Clay Troop

Today the episode featuring Dan's brother Clay (James Drury) was shown. It filled in a few gaps in Dan's background. Both Clay and Dan loved a girl named Virginia. She married Clay even though he was something of a bad guy. Dan and Clay were estranged after that. Virginia died and the brothers could never be friends.

Clay was a really strong character and something of a superhero, being able to ride 1,000 miles in 6 days to help Dan fight the seven outlaws who were after him. James Drury was perfect in the role. It is too bad they had to kill him off, but there really wasn't a place for him in the series. His character really dominated the action. I have read that the producers of The Andy Griffith Show could not make Ernest T. Bass a regular character or have more episodes with him in them, because his personality was so powerful that it diminished the other characters. That was probably the case with the Clay Troop charcter.

This was a very enjoyable episode.