Why I Write Westerns
by Richard Lapidus on 02/12/15
In the 1950s and 60s when I grew up, there was no internet. We only had t.v. But it was black and white, and there were no remote controls. We had to get up and manually change the channels, of which there were only a handful, as there was also no cable or satelite.
In those days we watched westerns. There were dozens of them, and I loved them all. And most homes only had one t.v. set, so the family had to agree on what programs to watch. Many times that meant deciding on which western to watch as networks competed for market share with westerns against westerns. As this was many years before VCRs, CD players, DVRs, etc., the programming decisions were final.
Ultimately the choice of western didn't matter. They were all fun to watch, even though the forces of good always triumphed over the evil rustlers, robbers or murderers.
And that's why many of us who grew up in a city instead of in a small town or on a ranch love to write westerns today. Westerns are branded in our consciousness.
