What makes it different from others?

Perfect cast and a good story

Just so...so bad

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

I love this series and have been very disappointed it is no longer on Inspirational channel. I guess I will have to buy the DVD'sAll of the typical guest stars of the 60's come in and out the show and makes for very interesting story lines.

With no less than the presidential imprimatur of Theodore Roosevelt on the novel by his good friend Owen Wister, many consider The Virginian to be the first realistic western novel. Before that the rather discredited prose of people like Ned Buntline dominated the field and none of their 'literature' survives today.This television series takes the basic characters of The Virginian, Trampas, Steve, and Molly Wood from the novel and makes them all friends. The guys are foreman and his two best buddies all working at Shiloh Ranch. They're played by James Drury, Doug McClure, and Gary Clarke. Pippa Scott plays Molly Wood, school teacher in the novel, but in the TV series newspaper editor of the Medicine Bow periodical. The Shiloh ranch is owned by Judge Garth who lives there with his daughter Roberta Shore. That's how it started but regulars came and went. The Shiloh ranch changed hands first to John McIntire and his real life wife Jeanette Nolan. Later on it went to Stewart Granger and the series changed its name to Men Of Shiloh as the women regulars were all eliminated. And we never learned what The Virginian's real name was or his past as in the novel.The Virginian had the distinction of being the first 90 minute series on television. It must have been grueling shoot, it's like shooting several feature films in a year. It also had some name guest stars like that other series from Revue Productions Wagon Train.The Virginian ran for 9 seasons before NBC pulled the plug. But in that time it gave us good and memorable television western shows.

I'm a new fan. A lot of the shows finally airing on Encore or TvLand I've never seen. I'm glad I came home early one day & got the tail end of an episode of the Virginian. The characters grab you quick. It's hard not to be drawn in by James Drury's portrayal of The Virginian. His good lucks, ultra polite manners & always doing the right thing is wonderful. I really don't grow tired of watching this show. I bought Season I & II & often times take them with me to work & listen to them at my desk on a portable DVD player. Any time I bring the Virginian DVD's I end up with a passel of coworkers who drag their lunches & chairs into my office & offer to share lunch if they can watch with me during lunch hour!! Even some of the youngsters get drawn in & say, "Man, he's a cool dude" :) It's nice to be able to sit down & watch something that there are no age limit to who can watch. My husband's young grandson all the way up to my 88 yr old Grandma love it.And how many modern shows can you let the kiddies & adults without worrying that anyone would be offended??? I don't know if this is a spoiler or not but the abrupt cast changes left our household a little upset but so long as James Drury's in there we hope they keep putting the whole show out on DVD because the show is much loved & will be watched & shared for many years to come!!!! It's highly recommended viewing. I love Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Loredo, Cheyenne, The Daniel Boone Series & now The Virginian is fast becoming my favorite! Every time I watch I fall a little more in love with The Virginian.

This was an ambitious series, which made use of first class actors and magnificent location photography.In its early years the series had five main characters: Judge Garth, owner of Shiloh, a great cattle ranch in Wyoming; his innocent young daughter Betsy; the Virginian, his heroic foreman; and two likeable ranch hands, Trampas and Steve. The relationships between these five, as they were developed and tested, provided the most affecting and amusing moments.The series gave us strong, intelligent stories, which could be tragic or light-hearted, and often the direction was imaginative, sometimes even poetic. Issues such as injustice through prejudice, individual responsibility and the necessity for compromise were explored, and 'Shiloh' came to stand for the virtues of tolerance, compassion, courage and optimism. Compared with earlier Western series, The Virginian was amazingly deep yet subtle.As the series ran on over the years it created a hopeful vision of a society slowly progressing towards order and peace.