Tales Of The Texas Rangers
Tales of the Texas Rangers, a western adventure old-time radio drama, premiered on July 8, 1950, on the US NBC radio network and remained on the air through September 14, 1952. Movie star Joel McCrea starred as Texas Ranger Jayce Pearson, who used the latest scientific techniques to identify the criminals and his faithful horse, Charcoal, to track them down. The shows were reenactments of actual Texas Ranger cases.The series was produced and directed by Stacy Keach, Sr., and was sponsored for part of its run by Wheaties.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
Chapters
Reviews
just wonderful
Cuttle
I love these shows, and not just because I'm originally from Texas. The quality of the story-telling, acting, and especially the astonishingly subtle and realistic sound-effects, make these real gems. One thing I appreciate is that they are for adults, not children, and so involve grown-up themes -- bad marriages, business deals gone sour, corruption, addiction, poverty, prejudice. They've been a really satisfying discovery for me as a listener. Certain recurring elements consistently amuse and delight me: the rising inflection when the announcer declares that "the events are a matter of record!"; the way so many episodes turn on analysis of forensic evidence by the Rangers' crack scientists back in Austin; how almost every case ultimately requires Jace to pursue the villain on horseback, so it's lucky that he just happens to have brought along good old Charcoal in a horse-trailer; and the fact that almost every character speaks with what sounds at least something like a Texas accent, except for the Texas Ranger himself, who sounds as if he might have ridden in from Connecticut. A truly outstanding, thoroughly enjoyable series.
Old Radio Shows
peruse
When I lived in Japan 30 years ago, I used to listen to old radio shows on the Far East Network - I looked forward to them every Sunday night. When I moved to Los Angeles, I found two episodes broadcast each night at 9PM and repeated again at 2AM. I love all old time radio programs because they allow you to use your imagination for all of the "visuals." Tales of the Texas Rangers is an especially good program because of its authenticity. And, were such sentences still handed out for crimes today, it would be more of a deterrant. I've listened to every episode, multiple times, of Night Beat, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, The Great Gildersleeve and Tales of the Texas Rangers among others. In fact, I gave away my TV years ago and do not miss it at all.
Dated material, but still highly enjoyable listening
ScarletVarlet
Introduced to Tales of the Texas Rangers on satellite radio and pleased to find it available here. I've discontinued my subscription to sat. radio as the commercials and announcer (post merger) grate on my nerves. It's terrific assembling these classic episodes to listen at my leisure. At 250,000 downloads alone for TotTR that's high praise. The production quality of these shows is very high, though some elements of character dialect may be offensive, bearing in mind these were recorded in the early 1950s, over 60 years ago, most people have recognized it's no longer appropriate and moved on and can still hear these characters without thinking less of of them.
One of the Best!
cpaulg
So many websites categorize this series as a western. This is not what you'd consider a classic western. It takes place during the time it was broadcast, I think the 50s. They drive cars, have phones, crime labs, and all the other modern conveniences of 50s America. True, they do ride a lot of horses, but that's the only thing "western" about it. This is definitely one of my favorite "based on fact" crime series. It's well acted and the scripts are realistic. Also, the theme song is arguably the best, most rousing theme songs ever written for radio.
Great series
JoplinJerry
I really enjoy Joel M. as an actor and now as a radio personality in the Texas Rangers. I am old enough to remember listening to radio shows but had never heard this one and am really enjoying it. I have a sleep disorder and love listening to this late at night. The mixture of cars and horses was used quite a bit in the early 50s with Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, plus some films. I guess we forget how primitive some roads in the West until the late 30 to 50s . Sound iss good also
Texas Rangers in WWII & Korea
edkostiuk
During WWII the captured Nazi thought the Rangers (Army type) were actually Texas Rangers....they were in fear of these rangers since many of them had heard the stories of how fearless the Rangers were. I ran into a POW from Korea a few years back (I do historical work as well as fly WWII Aircaft)and he was telling me they would listen at night to this series when the N. Korean's were not around. He said for the two years he was a POW they managed to hide that radio from their captives.
MacRae, TEXAS RANGER
Shadows_Girl
This was a great series---although it couldn't REALLY hold its own with CSI, the science of Criminology being somewhat less advanced in those days but it was state of the art for its time. The only problem with this file is when you select "whole directory" as a zip file---you only get FOUR of the files. The rest you have to download individually...which takes some time. But it IS worth it. This belongs in any Old Time Radio Lover's Collection. Cass of Shadows http://cass-of-shadows.spaces.live.com/
Anthrax?
PaulVan
This is one of my favorite OTR shows. I have probably listened to each one two or three times. To those of you out there who are also fans of Tales of the Texas Rangers, can any of you remember which show talked about cattle who were infected with anthrax? I suppose if I had hours and hours to research it, I could find it myself, but if anyone out there already knows, I would love to share that particular episode with a friend.