Cheyenne : Season 3

I hadn't seen Cheyenne since it originally aired. I've been watching it now on Encore westerns and, after the first two seasons, I was thinking it could be the best western series ever. Then came season 3. The first wasn't bad but the next 3 were disappointing. One had Cheyenne singingon stagein a suit. The next was silly. And in the third he fell in love. I'll keep watching and hope this is just a brief lull in a otherwise good show.

This season likely aired around the time Warner Brothers was trying to reshape Clint Walker into a recording artist and movie star, a'la Ed "Kookie" Burns. It's not an excuse, but the closest to an explanation I can come.

We are like the dreamer who dreams and then lives in the dream

Thanks. That explains the singing episode. Not that he was a bad singer, it just seemed so out of character. When he was singing Beautiful Dreamer I half expected Mighty Joe Young to come up through the stage.
I never minded when networks would plug a singer in a comedy, like Jim Nabors or Shelley Fabre, but it just seems to me out of place here.

Two of my favorite episodes come later on in season 3The Empty Gun (with John Russell) and Ghost of the Cimarron.

I also thought Dead to Rights, The Last Commanchero, Noose at Noon, and The Angry Sky were pretty good from that season.

If you get to season 4, I'd recommend checking out Reprieve, The Imposter, Riot at Arroyo Seco, and Alibi for the Scalped Man.

I know what you mean about Cheyenne singing in The Conspirators. Most episodes in any series where the star plays a look-alike are usually pretty bad and this one was no different.

Unfortunately, if you've seen Maverick or Lawman on Encore Westerns, you'll recognize some of the season 3 scripts in Cheyenne. The Hired Gun was remade as The Substitute Gun on Maverick, and The Empty Gun and The Angry Sky were recycled for Lawman. Warner Brothers did this a lot, especially during the writer's strike in 1958.

Saw The Empty Gun last night and agree it was a good one. In fact, after the three earlier episodes I mentioned before, the show has returned to what I was enjoying the first 2 seasons: shootouts, Indians, Calvary, and desperados.
John Russell of Lawman fame was good as the aging gunfighter. I don't recall watching that many Lawman episodes, but I'll have to give it a try if Encore shows it again. The deputy from Lawman was also on a recently aired episode.
Hard to watch a Cheyenne episode without spotting a couple of familiar faces.

I agree with the OP point that this was one of the best westerns of the era. I was a child in the 1950s and thought The Rifleman and Flint Mccoulough on Wagon Train were the coolets cowboy heros, didn't care much for Cheyenne. But on second viewing in recent years it had pretty good scripts (wellfor THAT time period anyway)and WAS one the best westerns.