The Virginian can be an American tv show starring Doug McClure and James Drury, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 events. It was a series. Filmed in color, The Virginian became the earliest 90-minute american show of television. Immensely successful, it conducted for fourteen days --television's third longest running western. It follows Gunsmoke at 635 events and twenty five seasons, and also Bonanza at 430 episodes and two days.