In the days when TV was an appointment and athletes were role models.

Rosey Grier and Jimmy Dean from an episode of Daniel Boone.

I’m off from work today (but working) and watching Rosey Grier and Jimmy Dean on an episode of Daniel Boone. Dan’l is conspicuously absent and Rosey and Jimmy are hamming it up something wonderful.

Rosey Grier had been defensive tackle for the Los Angeles Rams, and Jimmy Dean was a country singer, actor, and sausage pitch man.

That was in the days when TV was an appointment and two fun characters like this were a treat.

Grier became a minister (learn more >). Choices like that were once lauded; now they are the stuff of late night skits and pop culture scorn (Tim Tebow >).

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I recall an especially intense episode of Daniel Boone about a beautiful squaw and her cowboy boyfriend who were on the run from some bad guys. She hurt her arm in an accident and the cowboy was forced to amputate. This took place in the woods by a campfire. The camera showed the cowboy sterilizing the knife in the fire, the women closing her eyes and nodding, then retreated to a long shot, from which we could only see the burning fire and hear her screams.

I must have been very young. The image stays with me still.

[2014-04-16]

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