Stoney Burke

My brother and I loved this programme as teen-agers, and tried to see it again in brief syndication on Detroit television in 1963-64. I have not heard of it since. STONEY BURKE was, yes, uplifting in a way. The music by Dominic Frontiere (sp?) who also did THE OUTER LIMITS was some of the best for television in the 1960s and sticks with me through the decades. Much of STONEY BURKE was shot on location with the allure of the exotic in a modern, but still great west. Perhaps as a westerner the previous comentator found the series especially compelling, along with a religious angle which is quite unique in a television review of a pretty secular offering. The "Golden Buckle" is a thinly veiled take-off on the Golden Fleece, so there was the flavour of a grand quest in which the hero and his company meet adventures and interesting characters. Maybe the "stuff of legend" (such as it was) attracted my brother and me, as it did the previous writer. If memory serves, STONEY BURKE gave Warren Oates his start, a pity he died young, and the same for Jack Lord who bounced back with HAWAII FIVE-O.

I didn't realize that I was only 14 when I originally watched these shows. This morning, I read an article about old TV shows that are being released on DVD. The newspaper asked to vote on your favorite. I honestly hadn't thought about "Stoney Burke" in decades. The show must have made an enormous impression on me because my 58 year old brain instantaneously retrieved from memory banks usually reserved for deeply held resentments. I couldn't tell you anything except Stoney Burke was a rodeo rider played by jack Lord and that Warren Oates was a member of the cast. My memory is poignant story lines - far ahead of the drivel that was typical of the early 60's.

I have recently learned that this show was my mother's favorite when she was a little girl. I have acquired the first twelve episodes in order to learn more about the mother I never knew. In doing so, Stoney Burke has become one of my favorite TV heroes. No matter what scrape he gets himself into, he always manages to work through it the right way. The character of Stoney is a truly wonderful character and this show is more than a rodeo story. This was a well written and acted show that I will brag about whenever possible. I only wish I knew who to talk to about trying to get this properly released onto DVD format before the episodes become even more scarce. How about a DVD box set? Let's hope so.

Before Jack Lord went to Hawaii and told Danno to "book 'em" he starred in a short lived television series about a modern saddle bronco rider named Stoney Burke. Western fans please note the closeness in the name of that Three Mesquiteers character Stoney Brooke that John Wayne among others played on the big screen.

Two shows went on television about the rodeo circuit Stoney Burke and The Wide Country. Sad to say that both failed to find an audience in an increasingly urban viewing audience.

That is sad because the rodeo itself is drama and any number of decent stories were created with that background in this series. The characters too were a likable bunch. Having been a PBR fan and having met some real bullriders I can attest that most are definitely a likable people.

Jack Lord was just such in this series. But he had a quest for the championship Golden Buckle in his chosen event to be given in Las Vegas. Just like the PBR today has its finals there. It was the Holy Grail Of Saddle Bronco Riding.

Stoney Burke had the usual collection of peers cast like Bob Dowdell of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and a rising Warren Oates who would soon be pretty much on the big screen. Oates played a character named Ves Painter who was quite an operator. It was the first real notice that Oates got.

Both Lord and Oates had really good careers and Stoney Burke gave them quite a boost.

I just finished watching the 32nd and final episode of the recently released DVD set. I was curious about it from having been a fan of the Outer Limits and knowing that Leslie Stevens, Dominic Frontiere and Conrad Hall all worked on both series. I had never seen Stoney Burke before. I was too young when it was on ABC originally and it never made it to reruns in NYC.

This series far exceeded my hopes or expectations. The formula is an old and good one. Stoney Burke (Jack Lord) can be viewed as a knight on a quest to win the Gold Buckle (National Rodeo Championship), with Cody (Bob Dowdell), Red (Bill Hart) and E.J. (Bruce Dern) as squires. Burke can at other times be viewed as an almost messianic or Christ-like character with the others as his disciples. Either way, he is a man who is pure at heart and dedicated to winning the Gold Buckle. He is NOT however a man who will do ANYTHING to win that Gold Buckle. He is highly principled and honest. His high principles and morality are contrasted against another of his followers, Ves Painter (Warren Oates), who is one of the least moral or principled characters ever to play a regular role in a series.

The series is much like other 1960s television, with the main characters traveling from town to town, meeting different people in each episode, and becoming embroiled in their dramatic life struggles. This gives the best character actors from the era lots of opportunities. The format enables the writers to examine every dramatic possibility. There is romance (of course) and corruption and greed and dilemmas of conflicting commitments and self-destruction and small-town prejudice and salvation. In one way, the earliest episodes are some of the best.

Leslie Stevens wrote all the earliest and he understood the characters the best. He obviously LOVED the Ves Painter character, and the episodes Stevens wrote are those that Ves is his most vivid and vile. Warren Oates steals many of those shows, spouting some of the best and most colorful dialogue and providing both comic relief and intense frustration. Stevens also made sure that Stoney's followers/friends had a lot to do with the action. They get into many scrapes with- and on behalf of- Stoney. In the middle of the 32 episodes, when other writers took over, the followers move farther into the background and the series suffers a little for it. Still, that being said, I can't say there's a dog in the entire 32 episodes. Even the weakest shows are good, solid TV drama. I was hoping that the series would end strongly and I was not disappointed. Stevens wrote and directed the final episode, in which all the recurring cast members play an important part. Stoney takes a mythological journey during which his soul and faith are at stake and he is almost literally staring at the abyss. 'Nuff said. You'll have to watch it.

You can't talk about Stoney Burke without talking about the music and photography. Dominic Frontiere's music is very lush and romantic and is employed judiciously throughout the series. Just as he did the following year with the Outer Limits, he provides just the right flavor to the emotion of each situation. Outer Limits fans will be shocked at how much of that series' music was lifted directly from Stoney Burke. At times, it almost felt like I was watching an Outer Limits episode, but without the aliens.

Conrad Hall took over all the photography after the first 6 or 7 episodes, when Ted McCord fell ill. Hall was McCord's camera operator. I cannot possibly praise Hall's B&W photography as much as it deserves. Under the least visually interesting directors, such as Tom Gries, he is perfectly competent and quite good. Under the more daring or innovative directors his work is sublime. He does things with camera movement, lighting and angles that gives me chills. His work makes good scenes great and great scenes unforgettable. His work here is some of his best B&W work- and that's saying a lot.

I highly recommend the series to anyone who likes old B&W-era TV, and especially to fans of Jack Lord (you'll see some of Steve McGarret's stalwart integrity here), Warren Oates, Conrad Hall or 1963 Lincoln Continentals, Thunderbirds and pick-up trucks, for that matter.