Wild West TV Week: The Big Valley

Day 3 of Wild West TV is upon us and we journey to California in Calaveras County, not to be confused with Calaveras Big Trees State Park.  This frontier land deals with the usual issues of cattle rustlers, bandits, revolutionaries and robber barons.  Only one woman can hold this family and ranch together.  This is The Big Valley.

Horse's killing my bionic butt.

Heath: Boy Howdy! I've got spoilers in places I didn't even know I had places.






Wealthy widow Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwyck of Meet John Doe, The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity, Sorry, Wrong Number, Crime of Passion, Wagon Train, Dynasty and The Colbys) owner of the Barkley Ranch is a stubborn, tough as nails yet refined lady in an uncivilized land.  Head of the household has to keep her land and family in order with a hybrid grace and guts. Her eldest son Jarrod (Richard Long of Matinee Theatre, House on Haunted Hill, Maverick, Bourbon Street Beat, 77 Sunset Strip and Nanny and the Professor) is a reknown and respected attorney who manages all the family's legal and business affairs and while prefers to side with the law on disputes was not above frontier law and drawing a gun when needed.  Audra the only daughter in this sea of testosterone (Linda Evans of Those Calloways,  Beach Blanket Bingo, Hunter, North and South, Book II and Dynasty) is pretty as a picture, a bit self-involved and a bit of a tomboy.

Ahh disembodied floaty hot head!!!

Last but certainly not least is the illegitimate son of the late Thomas Barkley, Heath (Lee Majors of Will Penny, The Virginian, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy, Tour of Duty, Raven, Trojan War and The Protector) a young man that claims on his mother's deathbed, she never bothered to tell his father of his existence (Thanks mom!) and he has to stake his claim in this family to be recognized as a Barkley.  With more than 30,000 acres to watch over you almost get the same feel as Bonanza but it does have enough episodes to stand alone if not a bit similar and Stanwyck is the glue of this show from her demure performance one minute to ironclad and hard hitting the next.

A few comments about the show now.  Apparently it is Hell being a Sheriff in this region as they went through more than 5 sheriffs in 4 seasons.  Originally there was a fourth Barkley son Eugene played by Charles Briles who was in 8 episodes for season 1 but in real life he was drafted by the U.S. Army and his character was written off as he went to college and was never mentioned again.  Not even a postcard or a drop-by with dirty laundry?

Lee Majors' portrayal of Heath is to this day deemed one of the most likable characters in TV history. For his level headed attitude to his steadfast loyalty to family and friends, Heath was a stand-up guy that you could depend on in a clinch.

With guest stars of Joe Don Baker, John Carradine, Claude Akins, Judy Carne, Charles Bronson, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Oates, Jack Lord, Kathleen Nolan and William Shatner, the popularity of this show had some of the highest Nielsen ratings.
In spite of those ratings, the show was canceled after 4 seasons due to network trying to steer away from Westerns and move to a more modern TV era.  Smooth move, CBS.  Bunch of dinks.

Oh great, clutch is stuck!

Western TV Week: Rawhide

Welcome back folks to Day 4 of Western TV Week and boy I sure do hope I haven’t caught you lot at the other end of the cracker barrel!  Yeah I can’t do old west colloquiums so sue me.  This fine day I thought we would saunter into a cattle drive with a stern but fair trail boss Gil Favor.  So throw a blanket on that horse before you saddle it, keep your gunpowder and your pants dry.  This is Rawhide.

 

Jeepers I hates this neckerchief!

 Gil Favor: It’s not the roundin’ up and the ropin’ and the branding of the spoiler that’s the big problem for ranchers. It’s getting’ ‘em to market-  fifteen hundred bone weary miles from the the southern tip of Texas to the railhead at Sedalia.

You know you are in good company with a fella name of Gil Favor (Eric Fleming of Joan of Arc. Conquest of Space, Fright, Queen of Outer Space and Curse of the Undead) one of the best dangnabbit trail bosses this side of the Ponderosa.   Carnswallot I can manage these comments!

Give us your lupines!!!

 With Gil is his trusted ranch hand and dead shot Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood of Ambush of Cimarron Pass, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, Hang ‘Em High, Where Eagles Dare, Kelly’s Heroes, Dirty Harry and City Heat) and Yates’ sidekick the cantankerous Wishbone (Paul Brinegar of Hell on Devil’s Island, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, The Vampire, Copper Sky, How to Make a Monster and Country Boy). As their new herds get in and across the lands, trouble always seems a brewing.  Plenty of cattle rustlers, card sharks and crooked politicians as much as the Cartwrights…the difference being our beef cattle hands were in a new location every episode.    Not to be sticklers on a tight schedule our riders would stop to help settlers from an Indian attack, farm folk that got jumped by raiders and the occasional silver miner that was flogged away from his claim.  

 

Here are just a few notes I made about the series.   This was the competition of Paramount as a Universal Studios production and it lasted 8 years and was the fifth longest running Western show next to exceeded only by 8 years of Wagon Train, 9 years of The Virginian, 14 years of Bonanza and 20 years of Gunsmoke.     The first 3 years of Rawhide were in glorious black and white and then Technicolor reared its evil head and ensnared the show.   Locations had to vary from the standard studio lots of Universal Studios as well as Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park and Simi Valley California for most of the trail shots.  Red Rock Canyon State Park got a fair amount of use during Indian raids against the cattle hands.  Yeah the portrayals of Native Americans from 1935 to 1975 are not the most flattering.    

Well cow, did I fire 6 times or only 5?

CBS Studio Center had a fair amount of sound stages for the local towns but just watch a few episodes and you will notice more than a few similar sets per town.   This is was a big career changer for Eastwood as at the time in question he was better known for Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns.