Although “Rawhide” is best remembered as the launching pad for Clint Eastwood’s skyrocket to stardom the show had more than Eastwood’s genial charm going for it. With a theme song as memorable as “Rawhide” it would hard not to like this series. The theme song perfectly captured the elements that made “Rawhide” so fun for fans when it first aired in 1959. Led by 50’s B movie actor Eric Fleming the ensemble cast made “Rawhide” entertaining through its long run. Fleming plays trail boss Gil Favor who leads his crew of cowboys as they drive cattle across the country. Rowdy Yates (Eastwood) one of Favor’s cowboys isn’t the sharpest card in the deck but he’s tough which is more than enough to keep these guys from getting into too much trouble. The show featured a cavalcade of former movie stars and TV series staples as guest stars throughout the first season. The writing made “Rawhide” memorable early on with many episodes dealing with difficult issues.

Image & Sound:

Presented in its original full frame presentation the black & white images look quite good with nice clarity and sharpness. There’s some evident damage to some of the original prints used as the source for this transfer but overall the show looks good even if there is a bit of dirt and debris. One could argue that this only adds to the grittiness of the show even if it is unintentional. “Rawhide” looks better than I expected although it doesn’t compare to, say, “The Big Valley” in terms of the image quality a show that premiered only six years after this show first appeared. The audio is solid throughout with dialogue clear if tinny sounding. There isn’t much depth and the sound is relatively flat but that’s a problem more of the dynamic range of the original recordings. They could have been cleaned up and equalized a bit more to give them better presence but overall the quality is quite good. ---

With Eastwood’s involvement of the show I would have expected more in the way of special features. Taking a page from Universal’s playbook CBS/Paramount has chosen to include a single episode from the second season. While it’s nice to have this preview it’s also redundant as many fans that have purchased this season will purchase the second one as well. We do get a text biography of Eastwood as well some text notes on the production of various episodes. I would have preferred to see any vintage interviews, TV appearances and perhaps a featurette on the series.

Final Words: