Elementary, My Dear Secondary Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rawhide

"Rawhide" was one of the longest running Western series on television featuring for eight seasons from 1959 through to 1966. The show was basically one long cattle drive, set a short time after the American Civil War, with its stories coming from the people the team interacted with along the way. Eric Fleming played the "tough as nails" trail boss who drove (pun not intended) his crew hard to get the job done".

His second in command was Rowdy Yates, played by Clint Eastwood, a hot headed punk in his early days who would mature as the series progressed. We find out through the series that he fought in the war as a sixteen year old, his mother isn't happy about him being a drover and his father had deserted he and his mother when Rowdy was young. Yates would ultimately meet up with his father who, by this time, had turned to drink in a strong way. Yates eventually becomes the trail boss and Eastwood's profile, not to mention his salary, would rise.

Answer: The Cisco Kid

Leo Carrillo was the "good for a laugh" Pancho, the trusty sidekick to Duncan Renaldo's Cisco Kid in 156 episodes from 1950 to 1956. In truth, Cisco and Pancho were really desperadoes, but the audience and people that they helped looked upon them as latter day Robin Hoods. Something tells me that Cisco may have kept some of that loot for himself at the expense of the man who remained loyal to him through every episode. You see Cisco rode a magnificent horse called "Diablo" complete with silver saddle fittings and bridle. Poor Pancho rode a nag called "Loco". Cisco was decked out in a dashing black outfit with fancy embroidery and he never got dirty. Pancho looked like he'd been rolling with the tumbleweeds and could do with a good bath. Somehow Pancho got to do the fighting while Cisco stood there and shot his guns off. Pancho however, was pretty handy with a bullwhip. The most endearing feature of Pancho though, was his ability to mangle the English language; "Ceesco! Let's went! The shereef is on our trail."

At the end of each show Cisco would make a corny one liner that related to the adventure they'd just had, Pancho would say "Oh Ceesco". Cisco would respond "Oh Pancho" and, together, they would gallop off into the sunset.

Answer: The Big Valley

Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck) is the head of a wealthy family that owns a 30,000 acre ranch in California's Central Valley. At the start of the series we find out that her husband Tom had been murdered six years beforehand. Heath (Lee Majors) soon enters their lives.

At first they think him to be a spy sent by the railroads and he cops a savage beating from Nick, the hot-tempered youngest son of the family. It's at this point that he reveals that he is Tom's son, born out of wedlock. He was raised in a small mining town called Strawberry by his natural mother and only learns of his father's true identity when she passes away.

It's at this point that he leaves Strawberry to find out about his "other" family.

Answer: The Rifleman

Chuck Connors is Lucas McCain, the titular character from this television series that ran from 1958 to 1963. Former Mouseketeer Johnny Crawford plays his son Mark. Despite being a youngster, this is a significant role in the series. Mark's mother is lost to smallpox leaving Lucas to bring him up. This made "The Rifleman" one of the first prime time television programmes to deal with a widowed parent having to raise a child. Most of the episodes carry a secondary storyline that involves Lucas endeavouring to teach his son proper values.

Crawford would be nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor (Continuing Character) in a Dramatic Series in 1959 but would lose out to Dennis Weaver for his role as Chester Goode in "Gunsmoke".

Answer: The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok

"Hey Wild Bill... Wait for me!" would be the familiar cry from Deputy Marshall Jingles P. Jones as he'd chase after US Marshall Bill Hickok to pursue another criminal. Jingles Jones was, how do I put this nicely, always braver when Wild Bill was around.

Despite this he was always loyal to his friend and provided valuable comic relief to a series that ran from 1951 through to 1958. Jingles, played by Andy Devine, was gravel voiced and overweight and, like Hickok, strutted around in fringed buckskin shirts.

Interestingly, the buckskins didn't appear until the pair's third episode, "Lady Mayor", and, to this point Andy's name was only "Jingle" (no "s"). Also in this episode we meet Jingles' horse, appropriately, named Joker.

Answer: Alias Smith & Jones

OK, not second fiddle and not, technically, a sidekick, more partners in crime. Hannibal Heyes (Pete Duel) and "Kid" Curry (Ben Murphy) are actually cousins. They're also outlaws but they've seen the light, they're looking to do right and reform. They figure that they're not really bad because "in all the trains and banks they robbed, they never shot anyone". The Governor is prepared to grant them amnesty but only when it is going to suit him politically. In the meantime our two protagonists must remain outlaws while they're helping the Governor and they have to keep their little pact a secret.

Now I have made Curry the second fiddle here purely because he's the muscle and the fast gun. The brains of the outfit is Hannibal and he's the one who is continually setting up their plans and, more often the not, finding a way out of the difficult situations they keep finding themselves in. The "Wanted" poster for the Kid tells us that he is 27 years old, five feet eleven inches tall, has dark blonde hair, blue eyes and is of medium build. He's also part of one of the worst bands of desperadoes the Territory has had to deal with.

"Alias Smith & Jones" ran for three seasons on ABC from 1971 to 1973.

Answer: Laramie

"Laramie", which ran from 1959-63, is a Western series set on the Sherman Ranch which is run by the 28 year old Slim Sherman and his 14 year old brother Andy. The ranch is struggling and to help it along they set the ranch up as a relay station for stagecoaches.

Jess Harper, played by Robert Fuller, is a drifter with a mixed past who comes into their lives. He'd left Texas at 15 after their family home had been burned down and a number of members of his family had been gunned down. In his time he'd been a gunfighter, a drover, a ranch hand, and a deputy. He'd also been in jail at least once. Jess is lightning quick with a gun and he's also hot-headed, not a very good combination, but this is balanced out by a wicked sense of humour and a teasing nature. Whilst he doesn't know it at first the Sherman Ranch would become his home.

Answer: Bonanza

"Bonanza", which ran for fourteen seasons between 1959 and 1973, focused on Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and his sons and their trials and tribulations on the "Ponderosa" ranch. Dan Blocker, at six foot and four inches, played the gentle giant "middle" son Eric "Hoss" Cartwright.

At this point I wish to focus on the episode "Forever", which was written and filmed in the shows last season. Just prior to this Blocker had passed away as the result of a pulmonary embolism. Michael Landon, who played "Little" Joe, Hoss' brother in the series, wrote and produce the episode and it incorporated Blocker's death into the show.

This became the first instance where a television programme openly dealt with the death of one of their main characters. At the end of a particularly emotional scene "Little" Joe breaks down in the arms of his father and the tears are real. Legend has it that by the time the director called "cut" the entire crew was in tears, signifying the respect that Blocker and his character held.

Answer: Gunsmoke

Ken Curtis was a singer and an actor and played Festus Hagen, the sidekick to Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness) in the television series "Gunsmoke" from 1964 through to the end of the series in 1975. Dillon's sidekick prior to Festus was Chester Goode played by Dennis Weaver.
Festus didn't ride a horse, instead he got around on a mule named Ruth, he named his rifle "Ol' Bessie", he couldn't read, had no idea when he was born and was never married... though he did once kiss a girl. He had a twin brother by the name of Fergin who never appeared at the same time as Festus as he was killed a few months before Festus and Matt Dillon met up. He did however have a look-a-like, an evil little dude who caused Festus some grief but, in the drawl of Festus, "he got kilt".

"Gunsmoke" was first aired on CBS in 1955 and ran for twenty seasons.

Answer: The High Chaparral

There is nothing simple about Manolito Montoya played by Henry Darrow in this series that ran from 1967 to 1971. He comes from a wealthy family in Sonora and stands to inherit his father's vast land holdings but chooses not to remain tied to the land and follows his sister to the ranch known as The High Chaparral when she marries its owner "Big" John Cannon. Manny is as charming as he is stubborn.

He loves a prank but he's also a thoughtful and an independent thinker. He remains loyal to his friends and quite often during this series is called upon to be a peacemaker.

He doesn't hesitate to pursue women and he's never far from their company whether they are reputable or not. This also raises the question as to whether he does this because he genuine likes their company or he's using this to drive the wedge between him and his father even deeper.

His belief may be that even if his father does decide to take the selection of a partner for his son into his own hands no fine upstanding candidate is likely to be willing to be a match with Manolito in light of his reputation. Like I said, there is nothing simple about Manolito Montoya.