When TV shows found home on the AZ range

That's up to you to decide.

As part of our coverage leading into Arizona's centennial Feb. 14, we'll highlight several "bests" of our state.

Star staffers chose 10 finalists and now you, readers, will choose the five winners.

The voting deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. Cast your vote in the poll at left and watch clips from the shows. You can also find the poll at azstarnet.com/tvpoll

TV dial took us to real, fake locales

Five winners in each category will be revealed in our "Best of Arizona" section on Oct. 30.

• "The High Chaparral" gets double points for being shot at Old Tucson and for telling the story of a local, John Cannon.

Big John aimed to establish a cattle empire on his High Chaparral ranch near Tucson. He was helped by family, including his Sonoran wife, Victoria, and her brother. Among TV Westerns, it was rare in so regularly portraying the role of Hispanics in settling the Southwest.

"High Chaparral" also put Old Tucson on the map, so to speak, because it aired in more than 60 countries. Tourists came to have a look at the ranch set themselves, adding their dollars to those NBC spent filming the series here.

The show, which aired from 1967 through 1971, also did location work in Tombstone, Tubac, Nogales, Oracle and elsewhere in Arizona.

• "Alice" was filmed on a Burbank, Calif., soundstage, but the opening credits showed a sign in Phoenix for Mel's Diner, the greasy spoon where Alice Hyatt labored as a waitress.

The comedy aired nine seasons, beginning in 1976, and was nominated for eight Emmys.

There wasn't really a Mel's Diner while the show was on TV, but last year two Greek immigrants who had only recently seen reruns turned the building at 1747 NW Grand Ave. into Mel's Diner.

The most famous line from the show became a pop-culture favorite. What did the veteran waitress Flo say?

"Kiss my grits!"

• "The Young Riders" lasted three seasons - longer than the Pony Express agents the show portrayed.

Pony Express agents carried mail between Missouri and California before the Civil War. They got the work done, but the telegraph made their job obsolete within 18 months.

The 1989 show's ensemble cast included Josh Brolin as "Wild Bill" Hickok, who really had been a Pony Express rider. Brolin later portrayed George W. Bush in the movie "W" and the killer Dan White in "Milk," the latter an Oscar-nominated performance. Another actor on the series, briefly, was Melissa Leo as the owner of a Kansas station stop. She later won an Oscar for "The Fighter."

"The Young Riders" was shot at Old Tucson and Mescal, the latter a saguaro-free stand-in for the Great Plains.

• "Petrocelli" had plenty of Tucson scenes, even though viewers were told that lawyer Tony Petrocelli live in San Remo.

The show, which aired from 1974 through 1976, was shot in and around Tucson.

In the pilot, called "Night Games," Tony lived in a travel trailer at Mission San Xavier del Bac. For the next two episodes, he was in a mobile home at Canoa Ranch south of the city. Then he moved to the west side of the Tucson Mountains off Kinney Road.

Tony could be seen hanging around the domed Pima County courthouse and the police station. An episode shot at a cemetery prompted neighbors to call police with reports that people were running around in the night and shooting.

Actor Barry Newman played Petrocelli, whom he described as the Muhammad Ali of law, ready to take down the other man.

After "Petrocelli" ended, it was a long dry spell before another series was primarily shot in Tucson.

• "Hey Dude," a Nickelodeon action-comedy, put our city back on the air in 1989 with filming at Tanque Verde Guest Ranch.

Over three seasons, the show followed the adventures of teens who lived and worked at the fictional Bar None dude ranch.

They fought over girls, discovered a treasure map, told ghost stories, foiled robbers and learned to survive in the wild. It was all kids' stuff.

Or as old Star stories described it, "a kinder, gentler version of 'Beverly Hills, 90210,' " with physical humor akin to "The Three Stooges."

An unusual aspect of "Hey Dude" was that it cast two Tucson boys, Joe Torres, 17, and Josh Tygiel, 13, in recurring roles.

Tygiel, who now lives in Washington state, said recently that he considered it a fun and amazing experience, not realizing at the time that it was serious business for the adult actors and crew. The extras and most of the guest stars were also Tucsonans, he recalled, giving "Hey Dude" greater economic importance here and creating lasting memories for local actors.

Tygiel grew up in suburban Sabino Vista and had ridden horses once or twice at summer camp before he landed the role of Buddy, the son of Bar None's owner. Their ranch lifestyle is "an image that people still associate with the town," he said.

• "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" was filmed in California, but in the popular show, Rinty and his boy owner, Rusty, live at Fort Apache, Ariz.

The storyline was that Rusty was orphaned in an Indian attack and adopted by cavalry soldiers at the fort.

For five seasons between 1954 and 1959, the child and dog helped the troops fight Indians and outlaws. Rin Tin Tin, a German shepherd, was the star of the show, naturally.

Trivia tidbit: That other TV dog, Lassie, traveled to Arizona to film episodes in the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley.

• "26 Men" tells the story of the Arizona Rangers, a roving force of turn-of-the-century lawmen who arrested thousands of cattle rustlers, train robbers, killers and others.

The show lasted two seasons in the late 1950s and was filmed in and around Phoenix, mostly at Cudia City studio at 40th Street and Camelback Road. The studio is long gone, but check out DVDs of the show to catch a glimpse of the Camelback area, the Superstition Mountains and Pinnacle Peak.

Southern Arizona gets its due in the show, too, with episodes titled "Dead Man in Tucson" and "Panic at Bisbee."

Three former Rangers who had given the show permission to use their names in "26 Men" subsequently sued the producers, saying the series was "fictional, imaginative and false" and had humiliated them.

• "Medium," filmed in California but set in Phoenix, is the newest of our 10 finalists.

It ended this year after seven seasons in which Patricia Arquette played crime-solving psychic Allison DuBois.

DuBois, a real-life Phoenix woman, inspired "Medium," although she didn't work in the fake Phoenix District Attorney's Office, nor did she appear in the phony Mariposa County court. Still with us?

For legal reasons, the show had to avoid the real names - Maricopa County and its attorney's office.

And that episode where a sheriff makes jail inmates wear pink underwear? Another "inspired by" moment.

• "The Deputy" featured Henry Fonda as Simon Fry, chief marshal of the Arizona Territory in 1880.

Fonda, already a big star when the series debuted in 1959, narrated the show but appeared in just 25 percent of the episodes. That left him free to pursue other roles in movies and theater.

Marshal Fry was based in Prescott but often relied on his sidekick, Clay McCord, to keep the law in Silver City, a particularly rough town.

Many Arizona places are mentioned in "The Deputy," but it wasn't filmed here. That took place at Universal Studios and at the same Simi Valley, Calif., ranch where "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" was made.

Trivia lovers take note: "All in the Family" producer Norman Lear was co-creator of "The Deputy."

• "Annie Oakley," which debuted in 1953, was the first TV Western to have a female as a star, and Annie quickly became a hit.

She lived in the fictional town of Diablo, Ariz., with her little brother, Tagg, and their uncle, who was the town sheriff but rarely around.

Instead, it was up to pig-tailed Annie and the handsome deputy, Lofty Craig, to put the outlaws in their places. The show lasted for 81 episodes over three seasons.

Gene Autry said he cast actress Gail Davis as Annie because she was a triple threat - a good actress, rider and shot.

There was a "real" Annie Oakley and she achieved fame as a sharpshooter in traveling shows. That Annie was born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio in 1860.

A special nod to 'Bonanza,' mostly shot elsewhere

"Bonanza" doesn't make the cut for our top 10 list, but it deserves a mention for two reasons.

First, because it brought actor Michael Landon, aka Little Joe Cartwright, to Tucson, and he returned to film parts of "Father Murphy," "Little House on the Prairie" and "Highway to Heaven" here.

The show's Ponderosa Ranch was in the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe and most of its 430 episodes were shot in Nevada and California.

But trivia lovers take note: Eight episodes were filmed at Old Tucson, Mescal, Patagonia or Sabino Canyon, including the last show in the 14th and final season.