Why would 3 handsome and very wealthy men in their late twenties and thirties want to stay home and live with their mother? It seemed like they never got laid!
This discussion is just for fun!
I seem to remember one or more of the brothers occasionally heading to San Francisco for business. Who's to say they didn't seek companionship in the big, bad city? Funny thread!
The Frontier was a land of men, to a large degree. In California during the Gold Rush, men outnumbered women by a factor of more than 10 to 1. A rhyme of the era goes, "The Miners came in '49, the Whores in '51. And when they got together they produced the Native Son." So during the Bonanza years women were still pretty scarce in the West. By the time of Big Valley the Transcontinental Railroad had begun to correct the imbalance
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae
"..."The Miners came in '49, the Whores in '51. And when they got together they produced the Native Son..."
We sometimes use that ditty to puncture various personage who are still excessively proud to be 'native San Franciscans'...
What about Audra ? Why no concern about HER sex life as well ? What about Victoria ?
shareWHY do you have an apostrophe in the word "brothers" ?
shareThis show was filmed in the late 1960s. I don't recall ANY unmarried tv characters having sex in those days. For example, on the sitcom "That Girl", Ann Marie and her boyfriend Donald dated for 5 years and never once slept together! However, on The Big Valley, you have to read between the lines. Of course, the Barkley boys never brought women home to spend the night out of respect for their mother. But Audra mentioned that Jarrod had a "private life" up in San Francisco that he never talked about. And there were quite a few episodes that had Jarrod up in San Francisco! There was even a episode that implied that Jarrod may have fathered the child of one of his clients. Nick was known to spend a lot of time in saloons and with the girls that "worked" there. The more reserved Heath seemed to be friendly with a few saloon girls also. And it seems that every time one of the brothers was late for dinner or something, someone (usually Audra) would say " oh I'll bet he met a pretty girl." The writers were making it quite clear that these boys were getting some action off screen!
shareI'm all in favor of recognizing that television in the '50s and '60s was not as innocent as many people believe, but let's try to be accurate.
Audra mentioned that Jarrod had a "private life" up in San Francisco that he never talked about.
There was even a episode that implied that Jarrod may have fathered the child of one of his clients.
Nick was known to spend a lot of time in saloons and with the girls that "worked" there. The more reserved Heath seemed to be friendly with a few saloon girls also.
And it seems that every time one of the brothers was late for dinner or something, someone (usually Audra) would say " oh I'll bet he met a pretty girl."
"The pretty girl" comment was made by Audra about when Nick when he returned home late at the end of the "Hunter's Moon" episode and when Heath returned without Nick in "Velvet Trap" Heath mentioned to Victoria and Audra that Nick was delayed because he " met a girl". In "Turn of A Card" when Heath showed up late for their meeting, Nick asked Heath if he was late " because of a pretty girl". They were all being coy of course but it just shows that the Barkleys were well aware that their siblings had private lives.
I was mainly joking in referring to Jarrod's San Francisco life and the "is he or is he not" question in "The Secret". It was my understanding that the question about the Barkley brothers' sex life was meant to just for fun.
They probably had tons of sex off screen. What's amazing is that they didn't have what came with all that sex off screen.
shareWell, I do think it was probably more common back then for people to wait until marriage, but I think there also were hints that show they probably could have had sex. For example, Heath went off with that Irish family for however long it took to help them get settled at their new compound and sort of made eyes at the niece as he said he'd gladly join them. Surely that would have been an opportunity.
It does seem unrealistic that these, what, 30-something men who are socially well functioning and goodlooking wouldn't ever have sex or want to have sex. And since the Barkleys don't appear to be devoutly religious, I kind of can't imagine they didn't at least every now and then. I know those are gender stereotypes, but it seems less likely a man than a woman would go years without sex just because he wasn't in a serious relationship.
Looking back at the history of my own family - which, these days, you can do a lot of pretty easily - I'm SURE they had sex off-screen. My male ancestors of that era were notorious for having out of wedlock children, and looking at some old tombstones (of non-relatives), lots of other men did too. (I found a very sad tombstone once - not in my family - that of an infant, that said "murdered - illegitimate" - it was from that post-Civil War era - they didn't do abortions, they just waited until the child was born and murdered it).
shareI dunno. Except for that gross scene where Jarrod and Nick ogle Layle for ten minutes, Jarrod doesn't seem to notice women unless they throw themselves at him and sometimes not even then (e.g. Libby Matthews). Even when he got married, he didn't seem at all attracted to his new bride physically. Season One Heath is quickly smitten with a pretty face...unless he's been shot...but even then he gets the girl at the end (Allie Kay). In seasons three and four, the women fall all over him and he's mostly indifferent.
Certainly all of the Barkley men are implied to be sexually active, but as you say, where are all the illegitimate children? If they're willing to accept Heath on the flimsiest of "evidence," then surely they would be inundated with children before long. And as the Barkleys have super immunity that allows them to survive rabies and anthrax and bullet wounds every week, are we to assume that they were able to fight off the many STDs that were rampant in the 19th century?
Interesting reply they were a remarkable family weren't they?
shareIn an episode called the Brawlers during the first season, Nick and Heath are in town and Heath tells Nick he has something to do and he'd see him later, prompting Nick to tell him not to be going to "Big Annie's" and getting in trouble, so they hooked up with the working girls just like the cowboys in town did.
share