Tumbleweed Theater

**Tumbleweed Theater** was an anthology television series hosted by western swing band Riders In The Sky, which premiered on March 8th, 1983 on The Nashville Network. The series was a weekly showcase of public domain "B-Western" films of the 1930s and 40s, with the Riders providing songs and sketches in-between portions of the film. Three seasons (comprised of 26 episodes) of new material were produced between 1983 and 1985, but a fourth and fifth season were created in 1986 and 1987 using recycled segments.

## Overview

Episodes of *Tumbleweed Theater* followed a regular formula: the show would open with one of the Riders welcoming the viewers and informing them of the film which was going to be presented. This was followed by two songs (most of which had some loose connection to the theme or setting of the film). After a commercial break, the Riders (or "guest characters" like Sergent Dudley or Sidemeat) would be inside the bunkhouse of the famed ol' Triple X Ranch and give a short history of the film or the actors involved, and the movie would begin. Throughout the 90 minuet program, skits (such as an advertisement from L. Philo "Larry" Mammoth) would be interjected before or after commercial breaks. Some of the skits followed a loose storyline throughout the episode, but a majority were independent of each other.

## Production

The series was conceived in 1982 by television writer/producer Steve Arwood of Celebration Productions and Elmer Alley, director of programming of the then-upcoming Nashville Network, during a meeting regarding a scrapped "outdoor" show Celebration Productions was in charge of creating. Alley had previously rejected a pitch from the Riders themselves after viewing a poor-quality "pilot"/concert film which the group had filmed at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (with Buddy Spicher and Kathy Chiavola), but talking with Arwood, he commissioned another pilot be produced. This second pilot show was written by Arwood and the Riders, and included both songs and sketches (as the first purely consisted of music), but featured no guest stars.

Filming began in January, 1983, and took place over a course of three weeks. The show's original opening (depicting Ranger Doug and Woody Paul on horseback riding through a grassy valley as Too Slim drove a Studebaker pick-up truck) was filmed at the Longhorn World Championship Rodeo Ranch in Whites Creek, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. Two sets were constructed inside WSMV Studios for the first season, one was a small cattle corral with a stage at the center (for the musical segments), and the other was the interior of the Triple X Ranch bunkhouse. Other simplistic one-color backdrop sets were also used, and the bunkhouse could be converted into the "frontier outpost" set or Larry Mammoth's office. Woody Paul and Too Slim composed the show's theme song, and an introductory narration was recorded by Nashville announcer and WSM radio talk show host Chuck Morgan. A total of 26 episodes were produced for the first season.

The Nashville Network launched on Monday, March 7th, 1983, with it's first program being a five-hour live broadcast hosted by Ralph Emery at 8 o'clock at night. Riders In The Sky appeared late into the special (around 12:30 AM on March 8th) to promote the show and played a clip of them performing *Back In The Saddle Again* on the "corral" set. *Tumbleweed Theater* had it's official full premiere later that week on Saturday the 12th. The show aired new episodes on Saturday evenings, which were rebroadcasted early Sunday mornings.

For the show's second and third season, production moved from WSMV Studios to the Gaslight Theater building at the Opryland theme park. The move allowed for a new set to be built: the exterior of the Triple X Ranch, which would replace the "corral" as the new location for the show's music sequences. While many of the early episodes would be written by the Riders and one or two others, Steve Arwood and Too Slim became the primary writers by the time production ended in 1985.

By 1986, Riders In The Sky were now under the management of David Skepner, the former manager of Loretta Lynn. The new director of programming for The Nashville Network, Paul Corbin, did not like Skepner and chose to end production of *Tumbleweed Theater*. A fourth and fifth season would be created using re-edited material from the first three years of the show. After Season Five had run it's course by April of 1987, *Tumbleweed Theater* was removed from TNN's line-up and replaced with *Gene Autry's Melody Ranch Theater* and *Roy Rogers' Happy Trails Theater* in the Saturday afternoon time slot. The Riders would bring many of the characters and sketches originally created for the show over to their weekly *Riders Radio Theater* series beginning in 1988.

## Trivia

* Each episode had a budget of $7,500 (or $20,655 in 2021).

## See Also

* *Tumbleweed Theater* episodes
* Images from *Tumbleweed Theater*