Monday, August 08, 2011

Hec of a Deal

My guess is that these fine offerings won’t last long before the “YouTube police” descend and purge them from the site. But for the time being, at least, you can watch, online, eight of the nine episodes made of Hec Ramsey (1972-1974). Part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie rotation, that series starred Richard Boone as a grizzled Old West lawman, once infamous for his gun-fighting talents, who’s now working as a forensics-savvy deputy sheriff in an Oklahoma railroad town at the start of the 1900s. Also available online is the Hec Ramsey pilot film (often shown under the title The Century Turns).

Begin viewing that 90-minute pilot right here. Or search from there for the eight regular series episodes, all of which have been broken into multiple parts for easy YouTube uploading.

By the way, many people who--like me--have purchased bootleg copies of Hec Ramsey on the Web, only to discover that the January 1973 episode “The Mystery of the Yellow Rose” is not included in the set, will be interested to learn that that installment is among those accessible on YouTube. On the other hand, I don’t see “The Detroit Connection” (December 1973) listed as having been uploaded. Oh, well. As the saying goes, you can’t have everything.

3 comments:

RJR said...

Watched all these when they first came out. I'm gonna watch them all again before they disappear.

Anybody watch Peacemakers on USA? 9 episodes with Tom Berenger. Very similar. Worth watching. You can get them on HULU.

RJR

P.S. Anothr 70's western I'd like to see again is IRON HORSE with Dale Robertson.

J. Kingston Pierce said...

Yes, I remember Peacemakers fondly, and you're right: It's reminiscent of Hec Ramsey in many respects. For anybody who hasn't seen Peacemakers, it's available for viewing on Hulu:

http://www.hulu.com/peacemakers

Cheers,
Jeff

RJR said...

Other NBC Mystery Movie episodes I liked were Tenafly and Cool Million, neither of which made it to a second season. James McEachin was a P.I, named Tenafly, and James Farantino played a character named Jeffersonm Keyes, who hired out for a blank check.

RJR