TV Westerns....who was "Top Shot"?

[Tommygunn]

AUDIE MURPHY. He could, and did do it for real. Furthermore, he challenged all the other blowhard cowboy actors to shut up or put up. They ALL scattered like sheep, particularly that windbag pizzant Hugh O'Brian, who had challenged Audie and he accepted on the spot, live ammo , get out there NOW....Hugh disappeared like a fart in a windstorm.
And so it goes...

Geeesh, live ammo, heck, I'D be OUTTA THERE toot sweet too! Are you crazy!

 

[Panzerschwein]

Given the sort of violence I'm sure Audie Murphy was used to, I can imagine how things might get a little more intense on set sometimes.

 

[Officers'Wife]

I don't know, I just watched an old guy western with my Dad where a character called "Little Joe" went from a walk to doing a somersault on the ground while firing and hit the other guy in the arm.

The fact remains, TV characters are anything their writers and special effects people say they are. I remember one program Gramps liked called "Rawhide." Supposedly these people would come in from herding cattle all day but not one of them left a cloud of dust as he walked and not one had a hair out of place.

I'm told Chuck Conners was as much an athlete as his roles suggested but the fact remains he was on a set and his "shots" were blanks. When it comes down to the hard reality Chris Kyle was the marksman not Bradley Cooper. And I'm willing to bet that Lyudmila Pavlichenko would have put any one of the TV "riflemen" to shame.

 

[george burns]

I think John Wayne encompassed the Man's Man type of what a cowboy was supposed to be, and Gary Cooper. Remember High Noon?
Then Roy and Gene, and Hoppy.

 

[Robert]

This has nothing to do with the mission of THR.