Movies are great, and Encore Western has feasted on showing lots of theatrical features and shorts. However, the premium channel has wisely veered from its bread and butter, by mixing in TV shows. The channel will soon be adding to the TV fare when Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Have Gun Will Travel join Encore Westerns.

These are three classic TV westerns that had significant long runs and big name stars. They'll be a nice addition to shows like Cheyenne and Maverick currently on the net, as well as the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry programmers that run through the day.

The first of this new batch to air will be the longest running western of all time, Gunsmoke, commencing in January. Rawhide, which features a young, pre-movie star Clint Eastwood, will premiere next year, as will Have Gun Will Travel. The latter was an iconic series that starred Richard Boone, about an erudite gun for hire named Paladin, and has been widely discussed as a future big screen adaptation with Eminem as (presumably) a modern version of the character.

Speaking of the big screen, in August, CBS Films announced that it would do a new version of Gunsmoke as a feature film, assigning writers to craft a script. Call it a coincidence -- I don't -- but Gunsmoke coming back now seems like a calculated plan to engender interest in the property in anticipation of the movie version.