(Note: I am reviewing from a "best of" DVD and have reviewed episodes 1,2,7, and 8 to date, and am now concluding with 14.)
A young homesteader comes under pressure from both a sick mother and an eviction notice and lashes out violently; Dr. Baxter attempts to intervene.
The mother is apparently uncredited - we only see her on her sickbed - but the daughter is played by TV journeywoman Jean Howell, active 1954-99 with 104 credits. Hot-tempered Mike is portrayed by Robert Arthur, who enjoyed a significant guest star run in the 50's but was sadly reduced to bystander roles in "adult" films by the 90's; probably a story with some tragedy there. John Hoyt of "Spartacus" is the malevolent neighboring rancher.
Mother needs an operation to relieve a brain tumor (possible c. 1900?), and Mike blames prejudice against "Easterners" - unlikely in 1900's Arizona, that was two out every three people you encountered then. Mike tries rustling, ineptly, then ratchets up to (a deserved) assault on a deputy, jailbreaking, and holdups to fund the operation. Dr. Baxter runs around on the edge trying to mitigate things.
The drama's theme is probably even more relevant to the problems of spiraling health care costs in 2023. In 1959, though the need for expensive lifesaving operations was not unknown, the largest expense of most US hospitals was still clean linen, and most patients were not confronted with a treatment-or-bankruptcy choice. But don't look to this episode for applicable answers; it would be left to "E. R." in the 90's to TV-adjudicate the issue of modern medical costs.
Since this is my finale review of the series unless I luck into a complete DVD (not a fan of what the streaming era has done to vintage TV accessibility), a couple of notes on doctors in Westerns. Rex Allen was certainly more of an active protagonist than Milburn Stone on " Gunsmoke," but all of "GS's" cast was constrained by the need to keep Matt Dillon as Superman. And for all if its movie serial production values, I still find "Frontier Doctor" more watchable than "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," whose writers seemed to dislike the 19th century in general and the 19th century West in particular. (I pretty much expected the "DQMW" finale to show Jane Seymour sashaying in designer jeans onto the porch of her new women's clinic while sipping Chardonnay, with a pan outward to show former cattle ranchers taking up organic farming!)
But to conclude, this episode's resolution and the "FD" series in general reflect well the times of its production. Dated and socially limited, granted - but also displaying an optimism unknown to us in 2023. We at least have artifacts such as this to keep us going until such times visit us again.
A young homesteader comes under pressure from both a sick mother and an eviction notice and lashes out violently; Dr. Baxter attempts to intervene.
The mother is apparently uncredited - we only see her on her sickbed - but the daughter is played by TV journeywoman Jean Howell, active 1954-99 with 104 credits. Hot-tempered Mike is portrayed by Robert Arthur, who enjoyed a significant guest star run in the 50's but was sadly reduced to bystander roles in "adult" films by the 90's; probably a story with some tragedy there. John Hoyt of "Spartacus" is the malevolent neighboring rancher.
Mother needs an operation to relieve a brain tumor (possible c. 1900?), and Mike blames prejudice against "Easterners" - unlikely in 1900's Arizona, that was two out every three people you encountered then. Mike tries rustling, ineptly, then ratchets up to (a deserved) assault on a deputy, jailbreaking, and holdups to fund the operation. Dr. Baxter runs around on the edge trying to mitigate things.
The drama's theme is probably even more relevant to the problems of spiraling health care costs in 2023. In 1959, though the need for expensive lifesaving operations was not unknown, the largest expense of most US hospitals was still clean linen, and most patients were not confronted with a treatment-or-bankruptcy choice. But don't look to this episode for applicable answers; it would be left to "E. R." in the 90's to TV-adjudicate the issue of modern medical costs.
Since this is my finale review of the series unless I luck into a complete DVD (not a fan of what the streaming era has done to vintage TV accessibility), a couple of notes on doctors in Westerns. Rex Allen was certainly more of an active protagonist than Milburn Stone on " Gunsmoke," but all of "GS's" cast was constrained by the need to keep Matt Dillon as Superman. And for all if its movie serial production values, I still find "Frontier Doctor" more watchable than "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," whose writers seemed to dislike the 19th century in general and the 19th century West in particular. (I pretty much expected the "DQMW" finale to show Jane Seymour sashaying in designer jeans onto the porch of her new women's clinic while sipping Chardonnay, with a pan outward to show former cattle ranchers taking up organic farming!)
But to conclude, this episode's resolution and the "FD" series in general reflect well the times of its production. Dated and socially limited, granted - but also displaying an optimism unknown to us in 2023. We at least have artifacts such as this to keep us going until such times visit us again.
