I've started watching The Virginian and it seems as if James Drury, the Virginian, is not in a whole lot of episodes. Maybe I'm just watching the ones that don't revolve around him. Still seems strange. Sometimes he doesn't appear in an episode at all.
I've seen some interviews and all the shooting schedule took so long for each episode that each star would get his own episode. Usually it revolved around Trampass, The Virginian or the Ranch owner at the time. Also some of the minor character would get their own story from time to time.
My favorite episodes involved Trampass. There were a lot of fun episodes dealing with him.