The Tall Man (1960-62)

These are brief excerpts from one of 23 films and television series ostensibly about Billy the Kid. Below the analysis of this source are links to clips from and a bit of analysis of other dramas about the outlaw/hero. Less important than any facts or legends that may be found or debunked in these sources is the suggestion that our views of Billy have evolved through the years and that these media may tell us as much or more about the eras in which they were produced than about the historical characters and times portrayed.

NBC managed to air 75 episodes of "The Tall Man" between 1960 and 1962. The series featured a number of historical characters as well as leads Barry Sullivan as Sheriff Pat Garrett and Clu Gulager as Billy the Kid. Rancher John Tunstall, New Mexico Territorial Governor Lew Wallace, and "Doc" Holliday also make appearances. Gulager's Billy, like Paul Newman's in 1958's "The Left Handed Gun", is a rebel without a cause, or like Marlon Brando in 1953's "The Wild One", who, asked what he was rebelling against, answered, "What do you got?" The series narrator insists Garrett's "only weakness [was] his love for a half wild boy," Billy, and the series telegraphs in its first episode the leads' eventual showdown - Garrett will hunt down and kill the Kid - but fails to deliver it as the series ends with Pat and Billy riding out of town together, their fates left hanging. A New York Times critic called the series "unimaginative tripe" and Gulager's Billy "a Kookie of the sagebrush", clearly a reflection of middle class parents' anxieties about the rebellious youth culture of the 1950s and early 1960s.

The quotes from the New York Times can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tall_Man....

Billy the Kid (1930)    • Billy the Kid  - 1930  
Billy the Kid Returns (1938)    • Billy the Kid Returns (1938)  
Billy the Kid Outlawed (1940)    • Billy the Kid Outlawed (1940)  
Billy the Kid (1941)    • Billy the Kid (1941)  
Fugitive of the Plains (1943)    • Billy the Kid in Fugitive of the Plains (1...  
The Outlaw (1943)    • The Outlaw (1943)  
I Shot Billy the Kid (1950)    • I Shot Billy the Kid (1950)  
The Law vs. Billy the Kid (1954)    • The Law vs  Billy the Kid (1954)  
The Parson and the Outlaw (1957)    • The Parson and the Outlaw (1957)  
The Left Handed Gun (1958)    • The Left Handed Gun (1958)  
The Tall Man (1960-62)    • The Tall Man (1960-62)  
Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966)    • Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966)  
Chisum (1970)    • Chisum (1970)  
Dirty Little Billy (1972)    • Dirty Little Billy (1972)  
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)    • Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)  
Lucky Luke vs. Billy the Kid (1984)    • Billy the Kid vs. Lucky Luke (1984)  
Young Guns (1988)    • Young Guns (1988)  
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)    • Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)  
Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid (1989)    • Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid (1989)  
Young Guns II (1990)    • Young Guns II (1990)  
The Kid (2019)    • The Kid (2019)  
Old Henry (2021)    • Old Henry (2021)  
Billy the Kid (2022)    • Billy the Kid (2022)