Best Episode in My Not-Quite-Favorite Western

If you asked me to list my top-five favorite TV Westerns, then Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel and The Rifleman would always be on the list. The other two spots might actually rotate between a few others such as Wild, Wild West, early seasons of Bonanza, Wagon Train, Maverick, and a few others.

The Big Valley, which ran for four seasons from 1965 to 1969, would not quite crack that Top Five in my mind. It was often an excellent show, with Barbara Stanwyck doing her usual superb job as an actress as Victoria Barkley, the matriarch of a wealthy family in California. And the rest of the cast was good, with the personalities of Victoria's adult children playing well off of each other.

I think it drops a couple of points in my mind because it worked so hard to maintain the status quo. Nothing could every change, so if one of the Barkleys fell in love--well, you might as well paint a target on their loved one's back. That person is going down. The Barkleys suffered heavily from the Cartwright Curse. None of them could ever move on as adults, form healthy relationships with a potential spouse, and get married. Oldest brother Jarrod actually did get married in one episode. She was dead before the first act ended.

Now in some shows maintaining the status quo is appropriate. Despite its long run, Gunsmoke was correct in never having Matt Dillon and Kitty officially get together; and in keeping Dodge City stuck in the Old West even after decades had passed. That show was a rarity in striking gold with just the right dynamic between characters and setting.

But Big Valley, like Bonanza eventually did, suffered from never having any real character growth. In both shows, introducing a new character in the form of a wife (or a husband for Audra Barkley) would have given a freshness to the show. And, since they lived in a huge mansion, the married sibling could have still lived there and been easily available get involved in any episode. Of course, all this would have been dependent on introducing a new character that would have meshed with the rest of the cast, but if the new cast member didn't work out, he or she could always get shot later.

I'm also a little annoyed that the youngest brother, Eugene, simply ceased to exist after the first season. If I remember correctly, the actor who played him went into the military, but there was no need for the character to vanish. Eugene was usually back east at college and an occasional mention of him would have been nice.

But individual episodes were indeed often excellent, so perhaps my criticism isn't a fair one. In fact, "Court Martial," which aired during the show's second season on March 6, 1967, is outstanding.

Nick and Heath (two of the Barkley brothers) are away on a cattle drive when a retired Union general (played by veteran character actor Henry Jones) visits the ranch to buy beef for the army. Soon after, five Confederate veterans break in, taking General Alderson hostage along with Jarrod, Victoria and Audra.

Their motive is revenge, though they call it justice. They accuse Alderson of ordering a Southern town to be wiped out during the war and slaughtering 16 civilians. Alderson doesn't deny the massacre happened, but claims it was the work of drunken, green troops acting without orders.

Nick and Heath get back early and are also captured. Nick had been Alderson's aide at the time of the massacre, so when the Confederates decide to hold an impromptu trial, Nick is facing the hangman's noose along with Alderson.

It's a well-written and tautly directed episode, steadily building tension as the story progresses. The script does a great job of giving all the characters definable personalities and the acting is exceptional. Henry Jones and Peter Breck (as Nick) are particularly on their game here. Even Lee Majors, who was sometimes a little stiff as Heath, puts strong emotion into his lines when he believes Nick and the general are going to be hanged.

There's a wonderful twist at the end--one I can't hint at without spoiling it if you haven't seen the episode. But it is one of my favorite twist ending ever.

So The Big Valley doesn't quite break into my Top Five. But my criticisms of it are with the unchanging nature of the overall premise, not with the individual episodes. So I think we can safely ensconce it in my Top Ten.