Westerns as American Fantasy
( NOTE: I previously recorded this as a response to the "Westerns: The Original American Fantasy Genre" episode of the Strangers and Aliens Podcast ) I never thought much about it before listening to the episode. As a Texan, I grew up with a great appreciation for the Western as a genre; that probably started with reruns of The Lone Ranger and other shows on TV. Speaking of The Lone Ranger , it started off as an Old Time Radio program. The creators also launched another OTR program that featured the great grand-nephew of the Lone Ranger: Brit Reid, also known as the Green Hornet As an adult, I've developed a fondness for the "Weird Westerns," which are Westerns that have been "nerd-troped" by taking the classic Western and adding supernatural, horror, sci-fi and straight up fantasy elements. The best examples of this are The Wild, Wild West TV show and Cowboys and Aliens . Looking at Western movies, especially those of John Ford, they em...