Incident of the Arana Sacar Apr 22, 1960
Incident of the Deserter Apr 29, 1960
Incident of the 100 Amulets May 6, 1960
Incident of the Murder Steer May 13, 1960
(On the disc '100 Amulets' is shown before 'Deserter')
'Arana Sacar' translates from Spanish roughly as "calling the spider out". I'm not sure what that ahs to with the story. The drovers are on edge, not having a town to blow off steam in for weeks. Chris Alcaide rides out with a jug of whisky and invites them to his town. They rebel against Mr. Favor and follow him. Favor and Rowdy go after them. Then Alcaide's henchmen show up and overpower the rest, then move the herd to a place where a skinner is paying for them just to remove their hides. (Is that more profitable than to just sell the herd to meat processors). As a side plot, Alcaide, (a good looking, deep voiced actor who would have made an excellent good guy if he'd gotten his own series but was struck playing bad guys), has seduced the wife, (Cloris Leachman) of the timid owner of the general store. Favor and Rowdy manage to rout the bad guys by creating a stampede. What happened to the rebellious drovers is never clear. Leachman's performance suggests she would rather have been doing something else and I don't blame her.
The 'Deserter' Is Wishbone, who decides to take a short-cut and leaves the herd, only to confront and equally stubborn wagon master on a bridge. There's a fight and Wishbone hurts his back. Mushy takes him to a local town to seek a doctor. There isn't one but a kindly lady barkeep has enough medical knowledge to get him through his recovery. They fall for each other but it turns out the wagon master has known her a lot longer than Wishbone has. In fact, she may have been using Wishbone to get the wagon master to propose to her. Wish and Mushy return to the trail drive. A lightweight change-of pace episode.
The 'Incident of the 100 Amulets' is about superstition and fanaticism. It starts with an eclipse, (we've just had one), and the uneducated drovers wonder what's happening. Favor, a little better educated, clams them down but this is a rare example foreshadowing in a TV episode. Hey-soos, who takes care of the remuda, is allowed to visit his mother. He finds the local town to be untied in fear of her. A series of events has taken place with her tangential involvement. The townspeople have decided that she must be a witch. It ends with their attempting to eradicate their fears by burning her at the stake. A small child winds up saving the day and bringing them back to their senses.
The 'Murder Steer' is a really weird one. Some new men have joined the drive and they keep getting killed, one by one, with a steer 'branded', (it looks like whitewash to me) with the word MURDER in large letters always seen near the body. Meanwhile an older man and a pretty young wife arrive, asking to travel with the drive to protect them against the 'Murder Steer'. Favor has to play detective and figure out what is going on. He does a nice job. One of the new men is played by James Franciscus, (one of my favorite TV actors - I like his retrained, intelligent style), late of "Naked City". He would also turn up on 'Wagon Train' shortly. He was going to be Dr. Kildare but a scheduling conflict forced him to drop out, (to be replaced by the very similar Richard Chamberlain so James wound up with Mr. Novak.
'Arana Sacar' translates from Spanish roughly as "calling the spider out". I'm not sure what that ahs to with the story. The drovers are on edge, not having a town to blow off steam in for weeks. Chris Alcaide rides out with a jug of whisky and invites them to his town. They rebel against Mr. Favor and follow him. Favor and Rowdy go after them. Then Alcaide's henchmen show up and overpower the rest, then move the herd to a place where a skinner is paying for them just to remove their hides. (Is that more profitable than to just sell the herd to meat processors). As a side plot, Alcaide, (a good looking, deep voiced actor who would have made an excellent good guy if he'd gotten his own series but was struck playing bad guys), has seduced the wife, (Cloris Leachman) of the timid owner of the general store. Favor and Rowdy manage to rout the bad guys by creating a stampede. What happened to the rebellious drovers is never clear. Leachman's performance suggests she would rather have been doing something else and I don't blame her.
The 'Deserter' Is Wishbone, who decides to take a short-cut and leaves the herd, only to confront and equally stubborn wagon master on a bridge. There's a fight and Wishbone hurts his back. Mushy takes him to a local town to seek a doctor. There isn't one but a kindly lady barkeep has enough medical knowledge to get him through his recovery. They fall for each other but it turns out the wagon master has known her a lot longer than Wishbone has. In fact, she may have been using Wishbone to get the wagon master to propose to her. Wish and Mushy return to the trail drive. A lightweight change-of pace episode.
The 'Incident of the 100 Amulets' is about superstition and fanaticism. It starts with an eclipse, (we've just had one), and the uneducated drovers wonder what's happening. Favor, a little better educated, clams them down but this is a rare example foreshadowing in a TV episode. Hey-soos, who takes care of the remuda, is allowed to visit his mother. He finds the local town to be untied in fear of her. A series of events has taken place with her tangential involvement. The townspeople have decided that she must be a witch. It ends with their attempting to eradicate their fears by burning her at the stake. A small child winds up saving the day and bringing them back to their senses.
The 'Murder Steer' is a really weird one. Some new men have joined the drive and they keep getting killed, one by one, with a steer 'branded', (it looks like whitewash to me) with the word MURDER in large letters always seen near the body. Meanwhile an older man and a pretty young wife arrive, asking to travel with the drive to protect them against the 'Murder Steer'. Favor has to play detective and figure out what is going on. He does a nice job. One of the new men is played by James Franciscus, (one of my favorite TV actors - I like his retrained, intelligent style), late of "Naked City". He would also turn up on 'Wagon Train' shortly. He was going to be Dr. Kildare but a scheduling conflict forced him to drop out, (to be replaced by the very similar Richard Chamberlain so James wound up with Mr. Novak.
