# TV Western characters who were dicks. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862 "2019-09-08T01:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**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 12, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/81 "2019-09-12T21:18:32Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > I always hated McCains smug self-righteousness. I have a limited experience with the show, but it felt like every episode was so contrived to show how morally superior WASP culture is by way of Lucas’s cowboy sermons. I’m curious. What \*other \*culture was there to compare it to? In the show, I mean. Other than low-down, under-handed, yellow-belly skunk? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/82 "2019-09-12T21:35:08Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m curious. What \*other \*culture was there to compare it to? In the show, I mean. Other than low-down, under-handed, yellow-belly skunk? 😕 City slickers from back East. Men of the land, who honestly till the soil. You know, morons. ---
**Author:** ![Taesahnim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/taesahnim/32/84_2.png) [@Taesahnim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taesahnim)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/83 "2019-09-12T21:48:39Z")
Lone Ranger: “Tonto, let’s go check out the strip club.” Tonto: “What we find there, Kemo Sabe?” Lone Ranger: “Titty-rump, titty-rump, titty-rump-rump-rump!” ---
**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 12, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/84 "2019-09-12T22:32:51Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > The Fall Bastard? Not the kind to kiss and tell! 😉 ---
**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 12, 2019, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/85 "2019-09-12T23:40:19Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > City slickers from back East. > > Men of the land, who honestly till the soil. You know, morons. Carpetbaggers! Lily-livered, cattle-rustlin’, bushwhackin’ varmints! ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/86 "2019-09-13T13:36:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I’m curious. What \*other \*culture was there to compare it to? In the show, I mean. Other than low-down, under-handed, yellow-belly skunk? 😕 Your question sort of demonstrates the answer. 1950’s middle-class white America was pretty blind to any other lifestyle or culture. You don’t see any Catholicism in the Olde West. Or German or Jewish immigrants. Somehow, Mormons also get left out of the story of the settling of America. Or really, anyone who wasn’t a WASP. But what annoys me about Lucas McCain in particular is how smugly he preaches to the audience via his boy about how 1950’s WASP values are really the only correct ones. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/87 "2019-09-13T14:27:46Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Your question sort of demonstrates the answer. 1950’s middle-class white America was pretty blind to any other lifestyle or culture. You don’t see any Catholicism in the Olde West. Or German or Jewish immigrants. Somehow, Mormons also get left out of the story of the settling of America. Or really, anyone who wasn’t a WASP. But what annoys me about Lucas McCain in particular is how smugly he preaches to the audience via his boy about how 1950’s WASP values are really the only correct ones. Paladin encounterd the same Jewish family in two episodes of _Have Gun Will Travel_. Ward Bond led a wagon train of Mormons in \*Wagon Master. \* ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/88 "2019-09-13T15:13:11Z")
A point of nomenclature here, no one in the Old West was a ‘dick’, they were known as being “an ornery cuss” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/89 "2019-09-13T15:25:32Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > A point of nomenclature here, no one in the Old West was a ‘dick’, they were known as being “an ornery cuss” Very little in TV Westerns is historically accurate from what I understand. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/90 "2019-09-13T15:56:25Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Your question sort of demonstrates the answer. 1950’s middle-class white America was pretty blind to any other lifestyle or culture. The exception being the “western” Kung Fu wherein most of the whites were dicks, Cain being “chinee” and all. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/91 "2019-09-13T16:17:44Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > A point of nomenclature here, no one in the Old West was a ‘dick’, they were known as being “an ornery cuss” > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Very little in TV Westerns is historically accurate from what I understand. On _Deadwood_ they were all cocksuckers. ---
**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 13, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/92 "2019-09-13T16:23:20Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > But what annoys me about Lucas McCain in particular is how smugly he preaches to the audience via his boy about how 1950’s WASP values are really the only correct ones. What an odd thing to obsess over. ---
**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 13, 2019, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/93 "2019-09-13T16:26:19Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Paladin encounterd the same Jewish family in two episodes of _Have Gun Will Travel_. Ward Bond led a wagon train of Mormons in \*Wagon Master. > \* Didn’t a lot of Westerns have stories with Catholic priests at like, you know, old missions in California and the Southwest? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/94 "2019-09-13T16:46:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Didn’t a lot of Westerns have stories with Catholic priests at like, you know, old missions in California and the Southwest? Yes, you are right. ---
**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 13, 2019, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/95 "2019-09-13T19:15:02Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Didn’t a lot of Westerns have stories with Catholic priests at like, you know, old missions in California and the Southwest? And, of course, the Hispanic populations that went with them. ---
**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 13, 2019, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/96 "2019-09-13T19:19:08Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > On _Deadwood_ they were all cocksuckers. … Again, figuratively speaking … of course? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/97 "2019-09-13T19:59:41Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > But he had a hell of a set shot. Excellent Rifleman star Chuck Conners’ pro basketball experience reference! 2-points! ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/98 "2019-09-14T17:33:54Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Excellent Rifleman star Chuck Conners’ pro basketball experience reference! 2-points! Baseball too! Thus quoth Wiki: “He is one of only 13 athletes in the history of American professional sports to have played both Major League Baseball (Chicago Cubs, 1951) and in the National Basketball Association (Boston Celtics 1947–48).” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/99 "2019-09-14T19:18:27Z")
He was the first pro basketball player to shatter a backboard. He took a set shot during practice and broke the glass. The backboard might have been improperly installed, too. Hence the set shot reference. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862/100 "2019-09-15T18:10:30Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > What an odd thing to obsess over. Obsessing and being irritated over an actin are two very different things. And I wouldn’t want a sermon when watching my westerns, either. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-western-characters-who-were-dicks/839862.md?page=6)