Gun related tv shows, what happened?

[brighamr]

I'm not a TV fan, as such I basically record the westerns channel and watch some of those programs once in a while. My favorites are "The Rifleman", "Gunsmoke" and "The Big Valley".

What's really interesting is that all of these shows took place between the 60's and 70's, and they have a recurring theme: the main star carries a firearm 24/7 for protection, and is usually a good natured person.

So what I wonder is why we don't have any of these shows anymore? Of course I realized society has changed, but if someone could come out with a show like "The rifleman" with modern actors, I'm sure a lot of us gunnies would enjoy it.

Anyone else wish there were new pro-gun shows?

 

[Dravur]

I dunno

possibly the wussification of the american pablum lappers?

If someone like Oprah can make it on TV, it is a sure sign that there is nothing on there worth flushing the TV for.

 

[Tribal]

Jack Bauer on "24" seems to give his USPc a bit of a workout.

 

[BigO01]

Brighamr did you completely miss Jericho ?

I think perhaps in this day in age it was/is about as close as you may get to what you want .

It's a series about a Secret section of the U.S. government basically Causing WWIII within U.S. Borders by setting off Nukes in various cities to take control of the country and how all of this effects a small rural Town in Kansas called Jericho .

The story centers on a young man in his perhaps late 20's early 30's "Jake" who is the son of the Mayor of Jericho "Mayor player by Gerald McRanney" with a rather dark past due to his involvement as a youth with a local running various criminal enterprises .

CBS tried to kill it off after season 1 but fan support convinced them to bring it back for a mini second season .

I understand negotiations are underway to have a cable channel pick it up .

If you wish you can watch the both seasons for free on the net at
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/jericho/

I think you will need to be on either cable or DSL to have the speed to watch it though .

Ever since Hollyweird went strongly Antigun in the 80's the chance of seeing a Progun program has been slim to none despite their fascination with guns and violence .

 

[searcher451]

The three most-popular shows on TV, here and abroad, are the "CSI" offerings. There's no lack of guns and/or gun mayhem on all three. Take a look at "NCIS"; it's also gun-packed. So are "Criminal Minds," "The Unit" (love that Walther P5), "Boston Legal" (William Shatner's character is always packing), "Lost" (heck, most everyone's packing on this show), "Bones," "Supernatural," the "Law & Order" shows, cable series like "The Closer" and "Burn Notice" and "In Plain Sight," etc. Plenty more where those came from, too.

 

[tamaneko]

Well, there's always Futureweapons...

 

[kjeff50cal]

The three most-popular shows on TV, here and abroad, are the "CSI" offerings. There's no lack of guns and/or gun mayhem on all three. Take a look at "NCIS"; it's also gun-packed. So are "Criminal Minds," "The Unit" (love that Walther P5), "Boston Legal" (William Shatner's character is always packing), "Lost" (heck, most everyone's packing on this show), "Bones," "Supernatural," the "Law & Order" shows, cable series like "The Closer" and "Burn Notice" and "In Plain Sight," etc. Plenty more where those came from, too.

Most of the shows cited above have the gun carrying protagonist (hero) as a hired hand (mostly LEOs) for the .gov. None show law abiding citizenry (civilians) packing and defending themselves in a good light.

 

[Eric F]

tv seem to like feeding us "reality" tv these days, oh yeah hollywood=antigun even though they own a lot of them for props and such

 

[akodo]

Most of the shows cited above have the gun carrying protagonist (hero) as a hired hand (mostly LEOs) for the .gov. None show law abiding citizenry (civilians) packing and defending themselves in a good light.

What's worse, a lot of those shows the cops say 'to heck with the rules' and do what they want, executing searches without warrants, claiming to smell smoke so they have an excuse to go it, etc etc.

Jericho was all about 'average civilians' packing firearms

but probably a truer version of that concept is Las Vegas, when "Cooper" played by Tom Selleck took over the casino. He was constantly carrying a 1911, although they did make him a 'war hero' to somewhat jutify it to the nanny-staters

Too bad they just declined to renew the show

 

[Jeff White]

Most of the shows cited above have the gun carrying protagonist (hero) as a hired hand (mostly LEOs) for the .gov. None show law abiding citizenry (civilians) packing and defending themselves in a good light.

A series about the law abiding citizenry packing and defending themselves in a good light would either be very boring or unbelievable fantasy. Even though the "wild" west wasn't nearly as wild as Hollywood portrays it, westerns are believable to the public because it was far enough in the past that no one has first hand knowledge of how it really was.

A show about a law abiding citizen who carries a gun and uses it to defend himself would have to be either total fantasy like the Charles Bronson Death Wish series of movies, or the gun couldn't play an essential role in the story.

There just aren't enough actual, verified citizen uses of firearms to protect themselves to make the public believe that the hero of the show was always getting into a fix that he had to shoot his way out of. No one would believe it.

Perhaps a show that was different each week based on The Armed Citizen column in the NRA magazines would work. You'd have to use a different cast all the time, but heck, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol made it for a few years. An Armed Citizen show might sell.

Jeff

 

[brighamr]

Yeah, I'm looking for something that stars a regular joe, carrying legally.

I guess it's just not in the cards anymore. The weird thing to me is that the last shows like this were both run in the 60's, prior to GCA? interesting.

 

[Library Guy]

Brighamr,

It seems to me that in part you are descibing the decline of the western on TV.

Was a time when every top-rated TV show was a western. And yeah, they carried guns and used them far more frequently than their historic counterparts.

In modern dramas, for someone to carry, he must be a cop, criminal, soldier, or spy. And he will never say, "Thank you, ma'am."

 

[RP88]

Guns are everywhere on cable. I saw the day-time approved version of Saving Private Ryan yesterday, followed by The Crow.

'Lost' also just had a season finale that involved a huge shootout. Since violence makes good action, I find it funny how anyone would have trouble finding a nice-looking gun on cable, lol.

 

[Jeff White]

Even in the 60's and 70's the screenwriters wrote shows that portrayed people in contemporary American society without firearms. Most stories that portrayed firearms in the hands of contemporary Americans showed them either in the hands of the police, criminals, private detectives or hunters and outdoorsmen.

Most of the people outside of the gun culture believe that the whole nation lives under California laws, with handguns being registered. I run into people here in Illinois who think they can get concealed carry permits. All of this misinformation comes from Hollywood.

I remember an episode of Leave it to Beaver where a neighbor had a gun collection. Other then that I can't remember any contemporary shows that had guns in the hands of everyday people.

Jeff

 

[Cosmoline]

Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand

with a show like "The rifleman" with modern actors,

I think you've got some rose-tinted shades on. Take this sequence from "The Rifleman" where he dumps on those evil men with handguns... "I'm a rancher, I use a gun for hunting animals, not men."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTRZ88WMWQQ

Of course, he killed like 300 guys with it but what the heck! Not to mention that incredibly dangerous modification to the lever. LOL

 

[makarovnik]

There are still plenty including "24" and the "Shield" One of my favorites is "Tales of the Gun" on the History Channel. Not many Western style themes except for an occasional mini-series or TV Movie.

 

[230RN]

Jeff White's brilliant idea:

A series about the law abiding citizenry packing and defending themselves in a good light would either be very boring or unbelievable fantasy. Even though the "wild" west wasn't nearly as wild as Hollywood portrays it, westerns are believable to the public because it was far enough in the past that no one has first hand knowledge of how it really was.

A show about a law abiding citizen who carries a gun and uses it to defend himself would have to be either total fantasy like the Charles Bronson Death Wish series of movies, or the gun couldn't play an essential role in the story.

There just aren't enough actual, verified citizen uses of firearms to protect themselves to make the public believe that the hero of the show was always getting into a fix that he had to shoot his way out of. No one would believe it.

Perhaps a show that was different each week based on The Armed Citizen column in the NRA magazines would work. You'd have to use a different cast all the time, but heck, Real Stories of the Highway Patrol made it for a few years. An Armed Citizen show might sell.

Jeff

Jeff White, you know, that's a darned good idea!

I wonder if some of the many "pros" on this Board could throw together a couple of scripts based on these... the sources are usually cited newspaper articles.

I've been reading "The Armed Citizen" for more than forty years, and some of them are really dramatic, unusual, and funny.

For idea-germs, there is an "Armed Citizen" page on the NRA site.

I'd try it myself, but (A) I don't know anything about scriptwriting, (B) a lot of my creative powers have waned in the last couple of decades, and (C) I'm too darned lazy, here in my dotage and declining years.

 

[Golden Hound]

I remember on the show Twin Peaks there was a scene where one of the deputies, Andy, an inexperienced guy, dropped his revolver on the cement and it discharged. After this happened, when they were back at the station, Agent Cooper (the protagonist of the show) made everyone take extra firearms training at the range to make sure that they were all up to skill with their weapons. Later in the season, after he's had more shooting practice, Andy makes a critical shot on a bad guy with his sidearm and saves the sheriff's life. I thought this was a good message - a small town police department that very rarely uses its guns should still always practice regularly.

 

[Cosmoline]

The revolvers are not what they seem.

 

[La Pistoletta]

Maybe a film-quality semi documentary depicting an attempted mass murder in a school or shopping mall? First it's depicted with disarmed people, as cattle to the slaughter.

Then, the scene is rewound and the criminals are stopped, before they can kill a dozen innocents, by a 20's something son and his 50's something father with CCW.

 

[Janitor]

Take my love, take my land, take me where I cannot stand

Yet another great show discontinued far too quickly. Some pretty good gun play in it also, but the characters were presented pretty much as scoundrels rather than revolutionaries or citizens protecting themselves.

 

[akodo]

A show about a law abiding citizen who carries a gun and uses it to defend himself would have to be either total fantasy like the Charles Bronson Death Wish series of movies, or the gun couldn't play an essential role in the story.

There just aren't enough actual, verified citizen uses of firearms to protect themselves to make the public believe that the hero of the show was always getting into a fix that he had to shoot his way out of. No one would believe it.

but this is true of law enforcement as well. The vast majority go their entire career never firing their weapon in the line of duty...yet TV cops are getting into gunfights once every 15 minutes!

I like it when a movie is fantasy but average folks have guns and use them wisely. Some zombie movies are somewhat good at this, but it never seems like the guns are enough, they always have to make some zombie blasting/burning/chainsawing/ type escape vehicle or something.

But fequently these same movies also have one guy misusing the gun and causing harm, and the vast majority of the guns are actually in the hands of security/LEOs/Military types, that is until they die and the 'civilians' pick em up. And finally, there is usually one real gung ho gun collector type who is useful to a degree, but never ends up being the key to the escape, be it Burt in Tremors or Andy in Dawn of the Dead (i mean come on, Andy had enough ammo in his gun shop to make a zombie wall...if you are going to starve to death, might as well convert every bullet into a dead zombie. Yea, a parking lot full of zombies is a lot but so is an entire shelf full of 'bricks' of 22LR, shoot through the eye and wham! Heck I am sure the average gun store has thousands of centerfire rifle rounds, just start shooting zombies at two different points, and make 'walls' of zombie bodies

 

[Bruenor]

Until it was canceled, we had Firefly. It was, by far, my favorite show on TV.

 

[JohnMcD348]

We're pretty much stuck with the occasional western mini series on TV. Westerns just don't make it anymore in todays society. We want real life TV. Why? I don't know. I have yet to find a single reality show that I watch unless I catch an episode of one the wife watches. Reality sucks, I want fantasy in my TV. I would love to see a modern western just becuase it shows people doing what needs to be done to get the job done on a day to day basis. Not glamorize things and they don't always have a shootout and the corral at the end of each episode. I believe it could be done, just not a a regular network station. perhaps one of the other cable networks as the ratings wouldn't be nearly high enough to keep it on regular TV.

 

[La Pistoletta]

People watching "reality shows" on TV is one of the more pathetic ironies of the contemporary world.