About 70 years ago, televisionWesternswere all the rage across the land, and the myth of the American West was as strong as ever. In attempting to capture the legends of old, Hollywood produced countless Western productions that highlighted real, historical gunslingers and lawmen from the days of old, pacifying them to meet societal standards. Not everyone was pleased with the “careless abandon” that writers and actors took with the names of these Old Western icons, and in 1962, oneRod Serlingtook a shot at the juvenile and inaccurate depictions of these figures. But to take a deeper look at his masterful critique, we must first take a small step and cross over intoThe Twilight Zone.
The Twilight Zone (1959)
Ordinary people find themselves in extraordinarily astounding situations, which they each try to solve in a remarkable manner.
“Showdown with Rance McGrew” Makes Fun of Classic TV Westerns
In the middle of the third season of the originalTwilight Zone, Rod Serling wrote “Showdown with Rance McGrew.” While this wasn’t the firstWestern thatThe Twilight Zoneaired, it served as Serling’s answer to the Western shows airing at the time. Classics likeGunsmoke,Rawhide,Bonanza, andThe Riflemanbrought the Western genre from the big screen to folks' living rooms and became long-running staples of the 1950s and ’60s. But just because something’s good,doesn’t mean that it’s accurate. Old West figures likeWyatt Earp,Doc Holliday,Jesse James,Buffalo Bill,Calamity Jane, and so many others were represented consistently on the screen, and it became clearer over time that the characters we watched were vast departures from their real-life counterparts.
With “Showdown with Rance McGrew,” Serling sought to change that. The episode follows a man named, you guessed it, Rance McGrew (Larry Blyden) who plays a self-titled characterin a Western television series. In the most recent episode, Rance (who is a real piece of work) faces off against the outlaw Jesse James (Robert Kline), resulting in James' death after attempting to shoot Rance in the back. But while the actor playing James doesn’t believe the real gunslinger was dishonorable,Rance urges them to continue anyway, unconcerned with the authenticity his co-star was bringing to the role. And it’s here that Rance enters theTwilight Zone, and suddenly finds himself in the Old West with the real Jesse James (Arch Johnson).
Naturally, the realJesse Jamesisn’t too pleased with how “phony-baloney” Rance has beaten his Hollywood counterpart, and neither areBilly the Kid,Sam Starr, and a host of other Old West characters watching his adventures from up in “cowboy heaven.” After being forced into a real gunfight, the TV actor breaks down and pleads with the ghostly outlaw, who spares his life in return for a favor.That favor is clear when Rance returns to the Hollywood set, only to see that his agent is now James himself, who has returned to see that Rance makes the changes he promised. It’s a hilarious turn of events, and watching the TV Marshal get his comeuppance is pretty satisfying for the viewer. Turns out, it was prettysatisfying for Rod Serling, too.
‘Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling Wanted to Critique the TV Western
Considering that shows such asThe Life and Legend of Wyatt Earptend to lean a bit too heavily into the “legend” part rather than accurately depicting the complex and often violent life of the actual lawman (Earp in this case, but that can certainly be applied to others), it makes sense why Serling would have been so fed up with the genre. Other popular shows likeTales of Wells Fargo,Bat Masterson,Stories of the Century,Have Gun-Will Travel, and countless others made similar revisions to characters mentioned in “Showdown with Rance McGrew” and were no doubt the shows Serling was trying to critique.
“It seems a reasonable conjecture,” as Serling says in his opening monologue, “that if there are any television sets up in cowboy heaven and any of these rough and wooly nail-eaters could see with what careless abandon their names and exploits are being bandied about, they’re very likely turning over in their graves; or worse, getting out of them.” TheTwilight Zonecreator went even furtherin the officialTwilight Zone Companion, where he revealed that none other thanJohn Waynehimself was sort of the basis behind Rance McGrew. “I used to think this about John Wayne all the time, who had fought most of our major wars,” Serling, himself a World War II vet, noted, emphasizing that, unlike his actual combat experience, Wayne filmed all his in a Hollywood backlot. “I always wondered what Wayne’s reaction would be if he ever had to lift up an M-1 and go through a bloody foxhole on attack sometime.”
Believe it or not,“Showdown with Rance McGrew” started as a straightforward and humorless critique before Serling decided to make his subject the star of a TV Western. “Fred Fox had an interesting notion, which was quite serious, about a modern-day cowpoke, not a television star, who found himself living in the past,” Serling revealed. “It had no sense of humor in it.” Fox’s idea sounds almost likeLonely Are the Brave, but Serling had a different take. By making Rance a made-on-TV U.S. Marshal, and comparing him to Western legends like the Duke himself, Serling found the humor that he was looking for and went to work on “Showdown with Rance McGrew.” But just because something is a great idea on paper doesn’t mean the execution is perfect.
Rod Serling Gets His Point Across About Westerns
As theTwilight Zone Companionand plenty of fans have noted over the years, “Showdown with Rance McGrew” means well,but it stumbles into a lot of the same pitfalls as the same TV Westerns Serling was trying to examine in the first place. For starters, the set that the “Old West” sequence is filmed on looks exactly like, well, a film set! The only thing that’s changed is that the cameras, lights, extras, and crew members have mysteriously vanished. Sure, in the Old West, Rance is drinking whiskey and dealing with real firearms rather than ginger ale and props like before, but it all still feels simulated. Powerlines can be seen on the mountainous landscape in the background, and there’s even a boom shadow that appears as Rance is running down the street and away from Jesse James. There’s no denying thatThe Twilight Zonewas trying to say something here, but it undercuts itself in the process.
‘The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling Has a Surprising Connection to ‘Planet of the Apes’
Actually, apes in ‘The Twilight Zone’ would have been epic, too.
Ironically, even Jesse James, who chastizes Rance for historical inaccuracies,is glaringly dishonest concerning theactualJesse James’ appearance and personality. For starters,the real James was about 5 and a half feet tall, while theTwilight Zoneversion towers over Rance at over 6 feet. Likewise, the real outlaw has been described as “boyish” in appearance, and not as well set-in as the character we see in “Rance McGrew.” Arch Johnson is great, of course, and fits the role perfectly for the context of this episode, but to say that he’s any more historically accurate than the actor we see on Rance’s television show (who makes more attempts to be faithful to the real James than anyone else in the episode) is ridiculous.The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Forddid it much better.
There are other minor continuity and production errors in this episode, but overall it stands alone in being an interesting look at the problems with many TV Westerns, even if it has some of its own. Of course, Rod Serling wasn’t satisfied with “Showdown of Rance McGrew” being his only critique of the Western genre, and instead of waiting for anyone to heed his advice and make something truly exceptional,he decided to make an “adult Western” himself, one with less humor, less production errors, and a much more compelling character who feels more akin to the time period he represents.
Rod Serling Created the Western TV Series ‘The Loner’
In 1965, just afterThe Twilight Zoneended, Serling’s newest series,The Loner, premiered on CBS. StarringLloyd Bridges(yes, the father ofJeff BridgesandBeau Bridges, the latter of whom guest starred on the show),The Lonerwas about a lone Union vet named William Colton who traveled across the American West in the aftermath of the Civil War. Unlike most TV Westerns at the time,The Lonerwasn’t afraid to leave the audience with an open-ended conclusion or to tackle truly relevant and adult issues. Much likeThe Twilight Zone,Serling usedThe Lonerto speak about other hot topics at the time that other shows didn’t often address.
Having written 15 out of the show’s 26 episodes,The Lonerwas eventually cancelled by CBS, and Serling wouldn’t make a Western again until theNight Galleryepisode “The Waiting Room.” It’s too bad too, sinceSerling’s work onThe Loneris easily on par with many of hisTwilight Zonehits, such as “Time Enough At Last” or “The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.” Of course, unlikeThe Twilight Zone, Serling’s take on the Western wasn’t able to mesh or swap genres at the drop of a hat and was stuck purely in the Old West at all times. The filmmaker didn’t see this as a problem though, as it gave him a setting in which to talk about other issues, such as survivor’s guilt, the relationship between religion and pacifism, and, of course, racial prejudice, which was something he spoke about inThe Twilight Zoneas well.
Unfortunately,The Loneronly ran a single season, and, unlikeThe Twilight Zone, it didn’t have enough of a cult following to spawn subsequent revivals. But the network wanted more violence and traditional Western flair, which, of course, is exactly what Serling was trying to avoid and detested ala hisTwilight Zonecritique. “If the network wanted a conventional Western…it should have hired a conventional Western writer,“Serling explained in 1965. “The initial idea of the series…was that it was to be a thought-provoking, meaningful human drama with a Western flavor.” WhileThe Lonerdidn’t continue beyond a single season,The Twilight Zonehas had a profound impact on the world of television since its initial broadcasts. “Showdown with Rance McGrew” was a clear mouthpiece for Serling to voice his displeasure with how Hollywood ran its most profitable genre at the time, and will hopefully inspire others to similar forms of historical accuracy going forward.
The Twilight Zoneis available to watch on Paramount+ in the U.S.
