Sat 1 Apr 2023
A TV Western Review: HEC RAMSEY “The Century Turns†(1972).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Westerns[5] Comments
HEC RAMSEY “The Century Turns.†NBC, 08 October 1972 (Season One, Episode One). Richard Boone, Rick Lenz, Sharon Acker, Harry Morgan. Guest star: R. G. Armstrong. Screenwriter: Harold Jack Bloom. Directors: Daniel Petrie, Charles Ziarko (uncredited). Most of the series is available on YouTube.
First broadcast in 1972, Hec Ramsey was part of the NBC Mystery Movie, a “wheel” series format, starring Richard Boone in the title role for ten episodes over two seasons, in a part that might have had viewers thinking that Ramsey was the lawman Paladin might have become when he got older. (I have read that this was denied by people involved in producing the series, but I’m sure they didn’t mind the publicity it generated.)
The premise behind itwas that the stories took place just after the turn of the century, with Ramsey showing up to be the new deputy for the police chief of a small town in Oklahoma after a long career of fighting outlaws with a badge and a gun. What takes the townsfolk by surprise, however, is that the aging Ramsey has learned new tricks: fingerprinting, ballistics and taking plaster casts of horseshoe prints at the scene of the crime.
In this, the pilot episode, he uses all three to catch a gang of outlaws who held up the stage he was riding in on his way into town, and to solve a pair of murders first thought to be a murder-suicide. It’s all told in a light-hearted way, beginning with the instant antagonism between Ramsey and his new boss, later giving way to mutual respect.
Western action fans need not have been worried. There’s a very good shootout at the en of the show as well. There is even a hint of romance between Ramsey and Sharon Acker’s character, but if so, it was decided early on not to have the show go in that direction. (She appeared in only one later episode.)
Richard Boone was in his late 50s at the time, but he was in fine form as always in playing the gruff, rumpled, non-compromising Hec Ramsey, never one to take fools seriously.
I somehow missed seeing any of the series at the time. What was I thinking? I enjoyed this one. Highly recommended!
April 2nd, 2023 at 1:19 am
The only problem with this series (for me anyway) was that it came out when TV shows were toning down, if not cutting out, anything like Violence, which meant a minimum of fist-fights, gun-fights or even pillow-fights.
The character could have worked well in this pacifist milieu, but the writers must have thought Hec needed to talk tough, because he was constantly threatening the bad guys with all sorts of dire punishments but never actually dong anything very awful to anybody.The result of this is that he came off as something of a blowhard.
April 2nd, 2023 at 2:00 am
Uh oh. Plenty of action to suit me with this first episode, to go along with the detective work. But you can’t rely on a first episode to know which way a series is going to go. Note the quick disappearance of Sharon Acker’s character as a romantic interest. There are quite a few episodes here and there on YouTube, so I’ll watch more, but thanks for the warning!
April 2nd, 2023 at 7:14 pm
The series didn’t live up to this pilot sadly, but Boone is good in all of them and all have some merit.
Ramsey was loosely based on late era Oklahoma lawman and gunfighter Hec Thomas, who is related to a friend of mine.
April 2nd, 2023 at 9:38 pm
When I get a chance to watch another show in the series, I plan on reporting about it here on this blog. Don’t turn that dial!
April 2nd, 2023 at 9:41 pm
As I recall, another PI show in which the violence was turned down drastically between Pilot and Series was THE OUTSIDER, starring Darren McGavin. Just a vague memory, though.