The Big Valley
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The Big Valley was a television Western which ran on ABC from 1965 to 1969.
It starred Barbara Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley, the widowed matriarch of the Barkley family of Stockton, California. Richard Long played Jarrod Barkley, her eldest son and a respected attorney. Hot-tempered younger son Nick Barkley, who managed the family ranch, was played by Peter Breck.
(Both Long and Breck had been regulars for a short time on another classic Western series, Maverick, although in different seasons; Long had played "Gentleman Jack Darby" to pick up the slack when Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. began 77 Sunset Strip and could no longer play "Dandy Jim Buckley," while Breck had taken over the role of "Doc Holliday" when Gerald Mohr was unavailable.)
Linda Evans played Audra, Victoria's only daughter. In the first episode, Lee Majors was introduced as Heath, the third, and illegitimate son of Victoria's late husband; Heath gradually gained acceptance from the rest of the Barkley clan. The character of Heath originally rode into town one day from the mining area of Strawberry. Later on his new stepmother Victoria Barkley goes to find out about his past by visiting Heath's surviving relatives from his mother's side of the family. It was learned that Tom Barkley had never known he had fathered Heath. Incidentally, Tom Barkley was killed in 1870 six years before Heath came to Stockton looking for his family roots. It was mentioned that Heath had grown up in Calaveras County. During the first season Lee Majors character Heath struggled with his new found family and name. The youngest Barkley son was Eugene (Charles Briles), a medical student studying at Berkley. He was seen sporadically in only five first season episodes and then written out. Only once was his name ever mentioned again (by Victoria in a conversation with Jarrod). The regular cast was rounded out by Napoleon Whiting, who played Silas, the Barkleys' majordomo.
Guest stars included Jill St. John, George Kennedy, William Shatner, Beah Richards, Arthur O'Connell, Bing Russell, Katharine Ross, Charles Bronson, Warren Oates, Martin Landau, Ron Howard, Diane Baker, Bruce Dern, James Whitmore, Richard Anderson, Buddy Hackett, James Gregory, Yaphet Kotto, Colleen Dewhurst, Royal Dano, Bradford Dillman, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Goulet, Gavin MacLeod, Dennis Hopper, Cloris Leachman, Lee Grant, Pernell Roberts, Harold Gould, Milton Berle, Susan Strasberg, Lew Ayres, Barbara Luna, Julie Adams, Adam West, Marty Allen, Wayne Rogers, Robert Loggia, Lou Rawls, Simon Oakland, Anne Baxter, Joe Don Baker, Carol Lynley, Susan Oliver, Fritz Weaver, Jack Albertson, Leslie Nielsen, John Carradine, Maurice Evans and Gerald Mohr, who guest starred in an episode called "Flight from San Miguel" as Dr Raoul Mendez, a Mexican rebel leader trying to escape the country. This was to be Mohr's last-ever TV Western. He died of a heart attack in Stockholm, Sweden, three months after the episode was made.
One accidental running gag (that also occurred on the TV western Bonanza) is that in every episode in which one of the Barkley sons got seriously involved with a woman, as soon as he got married, she was killed off or died gruesomely in the same episode. As with other shows of the time the male characters had love interests but usually the storylines lasted only for one episode then the girl was never seen again.
Lee Majors later recounted on "The Tonight Show" how he was justly exhorted by Barbara Stanwyck, after a star complex he had developed adversely affected production/ filming of the series.
The stirring "Big Valley" theme was created by George Duning. Some of the directors of photograhy during the series were William E. Snyder, A.S.C., Wilfrid M. Cline, A.S.C. and Chas E. Burke, A.S.C. The series was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman. The producers were Jules Levy, Arthur Gardner and Arnold Laven and the associate producer was Lou Morheim. Actor and director Paul Henreid, of "Casablanca" fame, directed a number of episodes. The series was produced by Four Star Television for ABC.
Dell Comics published a short-lived comic book for 6 issues in 1966-69. (the last issue reprinted the first, and came out two years after issue #5). All issued had photo covers.
