The Big Valley, why spoil it

[stuart.scot]

A feature length episode of The Big Valley was on channel 5 on Sunday afternoon. Though I was expecting it (It's better than nothing), it still disappointed me when they, as has been done on Channel 5 before, clued two episodes together. For half an hour we watched as Victoria and her family were concerned about the kidnapping of her son Nick, then suddenly she and her daughter are visiting a relative with no concern about Nick's disappearence. It spoils it for me. If they were going to show TBV, why not show either a single episode or two episodes back to back.



I was also disappointed that it wasn't the episode's advertised. I was expecting an early episode where Lee Major's Heath turned up at the ranch to claim his inheritence of his step mother Victoria, but that wasn't what we got.

[batman]

Several episodes of The Big Valley were cobbled together as feature length TV movies for US TV broadcasts. C5 has shown a few of these so I expect they bought a job lot or got them as part of a package eal.

[Marky B]

That is why I couldn't find the one from the other week with Frtiz Weaver as a captured prisoner and the boys taking on a feud with another family on the IMDB.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[Ray]

It is a very sloppy way of showing them, sometime two are cobbled together from different seasons. On one occasion Stanwyck was shown in Victorian period dress, then halfway through she was dressed in leather with a modern 1960's hairstyle. After the first season proved to be a hit her character became far more modernised, which was crazy considering it was supposed to be set in the 1870's. All the supporting players were in poke bonnets and long dresses and Stanwyck looked like she had just come from the set of Roustabout, complete with polo neck sweaters, purple eye shadow and bat like false eyelashes. It was still great fun though, but you couldn't take it seriously.

[batman]

name='Ray'] bat like false eyelashes

What are trying to say here Ray?

[Ray]

name='batman']What are trying to say here Ray?

I LOVE the lady, I was just surprised that she allowed them to layer the most inappropriate make up on her considering the era it was supposed to be set in.

[stuart.scot]

Hi Ray, fancy meeting you here.

[Ray]

name='stuart.scot']Hi Ray, fancy meeting you here.

Yes, it's a small world Stuart, sadly, the Classic Movies Site is but a shadow of it's former self, so I find myself spending more time in here.

[bhowells]

These cobbled together Big Valley episodes have also been shown on the Movies For Men channel on Sky. I have a feeling that many of these stitched together two parters might have come from the later seasons. I saw one on Movies for Men which starred Leslie Neilson and it was terrible and was not in keeping with the good story lines from the earlier seasons.



The much missed Performance channel on Sky showed most of the first season last year as part of their on-going season featuring the entire output of Four Star television.



Peformance stopped showing us impoted shows algtotether before disapearing from the Sky platform. Its sister channel Mainstreet continued for a while and I assume that the channel called Rock On that shows concerts of concerts by Rick Wakeman and Yes is from the peoplew who brought us Perfomance.



Does anyone recall Peformance showing a number of brit b movies in its schedules. They also showed some u.s. feature films which starred great country singers, these films were the country music equivalant of films like Rock Around the Clock." Very thin plots merely an excuse to promote major acts of the day.