Line #19 Main/Rancher


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3	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples are not allowed, and have been commented-out.
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5	%% Please add context before uncommenting anything. Try and explain how the characters act, not just that they are in fact a rancher.
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13	A rancher is the owner of a ranch, a spread of land where animals are raised. In TheWestern, usually this is cattle, but sheep, chicken and (in the modern day) ostriches are all potential ranches.
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15	The Rancher employs the {{Cowboy}}, CampCook and other ranch workers. He (or sometimes she) is the equivalent of a business owner in a more urban setting. They generally will dress a little better than their employees, but not too much--most ranchers are hands-on to some degree, and need to be able to do anything an ordinary cowboy could. Indeed, many a cowboy has the ambition of gaining a ranch of his very own.
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17	In fiction, the larger the ranch is, the more likely the rancher is to be the bad guy of the story. This is not a hard and fast rule (the Cartwrights of ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'' have an immense spread, but are salt of the earth types), but that's the way to bet. If the rancher owns several ranches, or one big enough to count as its own feudal country, they become a CattleBaron.
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19	"Saving the ranch" is a common plotline for Westerns, especially in B-movies, as a couple of bad years could put a small rancher on the verge of bankruptcy.
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21	!!Examples:
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23	[[AC:ComicBooks]]
24	* One ComicBook/ThePunisher WhatIf story was set in the late 19th century, with Frank working for a cattle baron when his family was killed by rustlers. [[spoiler:Naturally, the rustlers were working for said baron.]]
25	* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Etta's parents Hard and Sugar Candy are ranchers in Texas. Most of their ranch hands are originally from Mexico and Hard is always dressed much nicer--though still in western duds with a cowboy hat--than his workers. They also have a couple of oil wells on the property and the ranch borders an oil field.
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27	[[AC:Fan Works]]
28	* The ''plaas'' where sisters Johanna and Mariella Smith-Rhodes were brought up in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal is pretty much a ranch: quite a few square miles of [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondaland]] belonging to their father, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Barbarossa]] [[PapaWolf Smith-Rhodes]]. It sets the scene for how two Boer girls had the strength and aptitude to become career Assassins. And how a sort of "South African" came to add to the interesting and volatile ethnic mix in Ankh-Morpork.
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30	[[AC:{{Film}}]]
31	%% * The ranch owner who needs the CattleDrive done in ''Film/CitySlickers''
32	%% * ''Film/TheJourneyOfNattyGann'' (minor characters)
33	%% * Joe Bannock in ''Literature/ATownLikeAlice''.
34	%% * ''Film/TheCowboys'': Wil Andersen has to hire young boys when his cattle drivers head for the gold fields.
35	%% * ''Film/BigJake'': The [=McCandles=] ranch is run over by a gang of cutthroats.
36	%% * ''Film/{{Chisum}}'': Very loosly based on the Lincoln Country War.
37	%% * ''Film/{{McLintock}}'': George Washington [=McLintock=]
38	%% * ''Film/TheManWhoShotLibertyValance'': Tom Doniphon had a small ranch.
39	* Dan Evans in ''Film/ThreeTenToYuma2007'', who takes a job escorting a criminal so he can help support his ranch.
40	%% * Beans in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'' owns a ranch that the mayor of town wants to purchase from.
41	%% * Bick Benedict in ''Film/{{Giant}}''.
42	* Homer Bannon, the family patriarch in ''Film/{{Hud}}'' (1963), which is set in the NewOldWest (i.e., the modern day). Homer's catttle ranch is put in dire peril when the specter of foot-and-mouth disease raises the possibility that the whole herd will have to be put down.
43	* In ''Film/TheManFromKangaroo'', Greythorn owns a large cattle station near Kalmaroo. He initially invites John to become TheVicar in Kalmaroo, and then gives him a job as a jackaroo when John has a crisis of faith and quits the ministry.
44	* In ''Film/CoronerCreek'', Della Harms is a widow who is determined that will not be driven off the ranch her husband left her by her neighbour Younger Miles. Although she gives the impression of being TheDitz, she is actually much tougher and wilier than most people give her credit for.
45	* Much of the plot of ''Film/TheBullOfTheWest'' is driven by friction between between the various ranchers outside of Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Judge Garth and Georgia Price are big enough to qualify as {{Cattle Baron}}s.
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47	[[AC:Jokes]]
48	* A New Yorker visits a Texan rancher. The rancher starts boasting:
49	-->"In the morning I can get in my Jeep, turn the key, hit the accelerator, and by lunchtime I'm ''still'' on my land!"\
50	The New Yorker nods sympathetically:\
51	"Tell me about it. [[TheAllegedCar My car has trouble starting too]]."
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53	[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
54	%% * The Western novels of Creator/JTEdson:
55	%% ** 'Ole Devil' Hardin.
56	%% ** John Slaughter.
57	* The SciFi novel ''{{Literature/Malevil}}'' has an interesting example. Before WorldWarIII, the main character is a rural French rancher who expands his property to include an old castle. He keeps the usual livestock and grazing land but also stables some his animals in a cave under the keep. He also runs a vineyard, produces wine, and had plans to reopen the castle to tourists.
58	%% * Luke Fletcher in ''Literature/{{Shane}}'' is an example of the BigBad Rancher.
59	* ''Literature/StarWarsKenobi'': Orrin Gault owns the largest spread of land in the Pika Oasis, and as the organizer of the Settlers' Call {{posse}}, is the unofficial leader of the local moisture farmers. His impression of genial first-among-equals wealth is [[spoiler:a front; he's heavily in debt and is embezzling from the Call to stave off his creditors]].
60	* The titular ''Literature/MartinFierro'' owned his own spread of land, while he worked for el patrón (a CattleBaron), so he was a relatively rich guy before all these misfortunes fell on him.
61	* In ''Literature/RiverOfTeeth'', Houndstooth's DarkAndTroubledPast includes having been a hippo rancher, the most talented at breeding hippos in all of the United States. It had taken him fifteen years to safe up for his own ranch and then several more to build it up to its eventual size and reputation. [[spoiler:The ranch was then burned down by Cal Hotchkiss who had run over to Travers.]]
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63	[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
64	%% * The Cartwright family of ''{{Series/Bonanza}}'', as mentioned above, provided that Ben doesn't slip into outright CattleBaron territory.
65	%% * In one ''Series/MagnumPI'' episode there is a teenage rancher who needs our heroes' help.
66	%% * The Kents' farm in ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' is an important element.
67	%% * In order, Judge Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Col. [=MacKenzie=], owners of the Shiloh Ranch in ''Series/TheVirginian'' (later ''TheMenFromShiloh'').
68	%% * On ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' Malcolm Reynold's mom ran a ranch.
69	%% * ''Series/TheRanch''. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, Beau Bennett and his sons own a failing ranch.
70	* ''Series/BlackSaddle'': In "Client: [=McQueen=]", Clay's client is a retired senator who owns the biggest ranch in Texas and who is being bilked out of his property by his daughter and his adopted son.
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72	[[AC:TabletopGames]]
73	* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'': The ideal Aslan noble family owns a ranch. As Aslan are a ProudWarriorRace the male is supposed to hold it by virtue of his status as a [[ARealManIsAKiller Real Man.]]
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75	%% [[AC:WesternAnimation]]
76	%% * Peggy's dad in ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' is a cattle rancher who lives in Montana.
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Context Main / Rancher