Annie Oakley

I watched a couple more episodes of Annie Oakley, a 1950's children's western. It's public domain and available on YouTube or on a number of streaming video channels.

It was shockingly violent.

In one episode, a little girl watched her father being murdered by two men, then the horses pulling the wagon she's in panic and run until the wagon rolls over. She's blinded in the accident. Then the killers come to kill her because they think she can identify them,

In another episode, Alan Hale, Jr, who had long wavy hair, kidnaps and clearly intends to murder Annie'a little brother, Tagg.

It would have been a pretty good show except that Annie Oakley, the star of the show and expert marksman, never shoots anyone. She'll shoot guns out of their hands, she'll shoot light fixtures so they'll drop on people's heads, she'll shoot the dirt in front of them so they'll get some in their eyes, but she won't simply shoot them even when they're trying to kill her or her brother.

There was less extreme but completely gratuitous violence. A cowboy becomes enraged at Tagg for spilling lemonade on him. He berates him and threatens to spank him, so the sheriff step in and the two grown men start fighting. And this had nothing to do with the plot and didn't even affect the subplot.

In another, the kid is sitting in a wash tub. The soap slips out of his hand and slides across the floor. Annie Oakley picks it up and throws it at him and hits him in the face.