The BEST episodes of The Big Valley season 3

Every episode of The Big Valley season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Big Valley season 3!

Setting is the 1870's in California's gorgeous San Joaquin Valley, The Big Valley is the story of Stockton's richest and most powerful family, the Barkleys. Lead by the family matriarch Victoria Barkley, widow of Tom Barkley, they live on the Barkley Ranch managing their cattle herd, mines, citrus groves and logging camps. Victoria's family consists of her two sons Jarrod and Nick, daughter Audra and Tom Barkley's son Heath. Jarrod, a prominent lawyer, handles legal issues for the family and manages his two law offices in Stockton and San Francisco. Nick, a rancher, physically manages the family's holdings. Nick is aggressive, out-spoken and at times hot-headed. Victoria's youngest child is her beautiful daughter Audra. Audra is protected by all of the family members. Audra is very sensitive, caring, loves horses, and is a very talented rider. Heath, Tom Barkley's son, helps Nick manage the family ranch.

Last Updated: 11/12/2024Network: ABC (US)Status: Ended
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star
8.38
8 votes

#1 - The Buffalo Man

Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/25/1967

The Barkleys hire convicts to help with their crops as part of a parole system, but a sadistic guard is determined to make his charges miserable.

Directors: Joseph Mazzuca
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star
8.33
9 votes

#2 - Four Days to Furnace Hill

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/4/1967

Victoria is captured by crooked prison guards, who plan to substitute her for a convict they murdered.

Writer: Ken Pettus
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star
8.22
9 votes

#3 - Explosion! (pt. 2)

Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/27/1967

Jarrod, Nick and Heath volunteer to take the nitroglycerin to the fire.

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star
8.22
9 votes

#4 - Night of the Executioner

Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/11/1967

While traveling through a strange town, a murder occurs and an innocent man is accused of it. Heath saw the man who really committed the crime, a fact which gets him more trouble than he bargained for.

Writer: Mel Goldberg
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star
8.20
10 votes

#5 - Explosion! (pt. 1)

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/20/1967

A forest fire rages, drawing closer to Stockton. The only solution is a firebreak created by a nitroglycerin explosion.

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star
8.17
6 votes

#6 - Fall of a Hero

Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/5/1968

Jarod defends Heath in court when he is accused of murder.

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star
8.10
10 votes

#7 - A Noose is Waiting

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/13/1967

Victoria and Audra become acquainted with the new town doctor, unaware that he is a psychotic killer out to avenge his father's suicide by hanging those he holds responsible, and Victoria is one of his targets.

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star
8.00
11 votes

#8 - The Disappearance

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/6/1967

A frantic Victoria searches for Audra, who has disappeared from a hotel and who no one claims to have seen.

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star
7.88
8 votes

#9 - Rimfire

Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/19/1968

When Jarod goes to Rimfire to conclude a merge of two mines, trouble starts.

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star
7.80
5 votes

#10 - The Emperor of Rice

Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/12/1968

A couple kidnap Victoria in an attempt to corner the rice market.

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star
7.78
9 votes

#11 - Miranda

Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/15/1968

A wealthy Mexican visits the Barkleys, asking for help and bringing a valuable necklace with him.

Writer: Ken Pettus
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star
7.75
8 votes

#12 - Days of Wrath

Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/8/1968

Wracked with grief when his new bride is murdered, an enraged Jarrod relentlessly hunts down her killer.

Directors: Virgil Vogel
Writer: Ken Pettus
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star
7.71
7 votes

#13 - Shadow of a Giant

Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/29/1968

Nick and Heath join a posse led by a legendary marshal, but the marshal is no longer the same man they knew in the past.

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star
7.67
6 votes

#14 - Bounty on a Barkley

Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/26/1968

Nick falls for newcomer Layle Johnson, who is slow to respond to his attentions.

Directors: Arnold Laven
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star
7.58
12 votes

#15 - Night in a Small Town

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/9/1967

Traveling on a stage, Heath, Victoria, Audra, and a wayward saloon girl, stop in a small town for the night, where the town marshal turns out to be an old friend of Heath's. The man, though, is clearly not the man Heath remembers.

Writer: Don Ingalls
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star
7.50
10 votes

#16 - A Flock of Trouble

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/25/1967

To pay off a gambling debt, Josiah Freeman pawns off his flock of sheep on Nick.

Directors: Virgil Vogel
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star
7.45
11 votes

#17 - The Time after Midnight

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/2/1967

Jarrod agrees to prosecute a land grabber, but his determination to see justice served is severely tested when he is blinded in an explosion.

Directors: Charles S. Dubin
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star
7.38
8 votes

#18 - The Devil's Masquerade

Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/4/1968

A friend of Heath's has been carrying on a correspondence courtship with a woman who is to be his mail-order bride.

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star
7.22
9 votes

#19 - Run of the Savage

Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/11/1968

Nick sets out to emotionally help a 14 year old boy who is rejected by his family and getting into trouble.

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star
7.21
14 votes

#20 - Ladykiller

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/16/1967

Nick and Heath stop at an inn where guests are killed for their money.

Directors: Norman S. Powell
Writer: Jay Simms
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star
7.14
7 votes

#21 - The Challenge

Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/18/1968

A Senator comes to Stockton to campaign for re-election, but finds himself the target of a smear campaign that pulls Victoria in as well.

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star
7.13
8 votes

#22 - Journey into Violence

Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/18/1967

A community of mountain dwellers, who live by their own laws, captures Heath and forces him into slavery for killing one of their own in self defense.

Directors: Arnold Laven
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star
7.09
11 votes

#23 - The Good Thieves

Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/1/1968

On the trail of the two thieving brothers who shot Jarrod during a robbery, Nick and Heath find them in a town where they are not only considered the leading citizens, but also practically saints.

Writer: Dan Ullman
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star
6.91
11 votes

#24 - Guilty

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1967

A client of Jarrod's escapes and takes over the schoolhouse where Audra is the substitute teacher.

Directors: Paul Henreid
star
6.22
37 votes

#25 - Ambush

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/18/1967

Victoria helps three indian women at a desert mission.

Directors: Virgil Vogel