Daniel Boone (TV Series) The Sisters O'Hannrahan (1964) User Reviews

A few too many Women

[gordonl56 · 7/10 · 29 March 2014]

DANIEL BOONE – The Sisters O'Hannrahan - 1964

This is the ninth episode of the long running 1964-70 series about the life of American frontiersman and explorer, Daniel Boone. The lead is played by Fess Parker. Also in the mix are Albert Salmi, Ed Ames, Patricia Blair, Veronica Cartwright and Darby Hinton.

Fess Parker and Albert Salmi are visiting Salem, Virginia, on a trip to buy some supplies. Parker mistakenly gets involved in an auction for the services of two indentured sisters, Fay Spain and Nina Shipman. Once back in Fort Boonesborough, Parker has to explain to wife, Patricia Blair, how he ended up with the two sisters for three years.

Parker and buddy Salmi are soon combing the local woods etc for someone he can marry off the girls to. This of course causes no end of trouble as various suitors arrive to court the women. Full-fledged brawls over the girl's affections become the rule.

Don Megowan becomes the front runner for the hard to please older sister, Spain. He proves his worth when Spain gets lost in the woods and is about to be grabbed up by a roving band of Indians.

This one is a somewhat comic episode that does not quite come off. Still, some well-one action, keeps the story moving right along.

Sister act with a tinge of green

[militarymuseu-88399 · 6/10 · 13 November 2023]

While in Salem, NC Yadkin wanders into an indentured servant auction and gets into a scheme to bid up the price of two fetching Irish sisters (Fay Spain and Nina Shipman). An unknowing Daniel blunders in and ends up owning the rights to both, with the responsibility of carting them to Boonesborough. Rebecca is initially not too pleased with the new acquisition.

1950's bad girl movie queen Spain is the elder, and 1960's guest star journeywoman Shipman is the younger; both dutifully provide forced Irish accents and debutante looks for the hour. Former boxer, football linebacker, an restauranteur Don Megowan is a blacksmith with an interest in the elder colleen.

In the early years of the series, comedic and human-interest stories such as this provided a nice change of pace from unbroken action-adventure. Not so much by series end; by the late 1960's public revulsion over daily footage from Vietnam plus the spiraling national crime rates largely drove the networks away from stories dealing with history, conflict and dramatic tension, and toward anodyne scripts centered on relationship dialogue and forced laughs. For "DB," this would entail devolution into a "Tales of Boonesborough" format far different from the series at its peak, liberally interspersed with hours far better done on "Green Acres" or "The Waltons."

This episode is a forerunner of that, largely comprised of opportunities to laugh at a bumbling Dan and attempts to marry off the Irish girls. A brawl among four suitors is supposed to yuk things up. This is a good chance to grow Rebecca's milieu and character, but the writers only let her operate at two speeds - indignant spouse and mother hen. A bit of rescue action at the denouement.

This is the first of a few attempts by the series to look at colonial indentured servitude, and it is jarring to see in a 1964 TV context images of whites auctioning off whites, but historically its a bit late in the game; indentured servitude was well on the way out by the time of the Revolution. Spain makes reference to the Irish potato famine, not due until the 1840's. Our default villains, the Shawnee, are again called to duty.

A harbinger of the series eventual decline in a longer context, but this short distance in still a reasonably diverting outing.