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.

It's time for another TV list! Everybody loves lists, right? This one has AOL picking the best TV shows of the 1960s.

As usual, it's a list that will get the debate going. Shows that without a doubt deserve to be on the list: The Twilight Zone, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Star Trek, The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy, and Bewitched.

Shows that without a doubt don't belong on the list: The Flying Nun, Hogan's Heroes, and The Mod Squad. Sure, I enjoyed those shows when I was younger, but I really don't think they belong in the "best" category (I'll let you debate another show on the list, Batman - great or just "campy" great?)

In AOL TV's continuing countdown of the best TV shows of each decade, we travel back in time to the 1960s, when viewers were entertained by wacky sitcoms like 'Green Acres,' 'Bewitched' and 'The Addams Family,' a proliferation of Westerns that featured future superstars like Clint Eastwood and Michael Landon, variety shows like 'Laugh-In' and 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' and James Bond-inspired spy shows like 'The Saint' and 'I Spy.'

Viewers were also into grittier fare like realistic cop dramas ('Ironside,' 'Adam-12') and war action series ('12 O'Clock High,' 'Combat!'), though there was plenty of classic sitcom fun on the airwaves, too, from 'The Andy Griffith Show' and 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' to 'Get Smart' and 'My Three Sons.'

Take a look at our picks of the decade's best and let us know if we got it right. -- By Kimberly Potts

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

Hmmm...I thought A Colbert Christmas was released last week?

We also have Swingtown - Season 1, which can probably also be titled Swingtown - The Complete Series, much to the dismay of devoted fans. This is a good week for fans of Deadwood and The Wire, as they both get complete series releases that would make fantastic Christmas gifts for the fan in your family

• A Colbert Christmas
• The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
• Deadwood - The Complete Series
• Gunsmoke - Season 3, Vol. 1
• Happy Days - Season 4 and Seasons 1-4
  
• Lost - Season 4
  
• Rawhide - Season 3, Vol. 2
• Shelly Duvall's Bedtime Stories - Complete Series
• Swingtown - Season 1
• The Wire - Complete Series

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Absolutely Fabulous - Absolutely Everything
• Cory in the House - New and Improved
• Degrassi: The Next Generation - Season 6
• Gunsmoke - Season 2, Vol. 2
• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - Vol. 2
• Holocaust - Anniversary Edition
• The Invaders - Season 1
• The Jackie Gleason Show - The Honeymooners: Collection 3 (color)
• Lipstick Jungle - Season 1
• MonsterQuest - Season 1
• One Piece - Season 1, First Voyage (Uncut)
• Rawhide - Season 3, Vol. 1
• The Three Stooges Collection - Vol. 2: 1937-39
• Wing Chun - Complete Series

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Series
• Charlie and Lola - Vol. 4
• The Closer - Season 2
• F Troop - Season 2
• The Kids in the Hall - Best of Vol. 2
• Rawhide - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Weeds - Season 1 (Blu-Ray)

Stuart Rosenberg is probably best known for directing big screen movies such as Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror, Brubaker, The Pope of Greenwich Village, The Drowning Pool, and Voyage of the Damned, but he had an impressive TV resume as well.

Rosenberg directed several episodes of the original Twilight Zone, as well as episodes of The Untouchables, Ben Casey, The Defenders, Rawhide, For The People, Naked City, Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theater, The Nurses, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. He also directed the TV movie Fame is the Name of the Game, which led to the TV series The Name of the Game.

Rosenberg died last week at his home in Beverly Hills of a heart attack.

If you are interested in seeing Clint Eastwood before his sneering, raspy voice, Bridges of Madison County days, then today (July 4th) is your lucky day. The Hallmark Channel, which seems to show an inordinate amount of Western movies and television shows, is currently running a marathon of Rawhide until 8 p.m. this evening.

For those of you not familiar with the series, Rawhide starred Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates, one of a group of Texans led by Gil Flavor (Eric Fleming) who where taking 3000 herd of cattle north to market in Kansas. During their journey they encounter a number of characters, such as a bank robber who portrays himself as an East Coast lawyer, and they run into plenty of trouble, like a mob of angry townsfolk who learn that Rowdy and a number of cows have come down with anthrax. What the hell was Rowdy doing with the cows anyway? I mean, I know it's lonely in the West, but come on!

Episode summaries and some more information on the series, which ran from 1959 to 1965 on CBS, can be found at The Hallmark Channel website.

 

I guess this one would go in the "I thought he died years ago" category.

Franz was a character actor for several decades, appearing in such movies as Sands of Iwo Jima, Hellcats of the Navy, The Caine Mutiny (as the narrator), Invaders From Mars, and Abbott and Costello Meet The Invisible Man. But he was also a familiar face on the small screen too, appearing in everything from Perry Mason, Mission: Impossible, McCloud and Rawhide to Mod Squad, The Waltons, Mannix, and The FBI.

Franz died Saturday in California of emphysema and pneumonia.