Roy Huggins Biography by Paul Green: Publication February 2014

My latest book will be released February 2014 by McFarland & Co. If you want to pre-order an author autographed edition please contact me.
About the book: Producer-writer Roy Huggins is best known for creating the TV series, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, The Fugitive, Run For Your Life and The Rockford Files (with Stephen J. Cannell). This biography details his personal and professional life, aided by exclusive interviews with family, producers, actors and writers who worked with Huggins. The author was granted exclusive access to Huggins’ personal memoirs to provide an intimate, firsthand account of Huggins including his early career at Columbia, RKO, Warner Bros. and 20th Century-Fox. Huggins’ political activism at UCLA and the subsequent House Un-American Activities hearing in 1952 is covered in depth. Includes an extensive filmography and previously unpublished photographs provided by family members.

Whatever happened to the TV Western?

A quick glance of the new season sees yet another glut of police and lawyer shows. You know the formula. Dead body in the first five minutes followed by endless questioning, an autopsy or two, more questioning and the resolution. Yawn inducing just writing about it. We need someone to take a chance and produce a retro TV Western series. Not in the style of recent examples such as Deadwood. I found that far too negative and depressing. We need a series in the classic 1960s style. No sepia tones or cursing. We need positive, uplifting stories. We need heroes to return to TV. Not cynical. world weary anti-heroes in the Eastwood mold, but heroes in The Virginian or Cheyenne mold.

We all know the world has grown more cynical since the 1960s. But are we to expect decades of Law & Order and CSI spin-offs until we die? Some producer has to take a chance on another TV Western show that isn’t saccharin and isn’t cynical. A show that entertains in the classic Western style.