What a lot of people don't understand today is that during the fifties, sixties, and seventies, very few people could afford to see a lot of movies at the theater, and most had to travel a long way to see the big movies. Drive in theaters were hot and full of mosquitoes, with poor sound quality. Kids loved drive ins. I did. But the adults found them torturous.
"Cheyenne" was a Western, and one of the TV series in which the format was to show the stories of major films like TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, ALONG THE GREAT DIVIDE, and numerous Randolph Scott films.
Classic films would not appear on TV more than once every three years, sometimes once every ten years. Some, like A Christmas CAROL and THE WIZARD OF OZ, made a yearly appearance.
The writers must have felt very repressed, if they had any talent at all, because the episodes were pretty much clones of the films. Any changes made were due to budget. They probably didn't have a Mexican bandit in the Madre episode because they didn't have a sombrero. I wouldn't doubt it.
All in all, it was a very predictable show, but at least it wasn't annoying. It had a good heart, which makes it better.
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