User Reviews

Some folks might think this is a cheap ripoff of a Wagon Train episode, but guess who owned both shows? Yep- NBC, specif Revue Studios- so they get to recycle anything they already own matter which of their properties aired the story first in their respective formats --includes set locations, players and anything else they can think of to make a dollar and stay in business. It's what i would do if reruns weren't invented yet, the last time i used the story was 3yrs ago and i didn't want to pay a writer, only a kid who could rework an existing script. Some people are just happy to complain maybe.

Mercedes was the Dan Duryea/Cliff Grundy-type character and Doug McClure the Robert Horton/Flint McCullough personality. Mercedes and Doug seemed to go easy to comedy, so that's how they played it- but it threw off the dramatic tempo imo. At least there wasn't a guy in a bear suit walking around making it worse.

Richard Devon was the heavy but not too heavy. Overland Trail consists of only 17 shows, but the people in those shows have appeared in many other series and movies that we enjoy, so just eat your popcorn and stop complaining- they don't make them like this -or this remake -or this version over here anymore.

This episode is almost a complete ripoff of "The Cliff Grundy Story," which was written by Aaron Spelling. See my review of "The Overland Trail" episode "The Baron Comes Back," another ripoff of a Wagon Train episode by this same "writer," B.L. James. Other than the ripoffs, I like "The Overland Trail" TV series. If you watch the Wagon Train episode and this episode back-to-back, you will be amazed and disgusted by the brazen ripoff of dialogue, plot, and even scenes and sequences. The character names are changed, of course, as are references that wouldn't make sense since Kelly and Flip don't run a wagon train. But the episode is such a blatant ripoff that it completely ruins my viewing pleasure. It's despicable that this hack B.L. James was able to commit what I consider to be fraud by taking money for these scripts that were ripped off from another series.