Amos Carter

This is a kind of odd episode to end the first season. In fact, the strangeness started right in the first two minutes when we see Josh waiting outside of a doctor's office. A man, "Amost Carter" (Arthur Hunnicutt) comes in and asks how the patient is doing. Randall isn't sure but the man thanks him for "what he done" in finding him on the road bringing him to the doctor. Josh is asked exactly where he found him and the man then knows who shot his friend. The doctor comes out with a long face, so we know the man died....except it turns out it was a dog that died! Carter says he knows who did it and he's going to kill him.

Now, a 40-year-old feud between the Carters and the Blakes is going to start up again as Josh finds out at the bar later. Josh is offered $200 if he will stop the feud, which the town is sick of but won't do anything about since all the killing is outside of city limits. Randall then heads out to see if he can stop the violence before it starts up again. However, the shooting starts as soon as one of the Blakes - "Chester" (Edgar Buchanan) - spots Randall on his property.

The rest is pure hilly stereotypes and an attempt by Steve McQueen to get some laughs along the way. I have no problem with that, but it didn't really work here.

This was such good show it was shame to end the season with a stupid story and weak attempt at comedy, at that, but, as it's stated in one of the documentaries, Steve used this show to hone his acting skills. Except for the comedy, I thought he already had everything down pat from what I saw in this first season. I am sorry it's over and no sign of a second season being put out on DVD.

Buchanan and Honeycutt are well cast as feuding hillbillies. Wright King, later to be cast as Josh's partner, is somehow made to appear shorter than McQueen, even though King was 5'11".

I love this episode. Josh has his hands full, but does the right thing, as usual. You don't find many character actors with the gravitas of Edgar Buchanon, who plays "Edgar Blake" in this. He had a long, excellent career on the best TV westerns. Good ending, too.

Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Andy Griffiths Show, and probably other shows dipped into the idea that two families killing each other off in a feud was funny.

All those shows had at least one comedy episode that had the same basic formula. Two families of really dumb hillbillies were feuding, but they were also very cowardly, so they never actually killed each other. The lead characters got to show them up as really ignorant cowards, and the audience got to laugh at them.

The implications are that the Hollywood community enjoyed smearing the midwest Bible belt types as illiterate knuckle-dragging stereotypes. I thought those types of shows were very boring. Even Steve McQueen looked bored in this episode. It was hard to find anything positive about it.