rixrex

In an episode written before the departure of Pernell Roberts, but filmed afterwards, and which was specifically for Adam to discover a love interest in a girl eventually accused of witchcraft. Instead we get Lorne Greene as Ben lecherously taking over the role.

It's a pretty sad thing to see him leering at the young lady, and creating situations where he can be alone with her, up to the point of trying to get her to stay in his house after a dinner drink when a boy in her travel group calls for her to return, as people in her group are ill and need her.

The dialog would have fit a thirty something like Adam just fine or even Hoss or Little Joe, but it's just out of character for Ben and makes the program an embarrassment. I suppose Lorne Greene wanted the chance to show he was still full of vitality, or something.

As great as the first Billy Jack movie, Born Losers, was, this movie is the antithesis. Here's why:

Script not co-written by Elizabeth James, who actually wrote most of Born Losers.

Elizabeth James not the female lead, and instead we get why nepotism is bad, Laughlin's wife as the lead.

Billy Jack vs everyone in the whole town as a stereotyped bigot, rather than vs a motorcycle gang terrorizing the townspeople who were not Billy Jack haters.

Billy Jack spends too much time contemplating philosophy and rubbing his forehead rather than busting ass like he did in the first one.

Lame ending vs a great ending. Damn Billy Jack shoulda got away to the hills after laying waste to the bigots (but no cop killings).

As I said, he killed a cop who was doing his job. And Laughlin managed to kill a great character after such a great debut.

This is a great pilot episode for any Bonanza, or TV western fan, to watch. The introduction of the Cartwrights shows them to be much less sympathetic characters and more like a rough and tumble clan. Had this been premiered in 1979, rather than 1959, the characters would have likely remained the same or even gotten tougher, ala Dallas, and not have been softened as they eventually were.

The plot is a little thin because of the exposition to setup the characters and the setting. It does its job though and the great pleasure is seeing the Cartwrights as they could have been, as real westerners and not the 1960s PC westerners that they became. This episode is much closer to the truth of the times than the later episodes. For example, the whole issue of North vs South could have been a focal point as Adam is a Yankee and Joe is a Southern sympathizer and this is shown intently here but later never amounts to much.

There's a great scene where the Chinese men in the Chinatown camp gang up on two roughnecks looking for Joe who set fire to one tent. They really go at it and give the two a clobbering.

Also, it was a smart move to exclude the final sing-song of the Bonanza theme by the family. I've seen it and it is really not too good and doesn't fit well with the rest of the program.