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.

Last Updated: 1/12/2024Network: NBCStatus: Ended
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The Gift
star
4.50
2 votes

#1 - 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.

Directors: Seymour Robbie
The Sins of the Fathers
star
4.50
2 votes

#2 - 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.

Directors: Walter Doniger
A King's Ransom
star
4.50
2 votes

#3 - 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.

Directors: Joseph Pevney
No War for the Warrior
star
4.50
2 votes

#4 - No War for the Warrior

Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/18/1970

A man signs on to work a cattle drive for the Shiloh ranch putting the other hands in danger. He is a fugitive Indian caught between the white world and his Kiowa roots. Things get heated when they come to a small, bigoted town.

Directors: Don McDougall
A Time of Terror
star
4.50
2 votes

#5 - 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.

Directors: Joseph Pevney
Train of Darkness
star
4.50
2 votes

#6 - 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.

Directors: James Sheldon
Holocaust
star
4.50
2 votes

#7 - Holocaust

Season 8 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/28/1970

The Shiloh ranch is burned down after Clay joins with his fellow ranchers to oppose an Eastern combine trying for a land-grab. This leaves Clay with only has one chance for survival of the ranch, get a herd to Denver in record time.

Directors: Jeannot Szwarc
Watch Now:Apple TV
You Can Lead a Horse to Water
star
4.50
2 votes

#8 - 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.

Directors: James Neilson
Writer: Lois Hire
Black Jade
star
4.50
2 votes

#9 - 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.

Directors: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Herb Meadow
Journey to Scathelock
star
4.50
2 votes

#10 - 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.

Directors: Seymour Robbie
The Strange Quest of Claire Bingham
star
4.50
2 votes

#11 - 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.

Directors: Don McDougall
The Girl on the Pinto
star
4.50
2 votes

#12 - 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

Rich Man, Poor Man
star
5.00
2 votes

#13 - Rich Man, Poor Man

Season 8 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/11/1970

A farmer who has been poor his entire life suddenly comes into a lot of money. He goes on a spending spree giving large parties, buying luxury items, and a ranch hand more than willing to help him spend it.

Directors: Anton Leader
A Welcoming Town
star
5.25
4 votes

#14 - 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.

Directors: Abner Biberman
The Bugler
star
5.25
4 votes

#15 - The Bugler

Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/19/1969

A story of alienation between a veteran Army officer and his son, a deserter.

Directors: Anton Leader
A Touch of Hands
star
5.33
3 votes

#16 - A Touch of Hands

Season 8 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/1969

A pig tailed brat returns home from finishing school for a two week vacation as a beautiful woman catching Trampas' eyes again. They fall in love as she remembers the good times but her father wants her to return to school in the east.

Directors: Anton Leader
Writer: John Dunkel
Watch Now:Apple TV
Home to Methuselah
star
5.33
3 votes

#17 - Home to Methuselah

Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/26/1969

The Virginian becomes involved in a lawman's obsessive search for two surviving members of a gang.

Directors: Abner Biberman
Writer: Jack Miller
A Love to Remember
star
5.33
3 votes

#18 - A Love to Remember

Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1969

The Virginian becomes attracted to Julie Oakes, an Eastern reporter whose mysteriously tragic past may doom their relationship.

Directors: Joseph Pevney
The Power Seekers
star
5.33
3 votes

#19 - The Power Seekers

Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/8/1969

The territorial representative resigns so Clay is drafted to run against a local man. Once in the race Clay learns the dirty side of politics including being lied to about who drafted him. He runs an honest contest but will the other side.

Directors: Seymour Robbie
A Flash of Darkness
star
5.33
3 votes

#20 - A Flash of Darkness

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1969

During a cattle drive, a rattler startles the Virginian's horse while he is chasing a stray, and he is thrown and hits his head on a rock causing temperary blindness. As he wanders in the darkness, he stumbles upon a young lady who lives with her father (James Whitmore)and brother, whom the Virginian had just fired. The daughter wants to help the Virginian though the men protest. The two men tell her that they are returning the blind man to his friends but actually plan to kill him. After leaving the house, the Virginian somehow manages to escape and makes it back to the house where he wanders into the corral and is nearly trampled by the horses until Trampas and Jim Horn rescues him from the corral and the two men.

Directors: Joseph Pevney
A Woman of Stone
star
5.50
2 votes

#21 - 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.

Directors: Abner Biberman
Writer: Gerry Day
The Substitute
star
5.50
4 votes

#22 - The Substitute

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/5/1969

Trampas' vacation takes a nightmarish turn when he's jailed in a small town on a trumped-up murder charge.

Directors: Anton Leader
The Family Man
star
5.50
4 votes

#23 - The Family Man

Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1969

Jim becomes farmhand, midwife and friend to a pregnant teen whose husband is on the lam from the law.

Directors: Joseph Pevney
Halfway Back from Hell
star
5.50
4 votes

#24 - Halfway Back from Hell

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1969

Trampas takes the job as teaching foreman at a rehabilitation ranch in Arizona. The group of prisoners which has been selected to start the ranch are having more problems with the nearby town than in learning how to work a ranch.

Directors: Michael Caffey
Long Ride Home
star
5.50
4 votes

#25 - Long Ride Home

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1969

The close friendship and free life of teenage cowhand Jim Horn and an old wrangler are put at risk when they both sign on the Shiloh. Young Jim takes a liking to his new surroundings, and to Elizabeth.

Directors: Charles S. Dubin