The Big Valley

The Big Valley
Genre	Western
Created by	A.I. Bezzerides Louis F. Edelman
Starring	Barbara Stanwyck Richard Long Lee Majors Linda Evans Peter Breck
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	112 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time	60 min.
Production company(s)	Levee-Gardner-Laven Productions Four Star Television Margate
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 15, 1965 – May 19, 1969

The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965 to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman. The producer was Levy-Gardner-Laven. Associate producer Lou Morheim performed the same function on the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven. The stirring theme music was composed by George Duning. Paul Henreid, of Casablanca fame, directed a number of episodes. Four Star Television produced the series.

Historical Background

The TV series was based loosely on the Hill Ranch located at the western edge of Calaveras County, not far from Stockton (one episode places the Barkley Ranch a few hours ride from town while another has Jarrod riding past a Calaveras County sign on his way to the TV series' ranch). The Hill Ranch existed from 1855 until 1931, exceeded 1,000 acres (4.0 km²), and had the Mokelumne River running through it. Lawson Hill ran the ranch until he was murdered in 1861. His wife Euphemia (aka "Auntie Hill") then became the matriarch. During their marriage they had four children, one daughter and three sons. Today, the location of the ranch is covered by the waters of Lake Camanche. A California State historical marker standing at Camanche South Shore Park mentions the historic ranch.

Major Characters

• Victoria Barkley, portrayed by Barbara Stanwyck, was the widowed matriarch of the wealthy, influential Barkley family living in 19th century Stockton in California's central valley. Victoria Barkley was the undisputed master of the Barkley ranch. In fact, Stanwyck's refusal to portray Barkley as fragile was controversial at the time. Barkley's husband, Thomas, had been killed six years prior in the universe of the series.

• Jarrod Thomas Barkley, the eldest son, was a respected attorney. Richard Long played the role as the educated, refined and calmer of the Barkley sons who handled all of the family's legal and business affairs. While Jarrod preferred the law to settle disputes, he was known to resort to frontier justice and violence when necessary. He was briefly married in one episode only to see his new wife murdered in a memorable episode in which an enraged Jarrod tracks down the killer and is in the process of killing him with his bare hands before both his brothers Nick and Heath arrive just in time and have to physically stop him.

• Hot-tempered brawling younger son Nick Barkley, who managed the family ranch, was portrayed by Peter Breck. Nick was well-known for his black leather vests, large black hat and black leather gloves, as well as his loud and brawling demeanor. He was notorious for getting into fist fights. At times, he would fight with his brothers as well, though underneath the gruff surface Nick was warm and caring, had a fun-loving carefree side, a wonderful sense of humor, and he loved his family deeply and would give his own life for any one or all of them.

• Linda Evans played beautiful Audra, Victoria's only daughter. Much like her mother, Audra was no wallflower, she was bold and full of life and was often involved in daring stunts and did not ride side-saddled.

• Heath Barkley was the illegitimate son of Victoria's late husband, and he literally had to fight his way into the Barkley home. Lee Majors portrayed even-tempered but rough and tumble Heath, who was often angry and aggressive throughout the early episodes due to his later to be proven false belief that Tom Barkley had ditched his real mother after she became pregnant with him. In truth, Tom Barkley never knew about Heath, as Heath's mother had never told him, and never even told Heath until she was on her death bed. Heath gradually gained acceptance from the rest of the Barkley clan as the first season progressed until he became as much a "Barkley" as the rest of the family, and his love for them became equal. Although Nick was initially leary of Heath and felt he had to test Heath's mettle, Heath would go on to prove himself worthy of even Nick's acceptance, and eventually Nick seemed to grow even closer to Heath than he was to Jarrod, perhaps in a sense due to Heath having more in common with him than Jarrod did.

Minor characters

• The youngest Barkley son was Eugene, a medical student studying at Berkeley, played by Charles Briles. He was seen sporadically in only seven first season episodes and then written out. Only once was his name ever mentioned again. Eugene Barkley is an example of the Chuck Cunningham Syndrome.

• Douglas Kennedy, formerly the star of the syndicated Steve Donovan, Western Marshal appeared as Sheriff Fred Madden.

• The regular cast was rounded out by Napoleon Whiting, as Silas, the Barkleys' majordomo.

Plans for Movie Version

Film columnist Patrick Goldstein reported in the Los Angeles Times in July, 2009 that filmmakers Daniel Adams and Kate Edelman-Johnson are producing a feature film version of The Big Valley with production to begin in April, 2010 in New Mexico and Michigan.^[1]

Trivia

• A morbid running gag was that every time one of the Barkley children fell in love or was married, the wife or beau (for Audra) would suffer a horrible end or death never to be mentioned again (with the exception of "Miranda" (Barbara Luna) who fell in love with Nick but who felt compelled to leave him to help her people in "Miranda").
• Dell Comics published a short-lived comic book for six issues in 1966-69. (the last issue reprinted the first, and came out two years after issue #5). All issues had photo covers.
• Both Long and Breck had been regulars for a short time on another classic Western series, Maverick, although in different seasons; Long 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 assumed the role of "Doc Holliday" when Gerald Mohr was unavailable.
• Lee Majors later recounted on The Tonight Show how he was justly taken to task by Barbara Stanwyck after a star complex he had developed adversely affected the series.
• This show marks the debut of new actors Lee Majors and Linda Evans, who both went on to fame on other shows. Majors, went on to have a successful acting career: Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy. Evans went on to work on the popular 1980s prime-time soap opera, Dynasty.
• While The Big Valley is set primarily in and near the city of Stockton, the filming of the series took place in Southern California.
• In its second season, The Big Valley knocked out former film star Jean Arthur's comeback attempt in her failed CBS sitcom The Jean Arthur Show.
• Wilfred M. Cline, A.S.C., Technicolor Associate Cinematographer on Gone with the Wind (1939), was director of photography of several Big Valley episodes, together with Chas E. Burke, A.S.C.
• The Big Valley and Barbara Stanwyck are mentioned in the film Bug in a chat between the characters Peter and Agnes.[1]
• Despite the show's popularity, it was canceled in 1969 because at that time TV Westerns were fading out to make room for more modern TV shows.
• Peter Breck is the most frequently seen cast member, appearing in all but one of the 112 episodes of the series. Barbara Stanwyck is the runner-up, also appearing in almost all the episodes, with the exception of 9, acting in 103 episodes; Lee Majors appeared in the third highest amount of episodes, acting in 100 episodes.
• Linda Evans did not appear in the majority of the episodes, during the last two 1/2 years, when she was newly married to John Derek at the time.

Guest stars

The Big Valley was well-known for its plethora of guest stars. Among others:

References

1. ^ "The Remake Watch: 'Big Valley' edition". Los Angeles Times. 2009-07-15. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2009/07/the-remake-watch-big-valley-edition.html. Retrieved 2009-07-26. 

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

External links

• The Big Valley at the Internet Movie Database
• The Big Valley at TV.com
• The Films of Joseph H. Lewis
• The Big Valley at EpGuides.com