As the Gene Autry Show, one of the first TV westerns, progressed, with few exceptions, it got better and better. This entry from the fourth season is one of the funniest in the series. Pat Buttram finds an ideal foil for his humor in veteran character actor, Hank Patterson (later Fred Ziffel of "Green Acres") as the stagecoach driver, Idaho, who is forced to sample Pat's cooking using Pats new "housewife's delight" kitchen inventions, such as a flapjack flapper. When Idaho exclaims that he doesn't like flapjacks, just hot, black coffee and some ham and eggs, Pat explains that his flapjacks don't taste like flapjacks." "What do they taste like?" inquires a surprised Idaho. With a straight face, Pat replies, "Chicken."
In each episode, Pat usually had a gimmick for laughs. Mainly the gimmicks were somewhat silly, appealing to kids only, but this time his kitchen inventions are genuinely funny, for example the no tears facial equipment for pealing onions, goggles with a clothes pin attached for the nose. Even his jokes are better this time. Pat refers to Eli Whitney as the inventor who made gin out of cotton.
Gene was billed as a singing cowboy; so his legion of fans expected him to warble a ditty or two. But his admirers mainly wanted action and plenty of it. In his TV show, Gene would sing only one song placing it most often at the beginning or at the end of the show. That way the action was not interrupted or slowed down by a melody. He seldom if ever introduced new songs on his TV show. He mainly sang songs made famous by himself from his recording career or those sung in the movies he made over a twenty-year period. For "Outlaw of Blue Mesa," Gene sings a few verses of "When The Bloom Is On The Sage (When It's Round-Up Time In Texas)" at the first of the program, without his guitar.
Gene Autry's Flying A Productions employed a stable of character actors and new discoveries that helped make the series successful. In "Outlaw of Blue Mesa," Gene's protégé, Dick Jones, is the alleged outlaw. At the time he was known as The Range Rider's sidekick, Dick West. The Range Rider (stuntman Jock Mahoney)was another of Gene's associates. Gale Davis appeared in several of the earlier episodes of The Gene Autry Show, but now had her own series, "Annie Oakley," which Gene's Flying A Productions produced. Denver Pyle (later Briscoe Darling on "Andy Griffith," Uncle Jesse Duke on "The Dukes of Hazzard," and Texas Ranger Frank Hamer in "Bonnie and Clyde") plays the boss outlaw. This was one of his many appearances on The Gene Autry Show, usually portraying one of the outlaws.
The story is fairly routine but entertaining. Young Tom Jackson (Dick Jones) is attempting to get even with the couple he holds responsible for the death of his father, who died in a mine explosion. Tom believes that his father's business partner, Edward Hadley (Pyle), and Ed's wife, Marie (Claire Carleton), were behind the explosion, even though Ed is now in a wheelchair as a result of the so-called accident. Tom, as the Kid, dressed in black wearing a mask, robs stagecoaches carrying Ed and Marie's money made from the mines. To Tom's surprise, the money boxes are empty, but no one believes him except for his sister, Sally (Margaret Field). Gene is an insurance detective sent to investigate the robberies. Naturally, Pat tags along to either help or hinder. What Gene and Pat uncover is a surprise for all.