Unlimitedia
Sick Product of a Sick System
Beanbioca
As Good As It Gets
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Arianna Moses
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
aimless-46
The 48 half-hour episodes (13 in B&W, 35 in color) of the western "Branded" originally aired from 1965-66 on NBC. Although some sources (insert Walter Sobchak here) believe there were 156 episodes.The premise was set out each week in the title song: "All but one man died, there at Bitter Creek, and they say he ran away.."Branded"..marked with the coward's shame. What do you do when you're "Branded", you fight for your name. He was innocent, not a charge was true, but the world would never know.."Branded"..scorned as the one who ran away. What do you do when you're "Branded" and you know you're a man? Wherever you go for the rest of your life you must prove you're a man." The series was creator Larry Cohen's attempt to incorporate the themes of "They Came to Cordura" into an episodic format and to capitalize on Chuck Conners' fading "Rifleman" fame. Conners plays Army Captain Jason McCord (Gary Cooper's character in the film) who as the song says was the only man to survive an Indian attack at Bitter Creek, Wyoming. He was knocked out but the Army thinks he ran and hid (a smart move considering the alternative). So the Army dramatically strips him of rank and drums him out at the beginning of each episode. Poor Jason is left to wander the west Caine-like (insert "Kung Fu" here) with the broken half of his saber. Like Richard Kimble he hopes to find someone who saw what actually happened at Bitter Creek who can clear his name. Unlike "The Fugitive" there is no wrap-up episode but the song has already revealed his innocence so there is no real loose end to worry about. If this ponderous mess wasn't the worst television western of all time it is certainly in the running. This level of pompous nonsense would not be seen again until the early episodes of "Battlestar Galactica". As Mad Magazine liked to point out, each episode made you regret that Conners had not made it out of the minor leagues to become the Dodgers' first baseman. "Branded" is one of the few television westerns that would be a good candidate for MST3K treatment. The bad writing has become legendary over the years and was satirically incorporated by the Coen brothers into "The Big Lebowski": Walter (looking at his hero "Branded" writer Digby Sellers in an iron lung): "Does he still write? " Pilar, Sellers' Housekeeper: "Oh no no, he has health problems". Lebowski addicts looking for mock-fest laughs will not be disappointed by this DVD collection. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
possumopossum
I thought the premise behind this show was pretty good. Seems like the unjustly accused man going from town to town to solve other people's problems while trying to clear his name was a pretty popular theme for television in the sixties. I didn't get to see too many of these episodes, but what I saw was pretty good. Did Jason McCord ever clear his name? I never found that out. That was a great theme song. And I will now give you the lyrics to the alternate version. These are correct and they go with the rhythm.Stranded, stuck on the toilet bowl.What do you do when you're stranded and you haven't got a roll? To prove you're a man You must wipe with your hand Becaaauuuuussseee....you're stranded.
jejozi
I was just a young lad of eight when Branded came out. It was on Sunday night, my parents bowling night. My little brother and I would drive my older brother crazy (hey, it was our jobs) getting us to bed, and we'd always promise to go if he let us watch the Branded opening. I also remember the parody of the theme song, but with slightly different words. I believe it went a little something like this:Stranded, stranded on the toilet bowl What do ya do when you're stranded And there's none on the roll.You take it like a man And you wipe it with your hand...Stranded, stranded on the toilet boooowl.Thank you, thank you very much.
William Sydnor (entertainmentman300)
A local channel in my state is currently rerunning the show (it has done that before), and I found out that it's one of the several shows produced by Mark Goodson & Bill Todman that's not a game show proving that Goodson/Todman is not all game shows. In fact I found out that they produced Archie's TV Funnies, the original Sabrina the animated series, and the Don Rickles show just to name a few. But I just like to know why was the show distributed by Kingworld International (ala Wheel, Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares & Oprah to name a few)? Because as you've seen, none of the Goodson/Todman game shows are distributed by Kingworld, they are distributed by Pearson Television (now called Fremantlemedia). Please let me know.
