"The Film Fan" question

[Marty26]

In the cartoon's "movie previews", the Lone Ranger parody is marketed as being a "Kids' Saturday Morning" special. My question is: Were a lot of westerns at the time (which, today, most kids would see as "stuff for grown-ups" alongside the News) aimed more towards children than adults? I know that, up until probably the early-50's, the Wild West was the big thing with kids. And then from the early-50's through late-80's, it was outer space. And then from around 1989 to the present, it was anime. So were a lot of westerns in the 30's/40's aimed mostly at kids?

[Mark J]

Westerns were REALLY big with kids in the 30's and 40's. The Gene Autrey singing cowboy serials etc. were big kid hits. Some of those plots went way out of the western theme and included cowboys fighting Nazi spys. Kids were also fans of 'adult' western features - what kid wouldn't like watching guys with big hats on horseback shooting guns? My mother (who was a kid in the late 30s and early 40s) used to go to the movies every Saturday and for a nickel she could stay almost all day and watch a variety of 'programming' for kids - serials, short subjects, newsreels, cartoons, features, usually something cowboy related and also some space serials like Buck Rogers. The Lone Ranger was also a very popular radio serial aimed at kids and the TV show in the 50's was also aimed at kids. Even in the 1970's Lone Ranger reruns on local TV aired in the afternoons for kids along with Superman and cartoons. I always watched any western TV show or movie that aired when I was a kid.

[Ray Pointer]

William Boyd, (Hopalong Cassidy) was the first to go to television with edited version of his westerns for presention to a juvenile audience on NBC. There was also Hopalong Cassidy merchandising. I had a Hopalong Cassidy football, basketball, softball, and tennisball. Gene Autry went to television, and Roy Rogers (King of the Cowboys) also followed with an original series made for television. There was also SKY KING, a radio show moved to television. These were aimed at juvenile audiences. Looking at them today, one can see an honest attempt to produce entertainment for young audiences that instilled values without being condescending. They were well produced, well acted, and intelligent--certainly a model that current kid-aimed product could emulate.

[Fibber Fox]

My question is: Were a lot of westerns at the time (which, today, most kids would see as "stuff for grown-ups" alongside the News) aimed more towards children than adults?

Other than John Ford movies, Westerns were kids' fare.

One of the reasons Jim Arness reportedly didn't want to do Gunsmoke was he didn't want to be on a kids' show.

F. Fox.