The WORST episodes of The Big Valley
Every episode of The Big Valley ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of The Big Valley!
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.
#1 - Alias Nellie Handley
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/24/1969
Victoria goes undercover at a women's prison to investigate the conditions there.
#2 - Danger Road
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/21/1969
An Englishman with a large gambling debt agrees to smuggle whiskey onto an Indian reservation to pay off his losses.
#3 - Joaquin
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/11/1967
A man is hired at the ranch who is believed to be a Mexican outlaw thought long dead.
#4 - Ambush
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/18/1967
Victoria helps three indian women at a desert mission.
#5 - Under a Dark Star
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/9/1966
A guilt ridden Jarrod offers to help a man that he helped to convict of a crime that Jarrod now knows that he did not commit.
#6 - Hunter's Moon
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/30/1968
A jealous rancher holds Nick and two other men captive, believing one of them to be his wife's outside lover.
#7 - 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.
#8 - Days of Grace
Season 2 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/17/1967
Heath is wrongfully arrested for attempted rape, and is helped by a nun who used to be his girlfriend.
#9 - Court Martial
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/6/1967
A general that Nick served with in the Civil War visits the Barkley ranch and is accused of war crimes.
#11 - 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.
#12 - Tunnel of Gold
Season 1 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/20/1966
Bert Jason's new store is used by outlaws who tunnel into the next building to steal the Barkley's gold shipment.
#13 - By Fires Unseen
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/5/1966
Nick returns from a trip from San Francisco with a big surprise - a fiance.
#17 - The Secret
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/27/1969
A wealthy and powerful rancher moves into Stockton to ruin the Barkley enterprises. His motive: intense hatred of Jarrod, who he thinks is having an affair with his young wife.
#19 - 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.
#20 - Point and Counterpoint
Season 4 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/19/1969
In the series' final episode, a convict enlists the help of his son to bring vengeance on the Barkley family.
#21 - Deathtown
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/28/1968
Jarrod travels to Baker City, intending to meet three brothers from Mexico for a business deal. Upon arrival, he learns that they have all been lynched.
#22 - Flight from San Miguel
Season 4 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/28/1969
A former girlfriend asks Heath to undertakes a dangerous trip to revolution-torn Mexico to save her rebel Mexican husband before he is killed.
#24 - Palms of Glory
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1965
In the series premiere, the railroad has hired men to force the farmers and ranchers of Stockton off land acquired by the railroad. An angry young man, Heath, shows up at the Barkley ranch claiming to be the late Tom Barkleys' illegitimate son.