1. Bonanza
   The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
2. The Rifleman
   Hopalong Cassidy

"Bonanza " was the second-longest running Western on television after "Gunsmoke." The show famously dressed all the characters in the exact same clothes from the 4th season onward so that it'd be easier to use old footage to fill in scenes.

1. Laredo
   Here Come the Brides
2. The Restless Gun
   Annie Oakley

"Annie Oakley" followed the fictionalized adventures of real-life sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The real Annie became famous when she was only 15 after winning a shooting competition and then joining Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

1. Have Gun - Will Travel
   Rawhide
2. The Rifleman
   Maverick

"Have Gun - Will Travel" was essentially a show about a hero for hire. Robert Heinlein wrote a science fiction story called "Have Spacesuit - Will Travel" that came out at basically the same time, as well.

1. Little House on the Prairie
   The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
2. The Virginian
   Daniel Boone

"The Virginian" was renamed "The Men from Shiloh" in its final season and has a connection to "The Simpsons." The character of Troy McClure on "The Simpsons" was based on real-life actor Doug McClure, whose most famous role was on "The Virginian."

1. Zorro
   Tombstone Territory
2. Bat Masterson
   Rawhide

"Rawhide" was the show that made Clint Eastwood a household name. He portrayed a character named Rowdy Yates who joined series star Eric Fleming in solving a variety of problems ranging from cattle rustlers to hungry wolves.

1. Little House on the Prairie
   The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
2. The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok
   The Gene Autry Show

"Little House on the Prairie" was an adaptation of the series of books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Those books were based on her own life growing up as part of a pioneer family.

1. Laredo
   Paradise
2. Kung Fu
   Once Upon a Time in the West

"Kung Fu" starred David Carradine as traveling Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Kaine. Bruce Lee was supposed to star in the show according to several sources, and Lee himself claimed he pitched the same basic idea before it was hijacked by Warner Bros.

1. Lawman
   The Lone Ranger
2. The Cisco Kid
   Maverick

"The Lone Ranger" has been made and remade numerous times. The most successful television version of the show aired from 1949 to 1957. When the show ended, it was followed up with a couple of theatrically released movies.

1. The Big Valley
   Maverick
2. Laramie
   The Rebel

"Maverick" was remade into a movie starring Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster many years later, and it also featured the star of the original series, James Garner, in a supporting role.

1. Cheyenne
   Rawhide
2. The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
   Wanted: Dead or Alive

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" followed the famous story of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan and their gambling, gunfighting dentist friend Doc Holliday. The show made the Colt Buntline pistol famous as a toy, even though the real Earp never used the weapon.

1. Rawhide
   The Cisco Kid
2. Daniel Boone
   Bonanza

"Daniel Boone" was loosely based around tales of real-life frontiersman Daniel Boone. Because of the nature of the stories told about him, you actually need to do some research to separate the true stories from the random things people made up.

1. The Cisco Kid
   Tales of Wells Fargo
2. Maverick
   The Wild Wild West

"The Wild Wild West" was dreamed up as a way to keep people interested in Westerns when the more traditional versions of the genre were failing a bit. As a result, it also mixed a lot of spy stuff and sci-fi stuff into the plot. It was also made into a movie starring Will Smith.

1. The Deputy
   Wanted: Dead or Alive
2. The Tall Man
   Two Faces West

"Wanted: Dead or Alive" was the show that launched Steve McQueen's career. He went on to become a fairly big movie star. It was also similar in plot to "Dog the Bounty Hunter," which is weird notably because Dog is a reality show that was made decades later.

1. Death Valley Days
   Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
2. Have Gun - Will Travel
   Rawhide

"Death Valley Days" was an anthology series like "The Twilight Zone" only about cowboy stuff. The show was originally hosted by a character called The Old Ranger until he was replaced by Ronald Reagan in 1964.

1. The Cisco Kid
   The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
2. The Adventures of Kit Carson
   My Friend Flicka

"The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" was a bit of a Lassie-meets-Western show that was filmed on an infamously small budget. The how routinely recycled actors and it's alleged that in some scenes the same actor would literally be in a fight with himself - one part as a soldier and one part as an Apache.

1. Tales of Wells Fargo
   The Rifleman
2. Bat Masterson
   Bordertown

"Tales of Wells Fargo" was based around the real-life Wells Fargo detective Fred Dodge. Back in the day, banks needed to have their own lawmen because people really had a thing for stealing before law enforcement was widespread.

1. The Rifleman
   My Friend Flicka
2. Laredo
   Zorro

"The Rifleman" famously wielded a modified Winchester Model 1892 that the producers had tweaked to allow for rapid firing as a bit of a gimmick to get audiences interested.

1. Walker, Texas Ranger
   Deadwood
2. Johnny Ringo
   Riverboat

"Deadwood" was one of HBO's most popular shows and received a ton of critical acclaim during its short run. "Deadwood" won several Emmy awards and even a Peabody award, which just sounds really prestigious, doesn't it?

1. Wagon Train
   Lawman
2. Two Faces West
   The Man From Blackhawk

'Lawman" ran from 1958 to 1962 and was typical of Westerns at the time. Aside from a large number of famous guest stars including DeForest Kelley and Sammy Davis Jr., it also recycled scripts from other Westerns on the same network in an effort to save money on writers.

1. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
   The High Chaparral
2. Lancer
   Frontier Doctor

"Dr.Quinn, Medicine Woman" ran for a total of six seasons. The show's star, Jane Seymour, didn't even sign on until literally the day before production began on the pilot. She read the script in one day and was on board.

1. The Range Rider
   The High Chapparal
2. The Big Valley
   The Californians

"The Big Valley" starred veteran actor Barbara Stanwyck as the central character and featured co-stars such as Lee Majors and Linda Evans. The show was based on a historical ranch that's currently covered by the Comanche Reservoir.

1. Cheyenne
   Lawman
2. Bat Masterson
   The Cisco Kid

"The Cisco Kid" followed the adventures of Cisco and his sidekick Pancho. The show got a movie reboot in the 1990s with Jimmy Smits as the Cisco Kid and Cheech Marin from "Cheech and Chong" as Pancho.

1. Bat Masterson
   Sergeant Preston of the Yukon
2. The Tall Man
   Sky King

"Bat Masterson" was a real person named Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson who actually came from Quebec. He was a lawman, but also a professional gambler and a gunfighter. You need a diverse skill set on the Old West.

1. Cheyenne
   Fury
2. "The Adventures of Kit Carson
   Rawhide

"Fury" was the name of the show and also the horse on the show who befriends a boy named Joey. Like Lassie but with hooves, Fury would find a way to save the day when trouble started brewing every episode.

1. Hopalong Cassidy
   Bonanza
2. Laredo
   Pony Express

"Hopalong Cassidy" was based on a character from short stories written in the early 1900s. The character got the nickname as a result of being shot in the leg, which makes it a weird mix of funny and rather insensitive.

1. Gun Shy
   Dead Man's Gun
2. Rango
   Guns West

"Dead Man's Gun" chose to follow the titular gun from episode to episode rather than any specific main character. It was a bit of a "Twilight Zone" type show as the gun seemed to be cursed and often brought bad luck to whoever owned it.

1. The Adventures of Kit Carson
   Sheriff of Cochise
2. Shotgun Slade
   Sugar Foot

"Sheriff of Cochise" started as a show about the sheriff of Cochise County, hence the clever name. The show was later changed to "United States Marshal" after Desi Arnaz Sr., who ran the studio, felt it would be better if the main character could travel all over the state of Arizona.

1. Zorro
   Bordertown
2. How the West Was Won
   The Cowboys

"Zorro" was one of several shows to bear the name, but this version began in 1990 and featured a pretty impressive array of guest stars including Jesse "The Body" Ventura, Andre the Giant, Adam West and Warwick "The Leprechaun" Davis.

1. Hell on Wheels
   Quick Draw
2. The Pinkertons
   The Lone Ranger

"Hell on Wheels" is supposed to follow the lives of those folks working on the railroad in a tent city. While the show takes place across the Great Plains, it was mostly filmed in Canada.

1. Sky King
   Johnny Ringo
2. Pony Express
   The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.

"The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." was an extremely quirky show that only lasted one season and featured Bruce Campbell from the "Evil Dead" series in the lead role. The show included elements of time travel and comedy, making it pretty rare for a Western.

1. Deadwood
   Bonanza
2. Gunsmoke
   Wagon Train

"Gunsmoke" ran from 1955 to 1975 and there were 635 episodes, which is a heck of a lot of TV. Of course, it has nothing on daytime dramas like "Guiding Light." That show was for 57 years. Toss in its origins as a radio show and it ran for 72 years. That's intense.

1. The Wild Wild West
   Zorro
2. The Young Riders
   Legend

"Legend" was another sci-fi Western that lasted a single season and featured John de Lancie as a kind of knock off Nikola Tesla character who creates unusual inventions and experiments while Richard Dean Anderson played a fraudulent hero.

1. The Virginian
   Wagon Train
2. Daniel Boone
   Laramie

"Wagon Train" was on for nearly 10 years from 1957 to 1965. It was centered around the idea of an actual wagon train traveling across the country and each episode focused on someone new in the train, which was a massive thing full of several thousand people.

1. The Deputy
   The Rebel
2. Paradise
   Sugarfoot

"Paradise" followed the story of Ethan Allen Cord and the four children left in his care by his sister. After two seasons, the show was tweaked and renamed "Guns of Paradise," but it wasn't enough to prevent the show's cancellation.

1. Kung Fu
   Casey Jones
2. The Magnificent Seven
   Wide Country

"The Magnificent Seven" was based on the movie of the same name, which in turn was a Western remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai." the show featured actors Michael Biehn, famous for his roles in "Aliens" and "Terminator" and Ron Perlman from "Hellboy."