were also mostly set in a pseudo-Victorian thirties. It can be jarring to see Sherlock Holmes tracking down Nazi secret agents. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/77 "2016-01-19T13:34:16Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies were also mostly set in a pseudo-Victorian thirties. It can be jarring to see Sherlock Holmes tracking down Nazi secret agents. The ones with Nazis were preceded by the intro “Sherlock Holmes is a character for all ages” and were clearly set in the WWII era. At least the ones that I’ve seen, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/78 "2016-01-19T13:37:33Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The Universal horror movies of the thirties. While they’re based on nineteenth century novels and use plenty of items from that era, they’re actually supposed to be set in the nineteen-thirties. Some places in Europe were still stuck in the 19th century in the 1930s. When Czechoslovakia was incorporated into the Third Reich in 1939, some of its inhabitants had never even heard of Hitler! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/79 "2016-01-19T14:37:01Z")
You know who else never heard of Hitler? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237/80 "2016-01-20T03:20:06Z")
I selected my user name back when I was a huge fan of Riders In The Sky, America’s favorite singing cowboys. Their guitarist is Ranger Doug. Besides touring and releasing albums, they used to do a weekly radio program. Part of each show was 10 minutes of a continuing adventure serial. If you saw Toy Story 2, you certainly heard them sing. Anyway, all the talk upthread of Pat Brady and NellieBelle made me think of this song sung by the Rider’s sidekick/camp cook, Sidemeat, [Sidekick Heaven](https://youtu.be/r8NRvO2k1Rs), where he remembers all the sidekick of old, especially the greatest sidekick of them all, the Ol’ Gabberoo himself, Gabbie Hayes! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-roy-rogers-show-huh/691237.md?page=5)