Customer Reviews

Tate

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Timeless Media Group has done Western lovers a huge favor by releasing episodes from some classic television Westerns that have been largely forgotten. They released collections for Cimmarron City (starring George Montgomery), The Tall Man (Barry Sullivan), Laredo (Neville Brand, Peter Brown, William Smith, Phillip Carey), Riverboat (Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds), and the fantastic Restless Gun (John Payne).

But the other collection they have released would be even easier to overlook. A 13 episode series aired as a summer replacement with a possibilty to be a midseason replacement. Shot on tape instead of film. The star was famous as the Marlboro Man on TV commercials (and would eventually die of lung cancer). A gunfighter hero with only one arm. The series, called Tate, never caught on. And all we have to remember it by are these 13 episodes.

But what a great Western Tate was, and it is great to be able to enjoy the series almost fifty years later. David McLean played Tate, who fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War and lost the use of his left arm at Vicksburg. After the war, he covered the arm is black leather, put it in a sling, and went to work as a gunfighter for hire/bounty hunter. With only a Kansas City PO Box for an address, Tate rode all over the West, hoping to make enough money to afford surgery that a St Louis doctor said might help his arm.

McLean's Tate was very much like the typical genre-issue gunfighter, but in some ways he was very atypical. Like most, he was fast on the draw, hired out to good guys only, was nice to kids and women, and figured out a way to win every time. But unlike other gunfighters of the time, he could be crusty, harsh, and at times unpleasant - kind of precursor to the Man With No Name and other 60's-70s era gunfighters.

Tate would have made a great 60's Western. Too bad it never had the chance, but at least we have this collection to remember it.

"Tate" qualifies as one of the most off-beat western television dramas. This black & white oater with David McLean who gained fame as the Malboro man in cigarette commercials and also died from lung cancer. Think of the character that Sam Elliot played in "Thank You For Smoking," and you'll understand the comparison. "Tate" is a really neat show. The rugged, lonesome protagonist is a Civil War survivor, except his left arm hangs uselessly, blasted by an explosion in the war, and he wears his crippled limb in black leather sheathe with strap around his neck. David MacLean reminded me of Cliff Robertson. I don't know if Sergio Leone ever watched the show, probably didn't, but the hero dresses like a spaghetti western hero in a couple of episodes, sometimes even wearing a serape to conceal his lame limb. Naturally, he is super-fast on the draw.

Each episode opens with Tate displaying his celerity with his six-shooter. "Tate" belongs in the same league as "The Prisoner." Tate himself is a gunslinger and doesn't cry about his choice of profession or behave in a politically correct fashion. He has his own sense of uncompromising values, and he sticks with those values. He isn't an indiscriminate killer. You've got to be right and have some legal stance before he'll accept your money, but once he accepts the money, he doesn't back down. He has no sidekick and carried a sawed-off shotgun as back-up. He doesn't call his horse by a nickname. The shows are half-hour in length and there is nothing gratuitous in them. They are concise, tight, and they do some pretty alarming things. The one that I just took a break from opens with a jealous man killing a saloon girl with a double-barreled shotgun. There is ZERO humor in the show. It's all about business. There are no recurring characters, except Tate. Tate is grim, stoic, to the point, and doesn't solicit sympathy. One of the first shows in the series opens with an angry gunman going after Tate to kill him. Tate kills him before the second break in the narrative. The unknown actor who gets gunned down stone dead is none other than Robert Redford. Later, Redford shows up in another episode as an entirely different character who protects his ranch wife from Comanche Indians, principally the chief of the redskins, played by Leonard Nimoy of "Star Trek."

Harry Julian Fink who wrote and created "Dirty Harry," had a hand in the many rewrites of "Ice Station Zebra," penned John Wayne's "Big Jake" and "Cahill, U.S. Marshall," created the show and served as the script consultant. In one episode, James Coburn plays a prisoner destined to hang for killing an entire family after the daughter of the family refused to marry him. Robert Culp plays a be-spectacled bounty hunter in another scene. Tate doesn't get a lot of sympathy. Warren Oates makes the mistake of talking when he should be shooting and Tate takes him out. Other than his limp arm, Tate shares no secrets, but he does point out that he has a mailing address, general delivery, Kansas City. There is a strain of Biblical quoting running through the show like a thread and usually the biggest Bible quoters are the biggest dastards. Meantime, Martin Landau plays a sheep herder in one episode and he gives a brilliant performance as a reformed Civil War raider that Tate is taking in for his war crimes. Some of the dialogue crackles. Once, when Culp's bounty killers gets the drop on Tate, he warns Tate that he can take him either as "pig or pork." For the record, Tate only gets kissed once in the entire 13 episodes by Julia Adams in the episode "The Mary Hardin Story." Indeed, there is a lot of violence, too. The visual quality is 9 out of 10, with only some audio hum on "The Mary Hardin Story" episode. "Tate" emerges as a memorable, but short-lived western. Watch it!

Tate lasted only 13 shows, but they are good ones. Stories are even better than in most of the western series. David McLean is a rugged actor who fits well into his role. I am sure many weaker series lasted much longer. I remind that my star system is a bit stricter than those of many others. I reserve five stars to a few select films and series.

I didn't remember this TV western from 1960 when I was a boy, even though I watched lots of TV westerns then and loved them all. But this is one of the best. The quality of the DVDs is very good and shipment was prompt.
Highly recommended.

Roger L. Omanson

After watching a couple of the episodes from disc one, I must say I am impressed with this short-lived series. I missed this one as child, even though like other other reviewers, I was engrossed in Westerns as a kid in the late 50's and early 60's. But, I may not have liked this one as much as a child, because of the level of maturity and content of the show. The episode with Robert Culp as a bounty hunter is probably the best I have seen him in any western. When I watched and felt the fear in Royal Dano in the next episode, I knew this was a show for me now as a Western fan. I felt like I was in that dark street, not knowing if Tate or Dano was going to be shot. Buy it, you will not be disappointed...

This is an excellent show, just finished watching all the episodes and wish there were more. Tate having a crippled arm wasn't really the gimmick Ironside being in a wheelchair and Longstreet being blind were. The shows for those characters revolved around their disablements, TATE didn't. Tate had a bad arm from a war wound and that was about it. The bad arm was sometimes mentioned but each story did not depend on him not being able to use that arm. Harry Julian Fink, the series creator, story consultant, and one of its writers, worked on HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL and that influence, not a bad thing, shows. Also, it's a thirty minute show, made back when TV knew how to make them and placed value on half hour dramas.

A one-armed gunfighter? You have to be kidding me. No, you are not. And I watched all 13 episodes on the same day. The guest stars are great and the stories are slightly above average. There were three or four westerns produced by the same producer who made 13 episodes -- "The Westerner" is one of them that come to mind. Not a bad series and the asking price is really good so it's worth the purchase price on Amazon. You will not be disappointed.

This 1960 summer replacement series TATE is, like the TV series BRENNER, a breath of fresh air to watch on DVD. David McLean was a vastly underrated actor, and this program, like BRENNER, should have been picked up for a full season. In today's TV world, even good story lines are filled with garbage (profanity, unnecessary sex, etc.), diluting their value.

I am very pleased with my purchase of the series Tate. It shipped quickly, and I enjoyed watching every episode.

This series is a cut well above the average TV western. A Civil War veteran, with an insured arm, wamders through the west fighting evildoers. His left arm is encased tightly in leather and in a sling, but his right arm is fine. Oh, and I might add, he is very fast on the draw with that right arm, but not much good in a saloon brawl.

The stories are interesting enough, the plots engrossing. The acting is also better than average, inscluding some big name actors before they gained fame. It's fun to pick them out. The programs are in B&W, with the scenery being not much, mostly the same boulders we've seen in other oaters, the desert area of southern California serving as Texas and other parts. Hollywood never did pay much attention to accuracy with respect to topography, even in expensive productions like "True Grit" (the original movie). But that's the only real drawback.

Most Western fans may be unfamiliar with this series. Well, here's a chance to get good programs at a good price.