"The Big Valley" Night of the Executioner (TV Episode 1967) Poster

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9/10
Excellent script holds the viewers interest
kfo949423 October 2012
This episode was well written and well performed. It is one of those episodes that you will remember long after watching. A show that is worth seeing more times than once.

While Heath is traveling through a strange town, the town is in celebration mode as Congressman Oakley is set to visit. With the motel full, Heath spend the night outside of town. The next morning Heath sees a known outlaw named Jimmy Sweetwater (Dennis Hopper)just as the congressman is assassinated.

Later Heath runs into Sheriff Kincade and a town leader named Gabe Simmons. When Heath tells them he saw Sweetwater they advise that it could not be Sweetwater because he is locked up in the jail.

As Heath comes back into town he visits the jail. True enough Sweetwater is in jail. Plus Gabe Simmons advises that they have a confession from the town drunk about the murder.

As Heath does more investigation it becomes apparent that Simmons and the Sheriff are becoming upset. So now they accuse Heath of paying the drunk to kill the Congressman. Heath is locked up in a cell next to Sweetwater.

Simmons comes up with a scheme to kill Heath. He gets Sweetwater to fake an escape and take Heath with him. When outside they will shoot Heath and claim he was fleeing during an escape. But when the trap is played out, something goes terrible wrong for some of the players.

This is a show that is worth watching. A surprising gem.
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7/10
A carefully plotted assassination
bkoganbing5 September 2016
A lot of name guest stars appear in this Big Valley story about a carefully crafted plot to assassinate US Representative Harlan Warde. It seems as though town kingpin David Sheiner is mad about a bill that Warde is introducing setting aside a lot of open range for preservation. Then as now special interests are against that.

The only problem is that Lee Majors is passing through town and sees and hears certain things that might just gum up the works. Like the real paid assassin Dennis Hopper riding away from the scene when he should be locked up in jail. Majors and Hopper have some history before Majors arrived at the Barkley ranch.

Sheiner is really one malevolent and unscrupulous human being. But I like best of all Peter Whitney as his handpicked and most corrupt sheriff. Whitney's constant laughing will make your skin crawl.

This is a good one.
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9/10
What happened to evil Gabe Simmons in This Episode?
katanaguy28 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
A superb well written plot for this episode. Big Valley had it all for a western society setting back in those days except for all the constant gun play in almost each episode, yet writers had to do it to draw viewers to this series. Many episodes also contain good lessons for all of us and the responsibilities of our actions as well. The 1960's was must watch TV during that decade. It was a time for the creation of legendary movies and TV programming. I went from 9 through 18 yrs of age during those 10 years and learned many good lessons for my life ahead.

OK, I am requesting some help from above named episode from loyal fans of "The Big Valley"... in this episode what happened in final shoot-out scene to the evil Gabe Simmons character??....in every episode I have ever watched and I have indeed viewed them all (some several times)...the villain(s) has always been nabbed or shot or at least we knew what happened to him/her, however here we just do not know what happened to the key guest character- Gabe Simmons at the end. I have a pretty good guess though...any other Big Valley fans recall this episode and wonder what happened here the same as I do?
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