ridiculous rating

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Cimarron Strip is an excellent Western adventure series. Starring Stuart Whitman as Marshall Jim Crown, this 90-minute TV show had the largest budget of any television show up until that time. Set in the year 1888 in the sprawling, wide open West, it features the saloons, the gunfire, the cattle, the railroads, the "Western towns", the stagecoaches, and all the ingredients necessary for a great Western television show. It has a stellar cast of guest stars; some episodes include 2, 3, or even 4 easily-recognized leading actors from Hollywood movies or popular television shows. (One interesting quirk about the co-stars on Cimarron Strip is that at least 7 of the actors from the movie, "Cool Hand Luke", appear as guests during the series). Like most TV Westerns of the 1960's, Cimarron Strip contains historical discrepancies, like six-shooter pistols that fire more than six shots, white actors playing the role of Indians, and Army uniforms that are not correct for the era. One glaring issue with Cimarron Strip is that the real Cimarron Strip - part of today's Oklahoma Panhandle - does not contain any mountain ranges. But the show (which was filmed in California) contains many scenes set in the high mountains. However, those mistakes can be easily ignored, as you enjoy some very good scripts, beautiful scenery, and great acting by Stuart Whitman and his guest stars. So why did Cimarron Strip only run for one season? Why was it cancelled after the first run? A number of reasons are obvious: The first reason was the 90-minute format. The "long show" had worked for the Virginian, and for one season of Wagon Train. But by 1967, when Cimarron Strip appeared, the viewing public had become accustomed to 30 minute or 60 minute shows. 90 minutes was just too long for many people. And, quite frankly, there are several episodes of Cimarron Strip (actual running time about 75 minutes) where the story and the action begin to drag. A good example is the episode, "The Blue Moon Train", where Marshall Crown takes a painfully long time searching a ghost town for the kidnapped Francis. A second reason was the competition from other TV networks. It is hard to over-estimate the enormous popularity of "Batman", "Daniel Boone, "The Flying Nun", "Ironside", and "Bewitched", which were running on other networks in the same time slot as Cimmaron Strip. Another detriment to the show was the regular supporting cast. With total respect to actors Percy Herbert, Randy Boone, and Jill Townsend, their characters were simply not in the league of "Miss Kitty", "Festus", and "Doc". A stronger supporting cast might have kept Cimarron Strip higher in the ratings. A major challenge for the series was "Western Fatigue". By 1967, television studios had produced dozens of Western series, with hundreds of total episodes (there were 26 Westerns television shows playing in the year 1959 alone!). The Western genre was saturated; it was approaching the end of its life span. Had Cimarron Strip appeared a few years earlier, it might have fared better in the ratings. After 23 episodes, on March 7, 1968, Cimarron Strip came to its end. The final episode was "The Greeners", featuring Mark Lenard as a homesteader (Lenard was prominent in the Star Trek franchise, once as a Romulan Commander, and later as Spock's father, Sarek). Cimarron Strip can be frequently seen on reruns on various networks, including TBS, TNT, and The Western Channel. It was released as a DVD set in May of 2014. Regrettably, the reels have not been properly remastered; the video quality of the DVD set is only average. Cimarron Strip, with its exciting theme music, and impressive list of guest stars, was a Western TV show produced by and starring Stuart Whitman as Marshall Jim Crown, set in the year 1888. The 23 episodes average 75 minutes each, they are quite enjoyable.

The 23 (90 minute) episodes of the CBS television western "Cimarron Strip" were originally broadcast during the 1967-68 television season, running from 7:30PM to 9PM on Thursday nights. In 1967 a 90-minute time slot seemed reasonable as "The Virginian" (1962-1971) had enjoyed considerable success with this expanded running length; 248 episodes in total. And before that "Wagon Train" made a portion of its episodes this long. Unfortunately for "Cimarron Strip", by 1967 the television western was on its way out and viewers never really warmed up to the show.Unlike "The Virginian" and "Wagon Train", "Cimarron Strip" is not structured in the anthology style, a format better suited to the longer format because it emphasizes guest stars and a large cast of intermittently appearing characters. If anything "Cimarron Strip" went to the other extreme, focusing on only two regular characters and a single theme; the other regular cast members rarely appear in anything more than supporting roles. While this narrow focus is a poor match to the longer running length, it is also what makes the series so special. If not television's all-time best western, "Cimarron Strip" is certainly the most ambitious. The episodes are set in the 1880's and revolve around the interplay between Marshall Jim Crown (Stuart Whitman) and Dulcey Coopersmith (Jill Townsend). Crown is a somewhat world-weary lawman tasked with maintaining law and order in the vast Cimarron Strip (named after the Cimarron River and comprising parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico). Dulcey is a compassionate and caring young woman from the East who has inherited (from her father) the local inn; a combination saloon, boarding house, and jail. Dulcey's innocence and goodness inspire the otherwise disillusioned Marshall, who in turn protects her from what he can and tries to put the rest in perspective for her. Dulcey is obviously symbolic of the arrival of civilizing forces to the frontier but in a larger sense she represents the loss of innocence process anywhere and anytime. The series is in many ways her coming of age story. It doesn't hurt that Townsend is hauntingly beautiful, with a refreshing natural look and a hair-style that swept the country during and after the premiere of the series.Moral ambiguity is the other regular theme, with guest stars often redeeming themselves with a final act of personal responsibility. Typically these characters are portrayed as individuals who have had to subordinate their basic goodness in order to survive in this tough environment.Almost every episode included several top quality and well-known guest stars, whose performances were always up to the task.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

I've caught the show once or twice on TBS (I think)--early Saturday mornings. Thing is--it's been edited down to a 60 minute show--so as to more easily sell it for syndication. There goes much of the dramatic complexity of it. Also--it isn't called 'Cimarron Strip'. It's 'Marshall Crown'--I believe. I even tried @ a video store near me--Audio Video Plus--& I found some of them. I think Stuart Whitman, himself, might own the rights these days. I LOVED this series. Others were 2-dimensional, by comparison. Jim Crown was a former gunslinger, who had reformed. Sometimes, friends from the bad old days would show up--thinking they'd be cut slack. Wrong. Well--Crown WOULD try to dissuade them from illegal activities--to no avail. He'd end up having to kill his old friend--w/much remorse. I remember reading that, when CBS cancelled the show, they issued a memo, explaining that the characters should be either good or bad--no shades of grey. In other words, the show was too sophisticated for it's time.

When Cimarron Strip first aired I was a young girl of 14. The theme music was wonderful. I would literally sit on the edge of my seat waiting to hear the beginning notes. Stuart Whitman was my first and only TV crush. He epitomized what all western heroes should be, from the way he walked, talked, and wore his black hat. Isn't it funny what stays in you subconscious. I loved him then, and love him still. After all these years I hope he knows what a difference he made in my life. Coincidently my husband grew-up watching Cimarron Strip also. He recalls that he and his brother would pretend to ride the family ottoman as their trusty steed, as Stuart Whitman did in the beginning and the ending of the show.