For nearly two centuries, Americans have embraced the Western like no other artistic genre. Creators and consumers alike have utilized this story form in literature, painting, film, radio and television to explore questions of national identity and purpose. Westerns: The Essential Collection comprises the Journal of Popular Film and Television’s rich and longstanding legacy of scholarship on Westerns with a new special issue devoted exclusively to the genre. This collection examines and analyzes the evolution and significance of the screen Western from its earliest beginnings to its current global reach and relevance in the 21st century. Westerns: The Essential Collection addresses the rise, fall and durability of the genre, and examines its preoccupation with multicultural matters in its organizational structure. Containing eighteen essays published between 1972 and 2011, this seminal work is divided into six sections covering Silent Westerns, Classic Westerns, Race and Westerns, Gender and Westerns, Revisionist Westerns and Westerns in Global Context. A wide range of international contributors offer original critical perspectives on the intricate relationship between American culture and Western films and television series. Westerns: The Essential Collection places the genre squarely within the broader aesthetic, socio-historical, cultural and political dimensions of life in the United States as well as internationally, where the Western has been reinvigorated and reinvented many times. This groundbreaking anthology illustrates how Western films and television series have been used to define the present and discover the future by looking backwards at America’s imagined past.

In order to catch the bad guys, Steve Reynolds, also known as The Durango Kid, (played by Charles Starrett), goes undercover as Steve Reynolds, a postal inspector. At the same time, Jack Mahoney, (played by Jock Mahoney), an eastern educated dude, comes back home. The Durango Kid teaches Jack how to draw and fire a six-gun, and the two work together to bring the outlaws to justice. Smiley Burnette is the Durango Kid's longtime sidekick.

"Reflections Of A 'B' Movie Junkie" is a tribute to the old "B" Movies of the Saturday Matinees of yesteryear. Actually, it is more of a homage to them, or at least (6) genres of those film types, that were so prevalent back in primarily the '40's and '50's. Their research and discussion, however, in some instances, dates all the way back to the beginning of the "talkies" of motion picture content, and can extend in the other direction, into the early '70s. These (6) genres include the popular "B"-Western, The Comedy Teams, The Jungle Adventures, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Horror and the Serial, or Chapter Plays, so popular with the week-end Matinee crowds back then. These film-types filled up our Saturday afternoons (and evenings) with exciting adventure, curious wonder, spine-tingling horror, and non-stop action. Often filmed on a shoe-string budget, and in a limited time-frame, many of these "classics" came to be looked upon by many fans as being so truly bad, that they were good, (in a bad sort of way) ! They are thus categorized, reviewed and discussed, for the most part, in a lovingly personal style, especially when compared to the film types we are subjected to in today's market. They had their place in film history, and that time is long since gone. But, for some of us, they have never been equaled, which, for others, may indeed be a good thing.

Blondie, Boston Blackie, Ellery Queen, The Lone Wolf, Gasoline Alley, Jungle Jim... There were 27 film series produced and released by Columbia Pictures from 1926 through 1955. This reference book covers the origins of the popular fictional characters featured, as well as their appearances in other media (comics, novels, radio and television). Also provided are thumbnail biographies of the actors who brought these characters to life. The films themselves are examined in detail, with release dates, cast and production credits, synopses, reviews, the author's summation, the publicity "tag lines," and the songs heard. Additionally, most of the outdoor locations used in filming such Columbia western series as Wild Bill Saunders and The Durango Kid are identified.