Any story set in [[TheWildWest the American West]] during the frontier era (from about 1840 to 1890).

Perhaps surprisingly, the Western genre is actually OlderThanTheyThink, having its roots in the 19th century "dime novels", meaning that like the gangster films of TheThirties it was usually pretty much contemporary with its source material. In fact no less a figure than [[TheGunslinger Wild Bill Hickok]] was already a star in dozens of embellished stories by the time he died in 1876. By the turn of the century a lot of the stock Western tropes had already been established in popular imagination.

Westerns made a very early leap to film with ''The Great Train Robbery'' in 1903, and remained popular throughout the next few decades, though their golden age truly arrived in the 1930s.

Enormously popular on TV and in the {{movies}} in the 1950s and 1960s: ''{{Gunsmoke}}'', ''{{Bonanza}}'', ''{{Rawhide}}'', ''{{Branded}}'', ''TheWildWildWest'', ''HaveGunWillTravel'', ''TheRifleman'', ''TheBigValley''...

Some of the more recent successful TV examples were ''GrizzlyAdams'' and ''DrQuinnMedicineWoman''.

Common plotlines include a CattleDrive, a TrainJob, and a BankRobbery.

There's a WantedPoster on every wall.

In recent decades the genre was only seen on TV in the form of its hybrid child the SpaceWestern, but it is now enjoying something of a revival with the success of ''{{Deadwood}}'' in 2004. Two networks, according to the British ''RadioTimes,'' have new series in development.

For series that use Western tropes but are set in the modern day, see NewOldWest.

A subtrope of PeriodPiece. See also WesternCharacters and SpaghettiWestern. Cross TheWestern with ScienceFiction, and you get CattlePunk.
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!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* ''[=~The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly~=]''.
* ''{{Shane}}''
* JohnFord is perhaps the most important director in the genre, responsible for must-watch films like:
** ''Stagecoach''
** ''SheWoreAYellowRibbon''
** ''TheSearchers''
* ''RioBravo''
* ''HighNoon''
* ''Film/TheMagnificentSeven''
* ''TheProposition'', a western set in Australia
* ''BackToTheFuture Part III'', sort of.
* ''YoungGuns'' and sequels
* ''{{Silverado}}''
* ''The Quick and the Dead''
** Both of them.
* ''TheWildBunch''
* ''TrueGrit''
* Deconstructions such as ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'' and ''Dead Man'', and parodies like ''Blazing Saddles''
* ''{{Tombstone}}''
* ''{{Unforgiven}}''
* {{YoungGuns}}

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

*''The Virginian'', the [[TropeMaker father]] of 20th-century Western literature.
* Almost every novel written by [[LouisLAmour Louis L'Amour.]]
* ''LonesomeDove''.
* ''Blood Meridian''.
* The DarkTower novels by Stephen King, most notably ''TheGunslinger, Wolves of the Calla'' and Roland's backstory in ''Wizards and Glass'', borrow extensively from this genre. The latter story even lampshades this when the other members of his ''[[{{Nakama}} ka-tet]]'' ask if the tale he's going to tell is a Western. A puzzled Roland replies that it does, indeed, take place in the Western Byronies...
*''{{Flashman}} and the Redskins'' by {{George MacDonald Fraser}}

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''{{Bonanza}}''
* ''{{Deadwood}}''
* ''{{Gunsmoke}}''
* ''LittleHouseOnThePrairie'' (also a FamilyDrama)

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]

* ''[[WerewolfTheApocalypse Werewolf: The Wild West]]''
* ''{{Deadlands}}''
* ''{{Champions}}'' supplement ''Western Hero''
* ''{{GURPS}} Old West''
* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aces_%26_Eights:_Shattered_Frontier Aces and Eights: Shattered Frontier]]'' by Kenzer and Company
* TSR's ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Hill_%28role-playing_game%29 Boot Hill]]''
* ''Sidewinder: Wild West Adventures'' (d20) by Citizen Games

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''CallOfJuarez''
* ''GUN''
* ''RedDeadRevolver'' and its upcoming sequel, ''Red Dead Redemption''
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