In 1958, Eastwood was cast as Rowdy Yates for the CBS hourlong western series "Rawhide", the career breakthrough he had long sought. Eastwood was not especially happy with his character; Eastwood was almost 30, and Rowdy was too young and cloddish for Eastwood's comfort. Filming began in Arizona in the summer of 1958. It took just three weeks for "Rawhide" to reach the top 20 in TV ratings and although it never won an Emmy, it was a major success for several years, and peaked at number six in the ratings between October 1960 and April 1961. The "Rawhide" years (1959–65) were some of the most grueling of Eastwood's career, often filming six days a week for an average of 12 hours a day, but some directors still criticized him for not working hard enough. By late 1963, "Rawhide" was beginning to decline in the ratings and lack freshness in the scripts; it was canceled in the middle of the 1965–66 season. Eastwood made his first attempt at directing when he filmed several trailers for the show, but was unable to convince producers to let him direct an episode. In the show's first season Eastwood earned $750 an episode. At the time of "Rawhide"s cancellation, he received $119,000 an episode as severance pay.