It was on in the 1960s and starred among others Barbara Stanwick and Linda Evans. I watched it in reruns after school as a kid. It was about a family of ranchers run by matriarch Victoria Barkley (Barbara Stanwick).
I think that it was sometimes a scary show. It was pretty serious in its themes and there seemed to me to be a lot of violence and total resentment directed toward the Barkley family because they were rich and influential …“Those high and mighty Barkleys! I’ll show those high and mighty Barkleys a thing er two!” That seemed to be what every villain in the show said at one time or another, before visiting pain and mayhem on the family.
Anyhow, I remembr two episodes in particular that really upset me.
One was when Nick Barkley, the Rambunctious Tough Brother, ended up for some reason in a Barbary Coast saloon (I think he was selling cattle), and was shanghaied. It was like, he was far from his family, fell among Bad People, and (at least until the end of the show), nobody knew where he was or could help him. Just the thought of going through something like that, when I was a kid, scared the crap out of me.
The other really scary episode was when Victoria Barkley was doing some kind of reform work to better conditions in a local womens’ prison. Somehow she snuck in as an “inmate”, a la Nellie Bligh, and her ruse was discovered while she was still inside the prison. Man, how they made her suffer. It was really horrible. I remember what the mean jailer dude said to Victoria on the way to the prison: “There’s only one way you get outta here once you’re in : in a box.”
But I loved the show anyhow and watched it as much as I could!
Does anybody else remember this show and have any fave episodes or comments they want to share?
Yeah, Jared was definitely the level-headed, calm one. Tall, dark and handsome. I remember that he was a lawyer. I agree, I liked him best. The daughter’s name was Audra and that was a cool horse. I’m betting they chose that horse because Audra was a blonde and it looked good with her hair!
As far as the show “Bonanza”, I didn’t watch it as much but I loved Hoss. He was sweet and goofy but could come through in a fight.
Oh, man, I remember that one! Yes, it was awful! Just thinking about it makes me hurt. Didn’t Nick go off by himself or something to die or tough it out? See, that show *was * scary!
The one that scared me was when the matriarch was tied up in the basement and some whackjob was trying to brainwash her with a color wheel. It almost worked but just before Victoria signed over the ranch she caught sight of the color wheel and went nuts and smashed it. May have set the house on fire.
Loved this show – I had a huge crush on Nick. My married last name is similar to ‘Barkley’ and I have always teased my son that I named him after ‘studly Nick Barkley.’
My son was home on leave in February, and I had an episode on DVR (it’s playing on the Encore Western channel and I watched it quite a bit during the writer’s strike). Anyway, I asked my Nick if he’d like to see his namesake and he responded, "“Studly Nick Barkley? Sure!”
The show is really dated now, although Nick is still cute as hell (as is Jared, who was my second favorite). Still lots of fun, though. I especially enjoyed the first few episodes when Heath joined the family – he was, as you’ll recall, Dad Barkley’s long-lost bastard son, who showed up on the first episode shortly after the dad died. I thought that was pretty edgy for TV in the mid '60s. Of course, they kind of dropped that whole mess later on, with him just being another one of the sons; even to the point of calling Victoria ‘Mother.’
The show also had a ‘Chuck Cunningham’ – youngest son, Eugene, who was a college student the first season and rarely mentioned after that.
Cool. I don’t remember that Heath was a half-brother and I totally don’t remember Eugene. Yeah, the Heath as a bastard son angle would have been pretty out there for that time. That’s also cool that your son is into the Studly Nick thing! Woohoo, more fans!
He rode a chestnut with three white socks named Sport for most of the show, but they brought in one with four whites near the end of his run, which I think was named Beauty.
In the opening credits, they gave the actor’s name and the charactor’s name (ie Peter Breck as Nick Barkley), they never listed Heath’s last name. It was always “Lee Majors as Heath”.
Bonanza geekery aside, I submitted a programming suggestion to TV Land about running more classic westerns. Right now they only run Bonanza and Gunsmoke, and both shows, daily. I wish they’d take the same “TV Land Goes West” timeslot and run a different western each day–say “Big Valley Monday”, “Rin Tin Tin Tuesday”, “Wagon Train Wednesday”, that kind of thing. Anyone know if any of these shows still air anywhere?
There was a game show in Catana, Sicily. If the, always a female, contestant answered a question wrong she had to take off a piece of clothing. The show was punctuated by “The Barkley Break”.
I remember enjoying the one where a bunch of thugs show up and interrupt a reception for Jared’s dinner guest, an old Army commanding officer of his. These guys terrorize the Barkleys, tie them up, threaten them, etc., etc., and start trying to get the old guy to admit he committed war crimes. Finally, the guy admits he did indeed commit war crimes of somesuch nature, and Jared turns to the thugs and in so many words says, “Good job, fellas.” It was all a set-up, with only Jared in on it. The rest of the family was pretty pissed at him, but I’m sure the show ended with good feelings all around. .
As a kid I love this show. I didn’t know about Stanwyck’s movie career, and it was quite a revelation when I saw this stately matriarch in her “bad girl” roles. Especially Double Indemnity.
Oh, the rough hewn Nick was the one for me, even though most of the other girls preferred Heath.
I remember a two-parter where they lifted the plot from The Wages of Fear–the Barkley boys had to drive wagons full of nitroglycerin over a mountain.
Another episode used a a well-worn plot: Victoria and Audra checked into a hotel in another town on business. When Victoria woke up the next day, every one in town denied ever seeing her daughter adn no trace of her could be found.
I remember a similar plot from Little House on the Prairie. And for some reason Bonanza was not rerun as frequently as Big Valley when I was growing up, so I saw many more episodes of Big Valley. (But the shows seemed very similar. Was Big Valley an attempt by a network at making a Bonanza-like show?)
