I’ll go with some of the original “Maverick” episodes such as the classic “Shady deal at Sunny Acres” episode.
Or these various “Gunsmoke” parodies as Ben Gage had James Arness down pat.
“Ride the High Country” also. Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, introducing Mariette Hartley
Support Your Local Sheriff! with James Garner, Jack Elam, Walter Brennan, and Joan Hackett.
Lots of good stuff here. My pick was covered in Post 2 but I would really watch almost any of the films mentioned here. I guess I love westerns. I think maybe Once Upon a Time in the West might be the best film of them all but if I were to be able to just call one up whenever I want to it would be The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I’d need to be in the right mood to see Once but I’m pretty much always in the mood for Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood and Lee van Cleef.
My favourite is one that’s not been mentioned yet, Tombstone. Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday is possibly the greatest character in any western, and the whole film is wonderfully operatic, just on the verge of being overdone but remaining epic. Plus it has some wonderfully quotable lines, and the faceoff in Latin between Holliday and Johnny Ringo has to be in the list of greatest ever scenes in a western.
I have two favorite Westerns:
High Noon
Unforgiven
Thank you, I was shocked that nobody had mentioned High Noon. But I hated Unforgiven.
I mentioned in another thread that I hated John Wayne movies because of his politics, but I think that **McClintock **is my favorite of his movies.
“The Long Riders”
The novelty of all those real-life brothers in one film, plus Ry Cooder’s score, does it for me.
“You’re a whore!” “At least I ain’t a cheap one.”
Impossible to pick just one. Shane has to be on the list, as well as True Grit. Either version of True Grit, but I’d prefer the one with the Duke even though the remake may have been a better all around movie.
The three must sees at a Western film festival are
Red River
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
The Man from Laramie
I agree Shane is excellent. But hasn’t everybody seen it multiple times? I’d try to introduce people to some classic westerns they haven’t seen.
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Lonesome Dove - a miniseries not a movie, but any list of my favorite westerns has to include this.
Dances With Wolves
I almost didn’t post because I pretty much expected for it to be mentioned a number of times already. It’s one of my three favorite films.
Another vote for The Searchers. To me, one of the defining characteristics of the traditional westerns was the expectation that its heroes would live by a code of moral behavior. In most westerns, the filmmakers added in something extra - they made the heroes likable. But Ford and Nugent avoided this in The Searchers. Ethan Edwards may have followed a code but he was not a pleasant person. He may not even have been an inherently good person. So the movie asked whether living by a code was enough or whether a person had to go beyond that in judging what was right.
What I came here post.
Little Big Man.
Excellent, as is DWW.
Beat me to it. And David Carradine, of all people, steals the movie from the rest of a most impressive ensemble cast.
“I would throw that shotgun down.”
Very close second place: “The Grey Fox” Richard Farnsworth’s greatest performance, in the best western most people have never heard of.
Once Upon A Time In The West
After that, I’d probably jump the pond to Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai* and then on to John Woo’s classic films, The Killer or A Better Tomorrow, except officially they aren’t Westerns.
Another great Jimmy Stewart western is Winchester 73.
A bit unusual because it focuses a lot on obsession. Stewart really wants his rifle back. 
I mean **really **wants it back.
The characters that come into contact with that rifle are very well drawn.
I have to throw in McCabe and Mrs. Miller. It had production problems like heck, but I love it anyway. More than I love Westerns as a genre.
The Big Country with Gregory Peck and Burl Ives.