MovieChat Forums > The Virginian (1962) Discussion > 'Timberland'

'Timberland'

posted 14 years ago by shandy8
1 reply | jump to latest

I am a new fan of 'The Virginian'. I watched it sometimes as a tot, but had only vague memories of this 'grown-up' show. When I discovered 'The Virginian', I was hooked!

I've been watching it daily on 'Encor'e and really enjoying the quality of the writing, acting, art direction, music etc... This is a classy TV show, but, lately I have noticed an 'uneven' property in the episodes (this is season 3).

I just watched 'Timberland', a somewhat well-written episode with 'Ryker' as the central character. Although Clu Gulager did his job well, this was a Judge Garth episode if ever there was one, and it seems as if the teleplay had been altered to delete the necessity of Garth. I have noticed this unpleasant trend, and, as I look ahead in the episode guide, I see that things are going to change soon(what a shame).

I imagine that, when Lee J.Cobb left the serie,s several episodes that were written for him and had to be 'retailored' to feature the Virginian or Ryker ('The judge is off to...so I'm in charge'); however, this episode not only lacked Garth, but it also had a musical scene with Randy and Betsy from a previous episode. This was just tacky!

I am watching 'The Virginian' for the first time, and I never miss an episode. It is great fun Should I expect more of this, or does it resume its former quality? Is Cobb absent from the rest of the season. and to they reuse old scense as filler often?

Perhaps someone who has seen all of 'The Virginian' episodes can explain the 'ebb and flow' of the show' quality.

"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"

[–] shelby0296 14 years ago

You will find that they reuse several scenes in later seasons. Most aren't nearly so obvious as the singing one though. There are later episodes (where Cobb still received credit as being on the show), but they were definitely written without him in mind (like Morgan Starr).

I read somewhere (or heard in an interview) where Cobb had told the 'bosses' that he had other things that he wanted to do. He got very tired of making tv shows (and playing the same guy). While I tend to agree about the writing for Timberland, I sort of doubt it was that way.

I think you will enjoy the episodes with Charles Bickford, he was always fine. the ones with McIntyre weren't awful, but there were more that seemed ... flawed somehow. Like actors were just "phoning in" their performances.

It generally stayed pretty good, if you don't mind the anachronisms. There are some very dated episodes, that tend to make you groan, but they were much outweighed by the very good episodes.

If you've just started watching (rather than January or 2010), then you missed a great many episodes from the first three seasons. I preferred those three, for myself <grin>.

Annie