Riders in the Sky - Professional moniker for a group of country western singers that starred on the Saturday morning children's program RIDERS IN THE SKY/CBS/1991-92. The Riders in the Sky consisted of the mustachioed Too Slim, (Fred LaBour), the comical Man of Many Hats who played the bass fiddle; Ranger Doug (Douglas Bruce Green), the Idol of American Youth, a yodeling, old fashioned cowboy hero who played the guitar; and Woody Paul (Paul Woodrow Chrisman), a dimwitted King of the Cowboy fiddlers known as the man with the "eight-gallon head and in a ten-gallon hat."

Set on Harmony Ranch in the Tumbleweed Valley, their program  combined live-action, puppets, cartoons, films and guest stars. The Riders popular catchphrase was "It may be the easy way, but it's not...the Cowboy way."

The talented trio of singer musicians originally met in the late 1970s at a Nashville softball field. Before their big break, each worked at all sorts of odd jobs. Ranger Doug who was a country-music historian with a Master's in literature from Vandervilt University sold freelanced stories and chopped wood; Too Slim who earned a wildlife management degree at University of Michigan was a Nashville songwriter, storyteller, and singer; and Woody Paul who had earned a doctorate in physics from MIT repaired Volkswagen engines.

However, their mutual love of the old cowboy tunes inspired by the cool, classic harmonies of the likes of the Sons of the Pioneers, soon fused them into the Riders in the Sky. The group's successful National Public Radio program "Riders Radio Theater" was the inspiration for their CBS children's television program and later RIDER'S RADIO THEATER: THE TELEVISION SHOW on the TNT Network.  

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