The BEST episodes of The Virginian
Every episode of The Virginian ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Virginian!
The Virginian was the very first 90 minute western on prime-time television, and is about a man, only known as "the Virginian" who served as foreman on the Shiloh Ranch (owned in sequence by Judge Garth, the Grainger brothers, and Col. MacKenzie) in 19th century Medicine Bow, Wyoming. James Drury starred as the title character with the likes of Doug McClure, Lee J. Cobb, John McIntire, and Clu Gulager co-starring. It is in these settings that a variety of stories, much more based on character and relationships than the usual westerns, take place.
#1 - The Stallion
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/30/1964
A wild stallion escapes its owner, John Slaughter (Don ""Red"" Barry), killing a handler in the process. The animal injures itself and is found by Randy Benton who takes him to the nearby ranch of alcoholic horse trainer Charlie Orwell (Robert Culp) who nurses it back to health. Most believe the horse bad and wish to have it destroyed but Randy gets Charlie to help him save the animal and with the help of Jodie Wingate (Jenna Engstrom), they save Charlie too.
#2 - Old Cowboy
Season 3 - Episode 28 - Aired 3/31/1965
An older man, Murdoch (Franchot Tone), and his young grandson Willie (Billy Mumy), arrive at Medicine Bow on foot. Much to the Virginian's chagrin, Trampas feels sorry for Murdoch and offers him a job at Shiloh. Murdoch's ineptitude causes several problems, and he begins to resent his grandson's admiration for top cowboy Trampas. In the end, however, Murdoch more than proves his worth and gains the admiration of all, including his grandson.
#3 - The Mountain of the Sun
Season 1 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/17/1963
While delivering a prize bull to New Mexico, the Virginian meets a young woman, Kathy (Dolores Hart), and two older companions, whom he learns are missionaries who want to travel to Mexico to minister to the Yaqui Indians. He later learns they had hired a dishonest guide who plans to rob them so he sets off in pursuit and manages to save them. However, they refuse to give up their quest to the Yaqui's who it turns out had murdered their husbands the year before. He accompanies them on their quest and along the way finds himself falling in love with Kathy.
#4 - Fifty Days to Moose Jaw
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/12/1962
Older cowhand Slim Jessup (James Gregory) is accussed of killing a man in Idaho and escapes east. He signs on with a Shiloh Ranch cattle drive to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. On the way the drovers are joined by a young man, James Cafferty (Bandon de Wilde), who wishes a different life than dirt farming with his widowed step-father (Frank Overton). The older Slim takes James under his wing and teaches him lessons in life before his past catches up with him.
#5 - Show Me a Hero
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/17/1965
In Denver, Midge Conway (Lee Patterson) visits Paul Leland (Ken Lynch), head of Leland Enterprises. Leland sends him to Eagle Rock, Wyoming. He wants that town just as he has taken others in the past and tells Midge he will have to muscle in on local Frank Colter. Trampas meanwhile is riding back to Medicine Bow when he comes upon a runaway freight wagon which he manages to stop but injures his horse in the process. The wagon driver reveals himself to be Frank Colter (John Beymer) who tells Trampas to come with him to Eagle Rock where they can get the horse treated. Trampas is surprised because Eagle Rock had long been a ghost town. At Eagle Rock the blacksmith, Bert Devlin (Mort Mills) deduces the horse has a strained tendon but with treatment it can be healed in four or five days. Attorney Keith Bentley (Leonard Nimoy) arrives and he and Frank discuss the small amount of supplies Colter has brought back. The townspeople can not get more credit and some people are leaving. Trampas ask
#6 - To Make This Place Remember
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/25/1963
Judge Garth is convinced to go to Arapaho, Wyoming, by Roseanna Dobie (Joan Blondell), an old friend. Her son is dead and although it is claimed he had died when thrown off a horse, actually, an old friend of the Judge's, rancher/lawyer Frank Sturgis (John Dehner), had led a group of 13 men who had lynched John Dobie for allegedly beating to death a young woman who had rejected his advances. Roseanna (Joan Blondell) claims her son's innocence and demands his name be cleared by an "after the fact" trial. To clear their names and consciences, the Judge manages to get Sturgis to be the prosecutor and to participate in a "trial" with the 12 others involved in the lynching, including the dead girl's father, as the jury and the Judge as defense attorney.
#7 - Big Image... Little Man
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/28/1964
Millionaire Paul Leland (Linden Chiles) treats everyone like dirt and ends up in the desert after getting shoved off a train by a disgruntled employee. He is found and taken on by the Virginian and Shiloh crew who are driving a herd of cattle to Seattle. Leland has several run-ins with the crew as well as former employees met along the way but in the end becomes a better man for his tribulations.
#8 - The Invaders
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/1/1964
Rancher Mike Tyrone (Ed Begley) purhases a ranch near Medicine Bow, and moves there with his daughter Margaret (Beverly Owen), and his two sons (Rees Vaughan and James McMullen). Tyrone tries to force surrounding ranchers to sell their spreads, eventually cutting off the water from a local river that the other ranchers use to water their stocks. However, the conflict is ended by an unexpected decision of Margaret Tyrone.
#9 - The Hero
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/7/1964
Posing as a newspaper man, James Templeton (Steve Forrest) comes to Medicine Bow to interview Judge Garth who is a leading candidate for territorial senator. Betsy Garth is smitten with James who is just about perfect in everything he does whether it is riding or shooting and this makes Trampas suspicious. His suspicions turn out to be well-grounded.
#10 - Dark Challenge
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/23/1964
Carl Hendricks (Victor Jory), with his son Arnie (Chris Robinson) and daughter Jenny (Katharine Ross), buys a local ranch. Trampas is embarrassed when he tries to get Jenny to dance at a local gathering without realizing she has a club foot. He apologizes, they become friends, and he begins setting up Jenny with his shy blacksmith friend Wally (Larry Pennell). Carl is subsequently murdered and Trampas is a suspect although he had no motive. It is left up to Deputy Emmett Ryker to solve the crime.
#11 - Echo of Another Day
Season 1 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/27/1963
Sam Harter (Bradford Dillman) is released from prison and in Medicine Bow encounters Trampas, an old friend. Harter and Bleek (John Dehner) had robbed some gold bullion. Bleek had escaped and Harter was captured but not before he had hidden the gold. Trampas had refused to participate in the robbery and Harter had protected him from Bleek who was afraid Trampas would reveal their plan. Harter takes a job at Shiloh but he knows Bleek will inevitably appear. He does and a showdown ensues.
#12 - Ride a Dark Trail
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1963
The Virginian accidentally comes upon, and is held at gunpoint by, young Lon Mortison (Buzz Martin). The boy had been searching for a gambler who he thinks is responsible for his father's suicide and had already shot and wounded a man who interfered. In order to convince the boy to give himself up, the Virginian recounts in flashback how Trampas first came to Shiloh Ranch. He came seeking revenge on Judge Garth who had been forced to kill Trampas' father (Sonny Tufts) in self-defence. This object lesson serves to get Lon to realize the error of his actions and convince him to surrender to the Sheriff.
#13 - The Dream of Stavros Karas
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/1/1965
Judge Garth visits middle-aged widower Stavros Karos' (Michael Constantine) who, along with his two young children, Sophie (Vicki Malkin) and Yanko (Joey Russo), is digging a well which he hopes to use to irrigate his fig trees. Charlie Cousins (Russ Conway), who owns the adjacent ranch, had for no apparent reason refused to allow Stavros to divert water from a stream on his property. The Judge takes the children to Shiloh while Stavros goes to the train station to pick up his bride to be, a woman he has never met. In town, Trampas lounges around while Randy does all the work picking up supplies and meets his friend Sam Cousins (Anthony Hayes) on the street. They both note the arrival on the train of the young, beautiful Eleni (Louise Sorel) and the two, especially Sam, try to chat her up. Stavros arrives to pick up his promised bride and does not realize Eleni is the woman as he expects someone older. He also has a run-in with Sam who derides him about the young Eleni. Sam returns hom
#14 - A Woman of Stone
Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/17/1969
The Shiloh people unwittingly stir up the past when they shelter the son and white widow of a Shoshone.
#15 - Jennifer
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/1965
A telegram arrives at Shiloh revealing Judge Garth's late sister's daughter, Jennifer Sommers, will be arriving shortly from Boston. Meanwhile, in nearby Tylerville, Johnny Bradford (James MacArthur) leaves a saloon and is watched by a man (Hal Needham) who trails him into a nearby warehouse. However, Johnny shoots and kills the man. The stage headed for Medicine Bow arrives in Tylerville with Jennifer aboard and she meets Johnny who is boarding the stage to travel beyond Medicine Bow. She admits to him that she is going to live at Shiloh but does not know Judge Garth and they become friendly. Arriving in Medicine Bow, Jennifer is met by the Judge and Randy. At Shiloh, the Judge admits he was not close to his sister and Jennifer admits she came only because she had no place else to go and is not necessarily enamoured of the idea. The next morning the Virginian takes Jennifer on a tour of Shiloh and they come across an old cabin which the Virginian says was the first house Judge Garth a
#16 - Felicity's Spring
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/1964
Felicity Andrews (Katherine Crawford), the new Medicine Bow school teacher, lives with her older sister Kate (Mariette Hartley) and grandfather Jonah (Carl Benton Reid). Everyone raves about her and the Shiloh hands, including Steve Hill, are all smitten but Felicity's heart is won by the Virginian who proposes to her. However, Felicity's family protects some secrets which eventually brings an end to the Virginian's marriage plans.
#17 - Man of Violence
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/25/1963
Trampas' Uncle Josh (Harry Shannon) is murdered during an holdup by Wismer (Leonard Nimoy) and Judson (William Bryant). On their trail, Trampas is eventually forced to illegally enter Apache territory where the two robbers had made a gold strike. He is joined on his quest by a guide who is after the gold (Michael Pate), a woman (Peggy McCay) who is looking for her husband who it turns out is Judson, and an army doctor who is attempting to escape court martial (DeForest Kelly).
#18 - Strangers at Sundown
Season 1 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/3/1963
Judge Garth and Betsy are among the passengers on an overcrowded stage which is waylaid by an outlaw gang led by Pauk (Paul Richards). The passengers are trapped in a way station and the outlaws demand that one of the male passengers, a George Wilson who is traveling incognito, be given to them. Wilson is a former outlaw who had betrayed the gang. The various passengers must decide whether to live with their consciences and hand Wilson over, or risk their own lives in a gun battle with the desperate gang.
#19 - Hideout
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/13/1965
Betsy Garth investigates rumours of wild broncos in the mountains and while there she encounters a young man, Clint (Andrew Prine) and his father Martin (Forrest Tucker) living in an isolated cabin. Clint gets Betsy to promise not to reveal their presence but when Betsy is bitten by a rattlesnake he is forced to take her to Dr. Spaulding (John Bryant) in Medicine Bow, thereby saving her life and earning the Virginian's gratitude. However, Martin is a wanted man and Emmett Ryker is on his trail. Betsy must choose between her growing friendship with, and promises to, Clint and revealing the hideout to the law.
#20 - Impasse
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/14/1962
The Virginian and crew collect wild horses in the mountains which they are to take to Shiloh Ranch to sell to the army. However, tough widower Pa Kroeger (Eddie Albert) lives in the mountains with his four sons and a daughter and believes he owns the horses. When the Virginian refuses to turn them over, Kroeger goes to great lengths to try and stop the Shiloh crew from taking the animals. Complicating matters are the facts the Kroeger sons think there may be a more reasonable way to deal with the situation and the daughter is attracted to Trampas.
#21 - The Devil's Children
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/5/1962
Uncontrollable 16 year old Tabby McCallum (Joan Freeman) is chastised by the Virginian for shooting a shiloh steer. In retaliation she tries to burn down the Shiloh barn but is accidentally shot by a Shiloh hand, Sam Hicks (Charles Aidman). Tabby's brother Bruce McCallum (Carl Reindell), who is from the same mould as Tabby, claims she was deliberately shot while her father, Tucker (Charles Bickford), thinks her boy friend, Dan Flood (Bert Brinckerhof), started the fire. The result is a spiralling series of events which eventually lead to murder.
#22 - Brother Thaddeus
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1963
Former n'er do well Willie Caine (Albert Salmi) is now a monk, Brother Thaddeus. He is involved in establishing a mission and boy's school on property owned by Judge Garth and Trampas and Steve Hill are helping to build the mission. A gang, including a former crony of Thaddeus', robs the train and Sheriff Abbott (Ross Elliott) locks him up as an accomplice. Thaddeus manages to escape and with the help of Trampas sets out to track down the gang and exonnerate himself.
#23 - Rope of Lies
Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/25/1964
A beautiful woman, Alva Lowell (Diana Millay), arrives in Medicine Bow having just bought the Lazy K Ranch and manages to hire a reluctant Steve Hill to be her foreman. A former business partner of Alva's, Jess Carver (Peter Breck), arrives and is killed by Steve, apparently in self-defence. However, Steve is arrested and must go to trial defended by Judge Garth's friend, lawyer Ebberly Packis (Paul Fix).
#24 - Vengeance is the Spur
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/27/1963
A mysterious woman, Mrs. Francis (Nina Foch), comes to Medicine Bow and asks the Virginian to take her to meet his friend, Michael O'Rorke (Michael Rennie), the former foreman of Shiloh, who now lives as an outlaw in the badlands. She believes her husband, who had been wrongly accussed of murder, is hiding out with O'Rorke's gang. However, Mrs. Francis is not whom she claims and trouble follows.
#25 - The Small Parade
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/20/1963
In Coyote Wells to deliver some cattle, the Virginian, Trampas and Steve Hill encounter Martin Reese (David Wayne). Reese had lost his wife and children to smallpox, had sold his farm, and now travels giving lectures urging vegetarianism. His lectures are not received well in cattle country and when one of his hecklers is found murdered, Reese is the main suspect, is seen as a murderous loony and is pursued by a posse. On the way back to Medicine Bow the Shiloh cowboys encounter a woman, Ellen Beecher (Barbara Barrie), who knows of Reese's whereabouts. Ellen has several orphans in her care and the Virginian and crew become involved in trying to help Ellen with the children and in finding and protecting Reese from the vengeful posse.