The Big Valley (TV Series) A Flock of Trouble (1967) User Reviews

Nick being Nick in this lamb of an episode

[kfo9494 · 7/10 · 9 October 2012]

Nick plays cards with Josiah Freeman (Milton Berle) and believes he wins some stock. The next morning Josiah pays his dues but in the form of sheep. Much to the dislike of Nick and farmers all over the valley.

When Nick gets harassed while in town, he becomes such a hot-head that he now wants to keep the sheep just to prove a point. The former friends of Nick decide to take action about the matter and ride out to run the sheep out of the valley. And in so doing injure Josiah Freeman.

Josiah tells Nick that he tricked him into placing sheep on the Barkley land and decides to take the sheep out of the valley. When Josiah rides out the farmers are waiting.

It was a rather simple plot that played out well. Nothing really remarkable about the show other than Milton Berle being in the cast. Peter Breck again does another great job of making the viewer believe he really was Nick Barkley and it showed on the screen.

A little comedy but Milton Berle doesn't provide it

[mlbroberts · 8/10 · 20 October 2020]

The laughs are in watching cattleman Nick Barkley (Peter Breck) be outsmarted by Milton Berle, win a flock of sheep from him in a card game and hate the whole idea until his fellow cattlemen try to force him to get rid of the sheep. Then he digs in his heels and stubborn takes over. He will not let anyone tell him what to do with HIS sheep. Robert Fuller as the leader of the cattlemen trying to get rid of the sheep is in a nasty role here, uncommon for him, but believable. Berle is very sympathetic, very sweet, and very not funny in his role as the sheepherder, taking care of his orphaned niece Eileen Baral, a fine child actor of the 60s and 70s you'd see everywhere from I Spy to Big Valley to a recurring role on Nanny and the Professor.

It turns out Berle the sheepherder was deliberately trying to get rid of the flock he couldn't care for anymore but thought he was losing them to Jarrod Barkley (Richard Long) who he thought was better suited to take care of the flock. An interesting piece of trivia - Richard Long's uncle, Jack McCord was a real-life Tom Barkley of the frontier in Alaska in the early and mid 1900s, in BOTH the cattle and sheep industries in Alaska. It seems there was no problem with combining the two industries up there and apparently, it's not a problem these days either.

Not Baa-aaa--aad at all!

[pkgoode-536-671280 · 8/10 · 9 December 2023]

One of the better entries in the series, with Milton Berle cast against type as a mild-mannered sheepherder trying to protect his flock while struggling to raise his orphaned niece. The sheepherder "loses" part of his flock to Nick in a card game in the hopes that Barkleys will help him fend off bigoted cattlemen who want to rid the valley of what they see as locusts with wool. Despite being a confirmed sheep-hater, Nick finds himself as an unwilling battler with old friends and neighbors. Berle works well with Peter Breck; their scenes together form the backbone of the episode. Breck a treat as always.

Nick the shepherd

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 26 August 2016]

Peter Breck goes into the sheep herding business when guest star Milton Berle loses them during a poker game quite deliberately. Even his lawyer brother Richard Long says that the note he signed in lieu of gambling debts is legal and binding.

After a while Berle and his little niece come to stay with the Barkleys to look after Breck's unwanted flock, but his standing among the cattle community is threatened and causing problems with Robert Fuller who is currently courting Linda Evans.

This was a nice episode and big kudos to Milton Berle who delivers a fine performance without a trace of his comic shtick.