IN THE VILLAGE.....

It could be that the Mexican village near the border of the United States that served as the base of operations for the attacks on US forts (as seen in the three-part 'Branded' episode "The Mission") could have been the same village where Dave Blasingame saw a local despot brought down by the peasants he was trying to control. This happened in an episode of 'The Westerner' which I had seen on TV Land once - back when TV Land actually showed some interesting TV classics. I'm not sure which episode it was, but I get the feeling it could have been "Ghost Of A Chance":

Dave has been promised $50 to deliver a message to a man's brother in a small, sleepy little village across the border in Mexico-- but when he arrives, he finds the whole town totally deserted.

"Ghost of a Chance": Dave and a Mexican woman free a terrorized town from bandits.

Hopefully someday I can track down that episode of 'The Westerner' so that I can do a screen captcha for comparison. In fact, now I'm in the mood to seek it out on bootleg DVD!

BCnU!

A NICK OFF THE OLD BARKLEY BLOCK

Everybody who ever watched 'The Big Valley' knows that Tom Barkley, the deceased patriarch of the Barkley clan, was a horndog. He had an illegitimate son named Heath by an Indian woman who was accepted into the family. (I'm not sure if we ever found out if that had been a loving relationship, or the result of a one-night stand... heck, for alls I know, it could have been rape!)

Tom Barkley cheated on his wife Victoria once; who's to say he didn't do so other times as well, all over the American West?

Perhaps even south of the border.....? In a small village just over the border in Mexico which served as the base of operations for General Arriola's sorties against US forts, undercover spy Jason McCord made first contact with one of Arriola's men, a thuggish bandito named Crispo.

Because of his similarity in appearance to Nick Barkley, it will be my assertion that Crispo was the bastard son of Tom Barkley by some Mexican peasant woman. Crispo was finally captured by US troops and was more than likely hanged for his crimes, including the murder of Colonel Harry Snow. He probably went to the gallows never knowing that he may have been the son of Tom Barkley. But then, he probably would not have cared...... (For those not familiar with the Toobworld concept, this is just a "splainin" as to why both characters - both of whom were played by Peter Breck in the real world - looked similar within the reality of the TV Universe.)


BCnU!

AS SEEN ON TV: SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT

SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT

AS SEEN IN:
"The Tragedy of John Milton (August 13, 1660)"
'You Are There'

AS PLAYED BY:
Grant Gordon

Sir William Davenant (baptised 3 March 1606 – April 7, 1668), also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras, and who was active both before and after the English Civil War and the Interregnum.

Following the death of Ben Jonson in 1637, Davenant was named Poet Laureate in 1638. He was a supporter of King Charles I in the English Civil War. In 1641, he was declared guilty of high treason but was, ironically, knighted two years later by the king following the siege of Gloucester. He was then appointed Emissary to France in 1645 and treasurer of the colony of Virginia in 1649 by Charles II. The following year, he was made lieutenant governor of Maryland, but was captured at sea, imprisoned, and sentenced to death. He spent all of 1651 in the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned at the time "Gondibert" was written. Having been released in 1652, he was only pardoned in 1654.

In order to avoid the strict laws of censorship in force in all public places at the time, he turned a room of his home, Rutland House, into a private theatre where his works, and that of others considered seditious, could be performed. A performance of his "The Siege of Rhodes" at Rutland House in 1656 is considered to be the first performance of an English opera, and also included England's first known professional actress, Mrs. Coleman.

After suffering from syphilis for nearly four decades, he died in London on April 7, 1668, shortly after his final play, The Man's the Master, was first performed. He is buried in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey where the inscription on his tablet reads "O rare Sir William Davenant."
(from Wikipedia)

BCnU!