Showdown with Rance McGrew

Rod Serling wrote two scripts for series three that were inspired by an idea from another writer, Frederick Louis Fox. The other was the quaint but likable 'Hocus-Pocus and Frisby'. Fox was generally a writer of TV western screenplays, so unsurprisingly this one is set in the world of the then popular TV-west-that-never-was.

Rance McGrew (Larry Byden) is TV cowboy who suddenly steps out of his make-believe world and into the 'real' west where he is confronted by Jesse James.

It starts brightly with visual gags, a film crew and the ridiculousness of the sixties' TV western. However when Jesse James came in he was such an anodyne character of the TV western ilk anyway, when the show needed a dynamic and deadly, movie type like Lee Marvin ('The Grave', series three) or Martin Landau ('Mr Denton On Doomsday',series one). The rest falls very flat as there is nothing to consider remotely realistic about Jesse James, and so the story peters out badly.

Lord knows Rod Serling did his best to write comic episodes for his great series, but the results were almost always trite and heavy-handed. This one, though often maligned by the "experts", is truly delightful (and yes...I realize that comedy is very subjective).

There are some slow, repetitious moments in the main confrontation between Rance and the real Jesse (which could have been solved with more inventive direction)....but otherwise, Chris Nyby's work is first-rate. The entire first half is just CRAZY--a beautifully staged "chamber-comedy" in which we find ourselves enmeshed in the quirky interplay between a tedious, pampered boor and the behind-the-scenes mechanics of TV make-believe. And for once, here's a running gag that actually works!--- Rance's bad habit of wildly flinging his six-shooter in the direction of the mirror mounted behind the bar.

The real pitfall of this brand of satire is the tendency to play too broadly..but Larry Blyden's performance is beautifully balanced and controlled, as is that of Robert Cornthwaite, who could always be counted on for a first-rate job. Arch Johnson is also dead-on.

From Rance's nutty first entrance to the hilarious concluding plot twist, Serling managed to crank out his best comedy while buried under the stress of his third full season of production. Last but certainly not least is the CBS music editor, who chose Fred Steiner's whimsical, leisurely "hoe-down" music (composed for Gunsmoke's "Minnie" in 1961), adding the final touch of brilliance to this underrated gem.

Larry Blyden stars in the Twilight Zone episode playing a TV cowboy who's not a particularly nice man considering that it's those stunt men who have to take the real chances on his television series. He's hardly a successor to Roy, Hoppy, and Gene.

In the next world they're taking note of this guy and the real Jesse James makes a return to life when Blyden steps into The Twilight Zone and finds himself in the real west and not on a sound stage or Iverson's ranch for location.

Jesse James is played with a great heaping helping of sardonic humor by Arch Johnson and after showing him up for the phony he is then Johnson helps guide Blyden on a different career path.

This one is not to be missed.

Larry Blyden plays Hollywood actor and difficult western TV star Rance McGrew, who has become spoiled, lazy, and inefficient in his job as the star who plays famous Marshall Rance McGrew, who always gets his man, and survives impossible odds, until one day, while he is filming a scene involving Jesse James, the real Jesse James(played by miscast Arch Johnson) shows up from heaven, determined to punish Rance for his historical inaccuracies and phony TV persona. How will McGrew handle this bizarre dilemma? Good premise is sadly squandered in failed attempt at satire, with the "real" west being every bit as phony as the "TV" west. First real misfire of the series.

This is one of my least favorite Twilight Zone episodes. I guess some of it has to do with the demise of the Western as a television staple. At the time this was made, TV was inundated with Westerns, from Bonanza to Gunsmoke and back again. In this one Rance McGrew, a phony baloney, uncooperative actor who has become a hero to his television audience, is accosted by his imaginary rivals. Mainly, the true personage of Jesse James. The silly byplay between Rance, the director, and the other persons on the set is so fifties and so outdated. The story is pretty much the dumb actor being thrown through windows and beaten up and having to change his image to a submissive. Anyway, it is dull, and because of the conclusion, there's no one to root for.