A Western Roundup

Love westerns? A new 24/7 channel of western TV classics has launched, a two-day celebration/benefit for The Rifleman’s Johnny Crawford will start tomorrow, and an animated Calamity Jane feature film will premiere tomorrow night.

TVS Buckboard Network

This free streaming channel boasts more than 1,000 classic western episodes spanning from the 1940s to the 1990s.

Here’s just a partial series list: Bat Masterson, The Big Valley, Bonanza, Cimarron Strip, The Cisco Kid, The Deputy, Donovan Western Marshal, Frontier Doctor, Jim Bowie, Kit Carson, Laredo, The Lone Ranger, Overland Trail, Matt Clark Railroad Detective, Maverick, Pony Express, Rawhide, Judge Roy Bean, The Rebel, Restless Gun, Stoney Burke, Sugarfoot, Tate, 26 Men, The Virginian, The Westerner, The Wild Wild West and Wyatt Earp.

TVS Buckboard Network airs over WatchYour.TV, which now hosts 36 TVS channels including TVS Western Movie.

A Tribute to Johnny Crawford

This event, which runs from 5:30 pm ET Friday, February 5, to 6 pm Saturday, February 6, will include films and TV shows, celebrity guests, panel discussions, Q&As and trivia games – all to help with Alzheimer’s Disease care for the 74-year-old original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer (ABC, 1955) and co-star of The Rifleman (ABC, 1958-1963).

One highlight, starting at 2 pm Sunday, will feature an episode of The Rifleman followed by the film Indian Paint (1965), both accompanied by a Q&A with Johnny’s brother Robert (Bobby) Crawford, Jr., who was also in the movie and, we assume, in that particular episode of The Rifleman.

Other TV episodes featuring Crawford that will stream during the event include The Lone Ranger (1956), The Count of Monte Cristo (1956), The Dick Powell Theater (1963), Have Gun Will Travel (1957), The Restless Gun (1958), The Donna Reed Show (1961) and Mister Ed (1965) .

For a complete schedule of A Tribute to Johnny Crawford, visit bonanzaconventiononline.com/johnnycrawford.

The organizers are asking for a donation of at least $10, but you can get tickets from Eventbrite for as little as $1 if you desire.

The celebration/benefit will be followed at 6:30 pm with a screening of Crawford’s final film, 2019’s Bill Tilghman and The Outlaws (aka The Marshal), which requires a separate $10 Eventbrite ticket. 

The screening will be hosted by actor Darby Hinton, who’s also in the film, and will feature a live Q&A with the film’s director/producer Wayne Shipley, writer Dan Searles, and actors Ken Arnold, Lana Wood, Richard Cutting and Don Collier. 

Calamity Jane

Making its U.S. premiere as the opening night feature film of the 11-day Animation First festival of French animation, Calamity Jane (2020) puts a feminist spin on the early life and adventures of legendary Wild West figure Martha Jane Cannary. It will only be available on Friday, February 5, from 7 pm to midnight ET.

Then, Saturday at 2 pm, Calamity Jane’s director Rémi Chayé will discuss the making of the film and his career in animation, which includes Long Way North (2015) about another adventuresome young girl —this one based in Russia — that is also available to festival attendees

Passes for the entire festival, which includes the U.S. premieres of more than 75 films, all subtitled in English, and other live talks, all in English, cost $20 and can be bought here. For a complete list of films, and schedule of live talks, visit fiaf.org/animation-first-2021.

(Top image: ‘Calamity Jane’)