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.

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.

"Showdown with Rance McGrew" is another clear attempt to insert comedy into the traditional Sci-Fi/Fantasy concept of "The Twilight Zone", which is something Rod Serling already tried earlier in the third season with "Once Upon a Time". Personally, I prefer my episodes as dark and sinister as possible, and I don't like the light-headed, comical or overly moralistic ones. "Showdown with Rance McGrew" isn't an exception, although I gladly admit I had to laugh out loud a couple of times with the spoofing of typically arrogant Hollywood actors and how contemporary TV-series illustrate the supposedly "Wild" West. The spoiled and obnoxious actor Rance McGrew is a loathsome person to work with on set, but naturally considers himself to be God's gift to screen entertainment. In his films, he supposedly defeats the meanest guns of the Far West without much effort. But then, a typical TZ-occurrence takes place, and McGrew finds himself inexplicable transported back in time and faced with the real Jesse James for a little lesson in humbleness. It's a forgettable and thoroughly unremarkable entry, but - as said - good for a handful of chuckles, especially whenever McGrew hysterically calls out to his stunt double.

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.

I can't help feeling this thirty minutes is one, long Hollywood insider joke. The script is full of sarcastic references to pampered no-talent celebrities, their long-suffering directors, and the general make-believe of Hollywood heroics. Still, it's pretty amusing for an inside look at the artificial nature of movie-making. Larry Blyden plays Rance Mc Grew, a phony tough lead in a Western series. He can't really handle a gun nor brawl with the bad guys nor even ride a horse. And when challenged by the real life Jesse James (courtesy the TZ), what does he do? He calls his agent-- how fitting!

There were scores of such Westerns at the time (1962) which I'm sure this entry was intended to spoof. However, the TV cowboy has long since ridden into the sunset, so much of the satirical punch may be lost. Still, I think enough of the idea remains to keep viewers entertained, if, for no other reason, than the great opening sequence which tells us just about all we need to know about what follows.