The Big Valley (TV Series) The Odyssey of Jubal Tanner (1965) User Reviews

Talk about bad timing

[kfo9494 · 7/10 · 8 May 2013]

Jubal Tanner, an old friend of Tom and Victoria Barkley, come into the valley with his grandson to claim some land that Tom had left him many years ago. At the ranch he finds out that Tom had been killed six years earlier but Victoria welcomes him with open arms. Tom and Victoria had helped Jubal bury his wife years ago and Tom told Jubal that when he returns he will give him the area around the grave sight called Oak Meadows. Even though Tom said he could have the land, Jubal has been saving all his life to give fair market value for the land so he can say that the land is truly his.

Now here is the bad part, Jarrod has been fighting at the state level to build a dam for the good of the valley. They have finally agreed to built the dam but the sight chosen is Oak Meadows that Jarrod thought the Barkley's owned. Now Jubal has thrown a wrench into the plan and threatening the good of the valley. Now the people of the valley are at odds with Jubal and it looks like it is going to get nasty.

Had Jubal only returned seven years instead of six then the whole conflict could have been avoided. But since that did not happen we get a story that is rather melancholy. It appears the producers of the show did not want to leave the viewers feeling too bad so they threw in a little lighthearted comedy to end the show with a smile. With a strong cast the episode held its own.

Starts Strong with Weak Ending

[bcrd500 · 8/10 · 2 February 2019]

Episode tells the tale of a long dead wife and her husband returning to claim a small part of the Barkley ranch promised to him by Tom and Victoria.

The episode lays out a story that points out the good of the majority cannot over rule the rights of the individual. One by one the Barkley's are won over to the rights of the individual with Nick, as usual, being the last to see the light.

The end of the episode destroys the first 30 minutes of the show as the wants of the majority win out by simply killing the individual and the Barkley's fall in line by giving the grandson back the 7.000 paid by the grandfather (what, no interest or profit), giving the kid a train ticket to another relative to pick up the emotional pieces, a pat on the head, and a promise by the town council to name the dam after the grandfather.

Redeeming a doubt

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 12 February 2016]

Arthur O'Connell guest stars on this Big Valley story as an old friend of Tom&Victoria Barkley who comes to collect on a promise. Back in the day if O'Connell comes up with the price there's a piece of Barkley land that the patriarch promised him. Now over 20 years later O'Connell is back and Barbara Stanwyck makes good on the pledge. She feels she has to and in a most touching scene with Richard Long she tells us why.

The problem is that the land was also going to be used as the site of a new dam which will benefit a lot of people. The Barkleys who are like the Cartwrights in their bailiwick get very unpopular. But that's nothing to how the people of Stockton feel about O'Connell who has his young grandson with him.

It all ends badly, but there are some touching scenes with O'Connell and his grandson Sheldon Golomb. Young Golomb bonds with Lee Majors who also had a hardscrabble life in a mining community as a kid.

This Big Valley episode is a bittersweet tale.

Coincidence? For sure. Great episode? Definitely!

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 22 June 2019]

Victoria Barkley's word is just as good as a signature in her opinion, and being the matriarch of Stockton California, that is good enough for her little mind. years ago, Victoria and her late husband promised a tract of land along the river to their good friend Arthur O'Connell who buried his wife there and left the area. It is 30 years later when he returns to claim the land, and Victoria is more than willing to let him have it. The only problem (and this is where the coincidence comes in) the locals have decided to build a dam on that site with the help of the Barkley Brothers. For the first time, we get to see Richard Long's lawyer Jared in court, and he is certainly commanding as an attorney. we also get to see for the first time, Victoria in britches, and Boyd is Barbara Stanwyck look good in them! She has kept her girlish figure even with that glorious white mane of hair, and that makes her all the more attractive.

The legitimite Heath, torn between his brothers and new adopted mother, finds his first moral battle with the family to be highly conflictive, and along with Audra, that makes for interesting psychological drama. Hot headed Nick is obviously going to be the most against O'Connell's remaining on that land, with Long's Jared on the idea of justice, although he's not sure where that is in this case. this is another example of how the series got off to a great start by having conflicts that weren't just of a wild west plot line, but could be utilized and pretty much every genre of film or television. Veteran actor Arthur O'Connell, always a deliver of excellent performances, adds another one to his belt, and it would have been nice had he been added as a recurring player.

Good except for the coincidences

[wesperkins · 8/10 · 28 June 2017]

This was a typical episode where they run across an old friend who happens to become part of the story. Usually they are visiting a city and run across their friend, but in this one, the friend comes to see them. Jared has been lobbying to get a dam built for the valley, and it has taken lots of hard work by the entire town to get it approved. On the eve of getting it approved, Jubal shows up after 7 years to claim the very land they want to build the dam on. Just too much of a stretch that he happens to show up the exact moment they get the dam approved. After 7 years. They also don't exactly try and persuade him too much to try and sell the land, and Victoria wants him to have it because he save her life awhile back. So The whole town is against him, and he won't take a another plot of land in place of it. Yes his wife is buried there, but other than that, I don't understand why he is so stubborn. He has not been on that land or seen his wife 's grave in years. So he should just move her. The coincidences and stubbornness take away from a decent episode. It has an ending I was not expecting at first, too. The acting is good and the story does pull you in. If you can get past the timing of the Jubal coming back when he does, and then get over his stubbornness later, you will enjoy the episode. I took off one star for each of the things I did not like for a score of 8.

Dark Victory

[summerfields · 7/10 · 14 April 2010]

A rather sad episode.

Victoria's old dear friend Jubal comes to the San Joaquin Valley and presents a bag of gold to Ms Barkley for land he's longed for for a long time.

His grandson is his traveling companion and naturally, there are reasons why Jubal connot make his dream come true.

No more said plot-wise.

This show is so superb in that the guest stars were so varied and talented.

Sometimes I feel that it's my duty to write a beautiful coffee-table type picture book of the "The Big Valley" it's truly the only TV show I ever cherished.

No Justice for Jubal.

[sl_burton · 1/10 · 6 March 2020]

This would been a good show if it didn't end so badly. Jubal gets killed and the little boy gets sent to his uncle's with 7G check in his pocket? No justice for Jubal.

One of my least favorite episodes of the series

[mlbroberts · 4/10 · 25 December 2020]

Where to start? How about the title - the exact same title as an episode of Gunsmoke which, oddly, starred Peter Breck (Nick Barkley). Next, the timeline silliness - Tom Barkley killed in 1870, and now it's 6 years later but Victoria (Barbara Stanwyck) says Jubal Tanner's wife (the always excellent Arthur O'Connell) was killed before her children were born. Her grave marker, however, says she was killed in 1854, meaning in 1876 Jarrod (Richard Long), apparently a respected lawyer for quite a while in the community, could only be 22 at the oldest - nope, it doesn't fly.

Then the premise of the episode - Tanner arrives to claim land the Barkleys promised to him years earlier, but Jarrod has been spearheading the drive to build a dam that would flood that land. The dam would help dozens of people, all old friends of the Barkleys, but Victoria insists Tanner should have the land - she chooses him over dozens of other friends, because his wife is buried there. Turn your back on dozens of old friends for one old friend over the promise of a piece of land? And if it was so important to Victoria that Tanner have that exact piece of land, why on earth did she allow Jarrod to go so far out on a limb with a project to flood that land in the first place? Then the awful conclusion. Tanner is killed when hooligans try to drive him off the land, so the land is taken for the dam, and all is going to be fine because they will name the dam after Tanner. Please. Foolishness throughout the episode, as well as inconsistency and an insulting ending that everyone thinks is dandy.

Not a good episode at all.

Jubal's second episode

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 4 October 2015]

The scriptwriter for this entry of 'The Big Valley' is Paul Savage. He wrote another episode with the same title for 'Gunsmoke' two years earlier. In the first version, Jubal was somewhat younger and of all people, Peter Breck played him. This time around veteran character actor Arthur O'Connell has been cast in the role.

While this may not be an exact remake, it is certainly a continuation of the Jubal character, his trials and his tribulations. And since it is not set near Dodge City, Kansas, but rather in the big valley of Stockton, the man is connected to the Barkleys. In fact, we get some much-needed backstory on Victoria and Tom Barkley's early days, because Jubal knew them when they all came out west to California. Because of their shared history in settling the valley, Jubal's life and struggles probably mean more to Victoria than to her children.

She is also concerned about Jubal's grandson and what happens to him. While there are some implausible plot points and an ending that is perhaps a bit too tidy, the episode is thought-provoking. It makes us think about the nature of progress and the importance of leaving a legacy to the younger generation.