This episode centers around oldest son, Adam (Pernell Roberts) and his relationship with local widow, Laura Drayton (Kathie Browne - who was married to Darren McGaven) who he is sweet on. The tension builds when Laura hires Ward Bannister (Peter Breck) as her ranch manager. For fans of Roberts, who exited the series early, this was a decent episode. Horse (soap) opera at it best. I always found Roberts to be an interesting character on the show, the only one of the Cartright boys who appeared to have the same brooding nature of his pa, Ben. They even looked alike. Roberts, too, could be menacing at times, like Ben, which added an interesting dimension to his character. Sure, Hoss could get ugly, but there was something in Adam's dark features that reflected the same sort of determined empire-building ruggedness that was Ben Cartright. Browne was feature as Laura Dyaton in six episodes. She was a solid performer. Cute as a button.
2 Reviews
Echoing what I said on the other review that introduced Laura
glitterrose10 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Kathie Browne is an excellent actress and I don't mean to make it sound like I'm bad mouthing her. She's playing a weak character and she's doing the best with what she can with the material and I can respect that. But the end of the day, Laura is a VERY weak character.
I noticed the snippet for what the episode was about and couldn't really picture Adam being THAT critical. And turns out he's not. He's a kind gentleman and he's trying to help. He's not copping attitude or treating Laura like she's an idiot. The stuff she wasn't doing was pretty common sense stuff. Why are you still paying anybody to work your ranch that isn't doing any work? Why aren't you looking more into what you're wanting to invest your money into? Don't let your daughter keep a wolf pup that will be completely out of the little girl's control as the animal gets bigger. I can see being self conscious about the ranch needing repairs and you don't have the money to get the repairs done before things started really going downhill. I felt the one being critical in this episode was Laura towards Adam. She makes it sound like Adam's nitpicking everything and make cracks about he could correct her knitting, do the church sermon, etc.
Adam's a classy gentleman and he still ends up apologizing to Laura even though it really wasn't in his place to apologize.
Man, this whole storyline's hard. I realize this storyline was meant to satisfy some of Pernell's criticism about the series but this storyline would've been rotten to be stuck with on Pernell's side and on Kathie Browne's side. Both deserve better material tbh. Goodness knows I'll miss Pernell's fine self when he leaves the series but I'm glad this storyline didn't stay throughout the whole rest of the series if Pernell had stayed.
I noticed the snippet for what the episode was about and couldn't really picture Adam being THAT critical. And turns out he's not. He's a kind gentleman and he's trying to help. He's not copping attitude or treating Laura like she's an idiot. The stuff she wasn't doing was pretty common sense stuff. Why are you still paying anybody to work your ranch that isn't doing any work? Why aren't you looking more into what you're wanting to invest your money into? Don't let your daughter keep a wolf pup that will be completely out of the little girl's control as the animal gets bigger. I can see being self conscious about the ranch needing repairs and you don't have the money to get the repairs done before things started really going downhill. I felt the one being critical in this episode was Laura towards Adam. She makes it sound like Adam's nitpicking everything and make cracks about he could correct her knitting, do the church sermon, etc.
Adam's a classy gentleman and he still ends up apologizing to Laura even though it really wasn't in his place to apologize.
Man, this whole storyline's hard. I realize this storyline was meant to satisfy some of Pernell's criticism about the series but this storyline would've been rotten to be stuck with on Pernell's side and on Kathie Browne's side. Both deserve better material tbh. Goodness knows I'll miss Pernell's fine self when he leaves the series but I'm glad this storyline didn't stay throughout the whole rest of the series if Pernell had stayed.
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