The WORST episodes of The Virginian
Every episode of The Virginian ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst 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 Strange Quest of Claire Bingham
Season 5 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/12/1967
A nurse comes to Medicine Bow so see if an outlaw Ryker captured might be her brother as they were both orphaned at an early age. When he escapes and is shot, he uses her feelings to get help as Ryker who is attracted to her purses him.
#2 - The Girl on the Pinto
Season 5 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/29/1967
On the range Trampas spots a girl (Valora Noland) riding a pinto whom he has seen before but whom no one believes exists including the Virginian. Trampas rides after her but she rides off refusing to talk to him. In town he sees her again with her mother, Miriam Harley (Vivi Janiss), learns her name is Amanda, and that her parents have bought a local farm. He tries to get her to go a dance but she refuses. As the Harley's leave town they are watched by a man, Richard Pierce (Warren Stevens), who has just arrived at the hotel. Pierce learns where the Harleys live and later visits and talks with Amanda but rides off when her father, Frederick (R. G. Amstrong) arrives. In town, Pierce tries to get the stationmaster to arrange to stop a train so it can drop off some horses and is overheard by Sheriff Mark Abbott. He also briefly talks with another man who arrives on the train, Bert Robinson (Sandy Kenyon). The Sheriff returns to the jail where Marshall John Howard (Ken Mayer) is waiting a
#3 - The Gift
Season 8 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/18/1970
A saloon singer finds herself the target of killer after his partner dies in her room.
#4 - Black Jade
Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/31/1969
A bigoted gambler and his outlaw gang force Trampas and a black recluse into an alliance for survival.
#5 - The Saddle Warmer
Season 7 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/1968
David Sutton takes a job at Shiloh to make up for the work Trampas can't do after being involved in Trampas breaking his leg. He has a hard time fitting in with the other hands while a girl he met earlier tracks him down to help her.
#6 - Lady of the House
Season 5 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/5/1967
John Grainger asks an old friend from Maryland to come to Shiloh to take the rough edges off his grandkids. She does as he asks quite well but is less than popular with the kids and The Virginian. Unknown to them, she has a secret plan.
#7 - A Welcoming Town
Season 5 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/22/1967
Trampas goes to visit Ida Martin and son Joe who he lived with as a child. Having not seen them in a few years he finds their place deserted. When he learns Joe was killed by a posse, he can't believe the reason given for his death.
#8 - A Time of Terror
Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/11/1970
Two young men and a girl take over the Shiloh ranch and hold the Graingers captive. They are setting up a trap for a close friend of Clay's, Judge Will McMasters.
#9 - Journey to Scathelock
Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/10/1969
Jim is in North Dakota to purchase ponies when he tangles with a pair of sharp operators after his $4000 bank roll.
#10 - You Can Lead a Horse to Water
Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/7/1970
The accent is on comedy as a proper Southern woman, aided by Trampas and old Luther, goes after robbers who took her dowry.
#11 - Train of Darkness
Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/4/1970
On a train to Cheyenne, Clay, Elizabeth and Jim become involved in a fellow traveler's efforts to escape a vengeful family.
#12 - A King's Ransom
Season 8 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/25/1970
Clay Grainger is kidnapped and held for ransom by a gang hired by an Englishman (Patrick Macnee)who has posed as a friend of the Graingers. However, his true intentions are later revealed by his wife (Jackie DeShannon) but not before the Virginian follows the kidnappers - after the ransom drop-off - captures them, and convinces them to tell him where Grainger is stashed.
#13 - The Sins of the Fathers
Season 8 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/4/1970
Adam Randall is hired on as a Shiloh hand despite his being a gunfighter. Despite his being a troublemaker, the Virginian, whose life he saved, and Clay, for unknown reasons, stand behind him.
#14 - Nightmare
Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/21/1970
When the wife of a prominent Medicine Bow business man arrives, smoldering jealousies quickly rise to the top.
#15 - The Girl in the Shadows
Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/26/1969
Claire Garson and her manager Nathaniel E. 'Doc' Watson who are entertainers are hired to have Claire assume the identity of the lost niece of Charles Grainger, Clay's dead brother. Charles was killed in a mine disaster in California and Clay has no knowledge of him other than his death since Charles left Texas. Claire's "entertainment" abilities and honesty, however, interfere with her ability to assume the role.
#16 - A Vision of Blindness
Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/9/1968
Elizabeth is blinded by a stagecoach accident. She is found by Ben Oakes who wanted to kill Trampas who had to miss the stage. Ben tries to help her home but becomes lost. After they are found, She is in love with the conflicted Ben.
#17 - The Wind of Outrage
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/16/1968
In Montana on business, The Virginian and Trampas stay at the inn run by Louis Boissevain (Ricardo Montalban), an exiled Canadian revolutionist, and his wife, Suzanne Mayo (Lois Nettleton) whom Trampas recognizes as a former love interest. The Shiloh duo find that some of Louis' former confreres want him to return to Canada to lead another revolution, but that there are traitors in the group who plan to hand Louis over to the Canadian government for execution.
#18 - The Heritage
Season 7 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1968
A Shoshone Indian girl return from the East after receiving an education. She is unsure if she want to rejoin her tribe and seeks advice and help from the Graingers. Her tribe is facing threats from a land-greedy cattleman.
#19 - Ride to Misadventure
Season 7 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/6/1968
Shiloh and its neighbor's cattle herds are threaten by an outbreak of anthrax. A wounded man and woman wanting horses tell Clay the stage with a vaccine was robbed and they are chasing the outlaw gang so The Virginian and David join them.
#20 - Nora
Season 7 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/11/1968
Clay's old sweetheart Nora and her husband a Major in the Army stop at Shiloh. Nora tries to impress everyone with herself and her down to earth husband. She is willing to put others lives on the line to help her husband win a promotion.
#21 - The Ordeal
Season 7 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/19/1969
Clay Grainger sends a letter to The Virginian to take on a new hand, Scott Austin, while Clay is in Denver. Scott is the spoiled son of a wealthy self made man who is hoping a summer working at Shiloh will make him a responsible person. Scott is insecure and after several incidents including one involving the thoroughbred colt belonging to Elizabeth,he decides to leave. The Virginain goes after Scott and tries a scheme to change Scott but it has unintended consequences for both of them.
#22 - Incident at Diablo Crossing
Season 7 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/12/1969
Trampas is sent by stagecoach on a cattle buying trip. At a way station two soldiers and a payroll join the stage and they are told there may be Indian trouble ahead. When the coach stops for rest and water, Trampas finds Jason Adams standing in the river over the dead body of the ferry man from Diablo Crossing where the stage is headed. At Diablo Crossing they find the ferry destroyed and Bud McLister and Marcy McLister who are brother and sister. While repairing the ferry, Trooper Rankin takes a shine to Marcy, they are shot at, and the horses disappear followed by the payroll.
#23 - Storm Over Shiloh
Season 7 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/19/1969
Elizabeth goes missing. Clay and The Virginian ride out to search, soon followed by Trampas and Holly. They find Elizabeth trapped in an abandoned mine, where she had taken refuge during a storm. Another cave-in thwarts efforts to dig her out. Things look bleak until wolves are spotted near the mine, raising the possibility that the animals may have been using a forgotten emergency tunnel as a den. A desperate search for the tunnel ensues.
#24 - The Mysterious Mr. Tate
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/1970
Colonel MacKenzie is traveling on a train with Lark Walters, the young and sheltered daughter of a wealthy friend of his. At a stop in a town, he sees a young man shoot another man in self-defense. Later, MacKenzie saves the same young man from being lynched, and brings him onto the train, where the overly romantic Lark falls for the young stranger. MacKenzie tries to keep them apart, but Lark won't give up. Meanwhile, other men on the train hatch up a scheme to kidnap Lark and hold her for ransom, and try to get the young man, Tate, to join with them. This episode introduces Tate as a series regular.
#25 - Harvest of Strangers
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/16/1966
At the hotel, Sheriff Emmett Ryker gets ready to leave Medicine Bow on business and is seen off by several citizens including Regan (Geoffrey Horne) who has been appointed a deputy while Emmett is away. Also at the hotel on business are Morgan Starr and the Virginian who encounter, and are flirted with respectively, by Constance Burns (Jan Shepard) who works at the saloon and by the snobbish Louise Deavers (Barbara Turner) who is engaged to a man in San Francisco. As Emmett leaves on the train, a group of heavily armed Metis arrive (mixed blood Indians and French Canadians) led by Jean (Fabrizio Mioni) and Shilton (John Anderson). Smelling trouble, Regan resigns as deputy and the town leaders are wary of the strangers even though Starr and the Virginian tell them the are simply fearmongering. The owner of the hotel, Charlie Davis (Willard Sage) is reluctant to give rooms to the newcomers except at exhorbitant prices and certainly to those he perceives as ""Indians"" who are forbidden to