Bronco Lane was the first film character I truly liked. It was a good series that should have lasted longer than the 3-4 it was on TV. The biggest mystery is why Ty Hardin did not have a longer film career. He was a good looking actor who seemed to do well in everything he did. However, for whatever reason, he was out of the business by 1970.I believe he is still alive and like Robert Fuller, James Drury, Robert Fuller, and Clint Walker still has a loyal fan following. Another surprise is none of their career's lasted into the 1980s.

Bronco was a western television series that got rushed to market when Clint Walker walked out on Cheyenne during a contract dispute with Warner Brothers. It's star was one Orville Whipple Hungerford, III, better known to us kids as Ty Hardin.Hardin certainly didn't have the looming presence of 6'6" Clint Walker as Cheyenne, but he was a more than adequate western hero. Bronco Lane was a wanderer and in the course of this Confederate veteran's western wanderings he ran into a whole lot of famous true western legends. Warner Brothers was doing something that all the studios did with their westerns back in the day, mixed their cowboy heroes with stories real western personalities.When Clint Walker came back and Cheyenne resumed production, Bronco was sort of like a spare tire that became a fifth wheel in the Warner Brothers western shows. It was on for a few seasons and dropped. It's star got a few good movie roles and then dropped out of sight.Years ago I read that Hardin got involved in some really far right wing politics. I mean John Birch Society style right wing. I'm not sure if that drove casting directors to pass him by or did he get involved in that blaming his fading career on the Communists. Either way it's kind of a sad story.But I still remember that theme song, "Bronco, Bronco, Tearing Across The Texas Plains, Bronco, Bronco, Bronco Lane."

This one goes back a long time. Anyone who remembers the show must be really old. For reasons I do not understand it was never rerun here in Germany. So it is a good age tester. The only thing I remember is that Bronco Lane used to drink water out of his hat. And that I liked it a lot. The fondest and saddest memory is this. I must have been 8 or 9 at the time when a friend told me that his parents just bought a color TV. I said what do you mean "Color?". He said that in it the movies are colored. I told him he was an idiot, of course everything was colored. Well, I went back home switched TV on and yes, Bronco was running and everything was black and white. I could not believe it. I had never noticed before. That was the day when color left my TV life. For a long time at least. (I wonder when I realized that movies were only two-dimensional.)Years later when my family finally bought a color TV I did not like it and to this day I prefer black and white films to colored. And at least with certain TV series like "The Fugitive" that was colored in later seasons I turn off the color.

Some may have thought of "Bronco" as sort of a poor man's "Cheyenne," but it was a good series in its own right with a pleasant, "outdoorsy" quality that stressed action and adventure over gunplay and violence. It also boasted as its star a likeable actor named Ty Hardin who seemed to have a lot going for him: good looks, rugged physique, winning personality. He displayed a nice flair for comedy in "The Chapman Report" and did well dramatically in a modest movie called "Wall of Noise" but, for some reason or other, soon faded into obscurity. Hey, Ty, you're missed!