"The Loner" (1965-66)

The classic western TV show The Loner only ran for one season, which is a bit disappointing.  And yet, that one season is packed with as many gems as some series that ran for three or four times as long, so I can't complain too much.

William Colton (Lloyd Bridges) survived the American Civil War, but it left him restless and unable to settle in one place, like many real-life veterans of that war.  He headed west on his cavalry horse Joshua, who had been with him through the war.  Searching for a place where he could belong, Colton encounters a wide variety of different people and situations.

The Loner was the first show Rod Serling created after The Twilight Zone ended.  Serling was dissatisfied with the TV westerns of the mid-sixties, which he felt were becoming increasingly unrealistic.  He aimed to present a serious western that would appeal to adults rather than schoolkids.  Unfortunately, audiences didn't respond the way he'd hoped, and the show only lasted a single season.

Rod Serling wrote 15 of the 26 episodes himself, which is a big part of what makes this such a strong, rewatchable show.  His episodes are particularly meaty, always featuring characters wrestling with serious problems and never presenting implausibly easy solutions.  Each episode is under 30 minutes long and crammed with excellent storytelling -- yet, they never feel rushed!  You can learn a lot about how to get the most story from the least space by watching this show.

Colton's strong sense of justice and honor gets him involved in other people's problems without him ever seeming nosy or presumptuous.  He just naturally ends up helping or leading when needed, even though he generally would rather keep to himself.  Whenever he rides into a new location at the beginning of the episode, the audience knows that he will leave it a better place when he rides away... but not by spouting platitudes, solving everyone's problems for them, or forcing people to do the right thing.  Rather, Colton has a way of encouraging people to confront their troubles themselves.

My favorite episode is probably the only two-part story, "The Mourners for Johnny Sharp."  Colton finds a young gunfighter called Johnny Sharp (Beau Bridges) dying alone.  Many people had reason for wanting Sharp dead, and Colton vows to the boy he will see justice done.  I love getting to see Lloyd Bridges act opposite his son Beau, and the whole second episode is some of the best character-focused storytelling I have ever seen.

Bridges's son Jeff also appeared in the episode "The Ordeal of Bud Windom," which is not quite as good an episode, but has some really good acting from Jeff Bridges, who was only 15 at the time.

I also really love "The Sheriff of Fetterman's Crossing" because I kept expecting the bungling sheriff (Allan Sherman) to mess everything up beyond belief, but everything turns out really well.  It is probably the lightest and sweetest episode in the series.

One of my favorite smaller aspects of this show is that, although Bridges was in his early 50s, the show runners have no issue with portraying him as an attractive, sexy man.  Colton generally has his shirt collar unbuttoned, and there are various episodes where he appears shirtless.  At the same time, they don't try pairing him romantically with young women, but show mature, middle-aged women being attracted to him instead.  Hollywood tends to think that romance is reserved for the young, and anyone over 35 can't possibly be attractive, but this show adroitly ignores such nonsense.

You can pick up this complete series on DVD for under $20.  I highly recommend it!

This has been my contribution to the Intruder Blogathon hosted by the Metzinger Sisters at Silver Scenes this weekend :-)