Wikipedia:WikiProject Westerns/Television/Sources

 Main Guidelines Assessment Sources 

There are some existing lists of sources deemed reliable through consensus by both the Television and Film wikiprojects. Where you will find information will depend on the type of Western show you are working on. The list of sources at the TV & Film projects will be more likely to provide information on more recent shows such as Longmire. The books listed below will be more likely to provide information on mid-century classic Westerns, such as Death Valley Days or Bonanza. The books listed include pre-formatted citation templates you can copy-paste. They also include links to where you can find them for reference.

Wikipedia prefers secondary sources. The use of primary sources should be minimized. Films and television episodes are primary sources for information about themselves for plot summaries, cast, and crew information, as long as the information is verifiable and without interpretation.

• Plot summaries, and other aspects of a program's content, such as its credits, may be sourced from the works themselves, as long as only basic descriptions are given. Exceptions to this include "lost" episodes (which are not available to the public to verify), for which editors are required to use secondary sources. Any content that is analytical, interpretive or evaluative should not be in the plot summary, unless it is necessary to clarify an unclear or contentious plot point, in which case it must be accompanied by a secondary source - from MOS:TVPLOT

Lists in other projects

There is a list of sources that the Television Project has deemed to be reliable through consensus. Note that most of these will provide sources of reliable information on newer programming, such as Yellowstone, or Justified, but for mid-century classic Westerns, you'll have better luck with the sources noted below (and others).

The general sources listed in the Film project are also considered to be reliable, and some of these sources cover television as well as film. These can be especially helpful when looking for sources on contemporary works for which there may not be as much academic source availability.

For radio information, Teblick has put together a list of resources for researching old time radio.

tvguide.com and epguides.com can be useful resources to locate air dates of television episodes.

General television

The following sources list almost every prime time television show in existence (with some rare exceptions). For citing broadcast dates and timeslots, as well as primary credits and a general synopsis (if needed), these are considered to be reliable sources. Both of these books are available at archive.org to be checked out and reviewed as needed (direct links provided). Preformatted citation templates are provided that you can easily copy/paste if needed.

• Brooks, Tim & Marsh, Earle F. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present (Ballantine Books, 2007)

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present at Google Books

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present at the Internet Archive

<ref name="Brooks_and_Marsh">{{Cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Tim|author-link=Tim Brooks (historian)|last2=Marsh|first2=Earle F.|title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present|publisher=[[Ballantine Books]]|year=2007|isbn=978-0-345-49773-4|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC}}</ref>

• McNeil, Alex. Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present (Penguin Books, 1996)

Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present at Google Books

Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present at the Internet Archive

<ref name="McNeil">{{cite book|last=McNeil |first=Alex |title=Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present |location=New York |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=0-14-02-4916-8 |date=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dctkAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>

• Hyatt, Wesley. The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television (Billboard Books, 1997)

The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television at Google Books

The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television at the Internet Archive

<ref name="Hyatt">{{Cite book |last=Hyatt |first=Wesley |title=The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television |date=1997 |publisher=[[Billboard Books]] |isbn=978-0-8230-8315-2 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6nx2QgAACAAJ }}</ref>

Western specific

The following sources are deemed to be reliable. While they may not list every television western ever made, there is a lot of information on most of the westerns made during the "golden age" of the TV Western. Some of these books are available at archive.org to be checked out and reviewed as needed (direct links provided). Preformatted citation templates are provided that you can easily copy/paste if needed.

• Magers, Boyd, and Michael G. Fitzgerald. Westerns women: interviews with 50 leading ladies of movie and television westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s (McFarland, 2004)

Westerns women: interviews with 50 leading ladies of movie and television westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s at Google Books

<ref name="Magers">{{Cite book |last=Magers |first=Boyd |last2=Fitzgerald |first2=Michael G. |title=Westerns Women: Interviews with 50 Leading Ladies of Movie and Television Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s |date=2004-07-01 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-0-7864-2028-5 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E2YvBhX8CZ0C&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover}}</ref>

• Marill, Alvin H. Television Westerns: Six Decades of Sagebrush Sheriffs, Scalawags, and Sidewinders (Scarecrow Press, 2011)

Television Westerns: Six Decades of Sagebrush Sheriffs, Scalawags, and Sidewinders at Google Books

<ref name="Marill">{{Cite book |last=Marill |first=Alvin H. |title=Television Westerns: Six Decades of Sagebrush Sheriffs, Scalawags, and Sidewinders |date=2011-06-01 |publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]] |isbn=978-0-8108-8133-4 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TrIspiOaqboC&newbks=0 }}</ref>

• Rollins, Peter, ed. Hollywood's West: the American frontier in film, television, and history (University Press of Kentucky, 2005)

Hollywood's West: The American Frontier in Film, Television, & History at Google Books

<ref name="Rollins">{{Cite book |last=Rollins |first=Peter C. |last2=O'Connor |first2=John E. |title=Hollywood's West: The American Frontier in Film, Television, & History |date=2005-11-11 |publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]] |isbn=978-0-8131-3855-8 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=suc99SBlbnEC&newbks=0}}</ref>

• Yoggy, Gary A. Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television (McFarland & Company, 1995)

Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television at Google Books

Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television at the Internet Archive

<ref name="Yoggy">{{Cite book |last=Yoggy |first=Gary A. |title=Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television |date=1995 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-0-7864-0021-8 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSzuAAAAMAAJ&newbks=0}}</ref>

• West, Richard Television Westerns, Major and Minor Series, 1946-1978 (McFarland & Company, 1987)

Television Westerns Major and Minor Series, 1946-1978 at Google Books

Television Westerns Major and Minor Series, 1946-1978 at the Internet Archive

<ref name="West">{{cite book|last=West|first=Richard|title=Television Westerns: Major and Minor Series, 1946-1978|date=1987|publisher=[[McFarland & Company]]|isbn=9780899502526|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Television_Westerns/O9VkAAAAMAA}}</ref>

Sources to be avoided

Any sites that are primarily user generated content and/or lack editorial oversight should be avoided. This includes IMDb, blu-ray.com, Fandom, Wikia, and others like them.