The Real McCoys

I watched this show fairly frequently as a child but now that I am an adult I appreciate it much more. I am so impressed with the acting and stamina of Walter Brennan. For a man in his late 60's, he had to memorize tons of dialogue and work so hard it must have been a strain on him, however it never showed in his performance. His wonderful love/hate friendship with George MacMichael (Andy Clyde) was a highlight of the show. I was very sorry when Kate left the show, though it wasn't the same, I still enjoyed it because I loved watching Walter. I am so glad that TNN is showing reruns of this show.

Any show with Walter Brennan is a winner! I was very little when this show aired. Walter Brennan was the epitome of a grandfather to me. I loved the way he walked, arms slightly bent, elbows back and kind of cocking them in the rhythm of his step.

Favorite episodes include Grandpa's games of checkers with George (Andy Clyde).

Brennan's Grandfatherly persona was showcased in this series. He disappeared for several years after the show's cancellation from television and resurfaced as a tough old hombre in The Guns of Will Sonnet, which was another great series.

The show declined over the years with cast members falling off like over-ripe cherries from a cherry tree. It finally died and made way for its successor, The Beverly Hillbillies.

When it aired on TNN a few years ago, it made for some wonderful memories of retro-t.v.

The Real McCoys is a genuine classic from the golden age of television. A fine series. They really don't make well-crafted, heart warming shows like this anymore. Walter Brennan was simply amazing as old Amos McCoy, the patriarch of a family transplanted from Smokey Corners, West Virginia to "sunny Cal-i-for-nai-ay" as the theme song tells us. The stories are at once funny and often touching and there are some great people in the cast. Richard Crenna, fresh from playing squeaky-voiced Walter Denton on Our Miss Brooks, drops his voice to it's proper register to play Luke McCoy, Grampa Amos's grandson. He plays him as a sometimes naive, sometimes wise newlywed. The bride in question is lovely Kathy Nolan, as beautiful a woman as any who ever graced a sitcom. Her Kate is the balancing conscience which is a big asset to the show. (Indeed, when she was absent in the show's last season, it was the last hurrah for this long-running series.) Hassie, the 13 year-old "old maid" as Grampa would say is played by Lydia Reed, whose only other performance I have seen was in the 1956 MGM film, High Society. She was very good in the film and is very good in the Real McCoys. Michael Winkleman plays Little Luke with a naturalness not seen in today's high-strung attempts at situation comedy. Tony Martinez plays, Pepino, the "ranch hand". He plays off of Walter Brennan quite well and is an asset to the cast. Finally, we have Andy Clyde and Madge Blake as brother and sister neighbors George and Flora MacMichael. They are pros who know just the right way to play their scenes. The series is populated with many well-known character actors and this show has a cozy, home-spun feel to it. Indeed, it is a predecessor to the many rural comedies that followed in the sixties, like Andy Griffith, Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies. Some people have complained about the DVD episodes being edited, but I saw these same episodes when CBS ran this show as part of their morning comedy block of shows, from 1962 to 1966. These appear to be the same prints as shown on the network back in the day. I vaguely recall seeing some nighttime telecasts in prime time, but mostly I recall the morning CBS run. The stories are well-written and some are very heartwarming. The characters are three-dimensional and seem like genuine human beings. This series is all but forgotten these days and I don't think the DVD releases exactly set the world on fire sales-wise, but I am enjoying the set I got for one penny and think this should be picked up by one of the nostalgia channels like ME-TV or Antenna TV. This classic series is ripe for re-discovery.

Re: the other comments. But although Walter Brennan was great as grandpa DO NOT forget the rest of the cast. Richard Crenna was wonderful as Luke, and Kathy Nolan (as she was called in the first years of the show, not Kathleen) was fine too, among others. She eventually left the show in a bitter contract dispute for a short-running series (check her credits) and her career went the route of DAvid Caruso from NYPD BLUE. This show had a wonderful theme song: "Want you to meet the family known as the real McCoys. That's grandpappy Amos, they head of the clan, he roars like a lion but he's gentle as a lamb. And now here's Luke who beams with joy since he may take Mrs Kate McCoy". A good show that never recovered from Nolan leaving - Luke as a widow didn't cut it.

The 224 half-hour episodes (all in B&W) of the situation comedy "The Real McCoys" ran from 1957-1963 on ABC and CBS. The show's creators/producers were Irving and Norman Pincus, a pair of brothers with little other claims to fame.

But they left quite a legacy with "The Real McCoys" as the series literally changed the direction of network situation comedy. Early sitcoms like "I Love Lucy", "The Honeymooners", "Make Room for Daddy", and "The Goldbergs" were urban in tone and set in downtown apartments in big east coast cities; urban families were the first buyers of televisions. By the mid-fifties suburbia was getting a lot play ("Life of Riley", "Leave It to Beaver") as Americans began moving out to the suburbs. But network executives were resistant to the idea of rural characters in rural setting. Rural families were unlikely to own televisions (or have television stations within broadcast range) and urban sophisticates could not be expected to tune into a show featuring rural rubes.

When "The Real McCoys" proved the suits wrong it set the stage for Andy of Mayberry, Jed in Beverly Hills, Kate and the Shady Rest, and Oliver and Lisa in Hooterville. Danny Thomas and Paul Henning who would launch those shows were both involved in "The Real McCoys".

The premise of the show is the move of the legendary West Virginia McCoys to a farm in the San Fernando Valley they inherit from their uncle. Given the current value of valley real estate it is amusing that one of the central conflicts of the series is the family's precarious financial position (insert lack of money here).

The McCoy family is a bit usual as it skips an entire generation. Grandpa Amos (Walter Brennan) lives with his grandson Luke (Richard Crenna), Luke's new wife Kate (Kathy Nolan), and Luke's little brother and sister (Michael Winkleman and Lydia Reed). Apparently Luke's parents mysteriously died.

Like "The Beverly Hillbillies", the comedy comes from watching the family adapt to their new environment and seeing things we take for granted from a fresh perspective. And like Granny on that series, Amos is stubborn and irascible. The beauty of the series is that it finds satirical humor in the unsophisticated way of country folk while demonstrating that their backwoods wisdom often puts them ahead of the curve.

Luke and Kate join Oliver and Lisa Douglas of "Green Acres" as television's all-time most "in- love" couples and this dynamic is the shows underlying strength. Crenna and Nolan deliver fine performances throughout the series. Brennan is likewise excellent, managing to make a basically annoying character lovable. Amos is nicely overplayed as a cantankerous old coot full of rural aphorisms and blustering exasperations yet fully repentant when he goes too far.

Also notable is Tony Martinez as Pepino Garcia, a Mexican farmhand who just came with the farm. Pepino is a frequent foil for Grandpa, as his more laid-back approach to life often riles up the old guy. They do a nice job of avoiding what could have been a negative stereotype as Pepino is the best adjusted character on the series and second only to Kate in the wisdom department. Kate left the cast after the 5th season, she was missed.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.