Admirable film.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Barbara Stynwick must had been shown a lot of money. In order to get to TV. As her movie career was winding down. She plays the headstrong but sympathetic head of the owner of the ranch. Which was controversial at the time.She played a mom that had her hands full, raising her children as a single mother who's husband died six years prior to where the show began. There was even tempered and calmer attorney Jarrod, hot tempered but sympathetic Nick, illegitimate son Heath who had to prove his worth to the family, and only daughter Audra who was stubborn but yet, one action gal.They do not make westerns like they used to like "Bonanza" or the "Big Valley!"

I'm about to turn "The Big Valley" into "The Big Landfill". In fairness... The pressure to churn out a new episode of a TV show every 7 to 10 days makes it difficult to produce consistently good work. But not impossible."The Big Valley" is a poor program that deserves the trashing I'm about to administer, but it's no worse than hundreds of others. The cruelest thing I can say about "TBV" isn't that it's bad (though it is), but that it's typical of too much TV programming. Outstanding programs like "Wiseguy", "Frasier", "Futurama", and "Xena, Warrior Princess" are the too-rare exceptions. *"The Big Valley" is an obvious ripoff of NBC's successful "Bonanza". It differs in ways designed to appeal to a wider demographic -- a female movie star who can actually act, and be a role model for young women; three sons (an intellectual, a leather-clad rowdy, and a nice guy), two of whom are hunks; ** and an airhead daughter for young hetero males. "Bonanza" had a Chinese cook; "Valley" had a shuffling Negro servant, the plausibility of which apparently deflected criticism."The Big Valley" is, most of the time, trashy melodrama. The "acting" is usually loud and "in your face". Characterizations are anything but subtle. Long-worn-out plots rise from the dead (brides-to-be are murdered, a blow to the head conveniently induces amnesia). And when the writers can't think of anything else, Bad People show up to harass the Barkleys for 45 minutes, then are offed in the last five.The result is that the viewer (this one, anyway) is far more likely to laugh his/her a** off at the concocted tragedies and disasters that befall the Barkleys, et al. I refuse to apologize for laughing uncontrollably when Ma Barkley hurtles over a cliff in a stagecoach without seat belts or airbags and survives, or a wagon full of nitro (and the people driving it) blows up in a cheap faux explosion that couldn't have used more than two air cannons.There were plans to turn "The Big Valley" into a feature film. It's ripe for an "Airplane!"-style trashing. I'm getting ideas...ADDENDUM: This review was written after watching a bit more than the first season. I stand by my blunt criticism. However, the series improved in following seasons, with occasional solid episodes. But it is, overall, not much different from "Bonanza" -- and that's no compliment.* The rise of cable TV created a demand for programming to fill the hours. Producers had little choice but to hire talented writers and directors whose work was "too good" for broadcast television.** None of the Bonanza boys were particularly desirable matrimonial fodder. Little Joe appealed only to women who wanted a boy to mother. Adam was surly. And Hoss was... well, he had a nice personality.

I just read a biography of Barbara Stanwyck and one thing that was made abundantly clear, the woman really liked westerns. She loved doing them from the earliest time in her career right up to her stint with The Big Valley. In fact one of the great disappointments in her life was not doing a film with John Wayne. Who knows why that didn't happen because the two of them were in sync politically.But she did a bunch of them with co-stars like Joel McCrea, Ronald Reagan, Walter Huston, Barry Sullivan, Ray Milland, etc. So when it came time to choose a television project, Barbara went west.The Big Valley cast her as Victoria Barkley, matriarch of the Barkley ranch with three sons and a daughter to hold the fort against all comers. The pilot of the show introduced her husband's illegitimate son into the household played by young Lee Majors. Her children were Richard Long, Peter Breck, Linda Evans, and Charles Briles.Briles got dropped after eight episodes as the youngest, Eugene. They just sent him off to college in the east and he wasn't heard from again. Reading the IMDb notes on him, I find he got himself drafted. All I can say is BUMMER.Richard Long as Jarrod was also college educated, an attorney, which was a good plot device allowing the show to get off the ranch and into town. Peter Breck was Nick, who was a tough son of a gun. I met Peter Breck a few years before The Big Valley. His family lived in Rochester, New York across from my grandparents house and he was visiting while starring in another shortlived series Black Saddle. My siblings and cousins got to meet him then. A very gracious and nice man.Of course Linda Evans and Lee Majors both had really great careers after the show. Linda as Audra was a sweet and innocent child, not anything like Crystal Carrington. And Lee Majors got to be The Fall Guy and The Six Million Dollar Man after he was Heath Barkley. I would love to have that man's residuals.Richard Long did Nanny and the Professor and tragically died right after the run of that show. He was always a player of great class and I enjoyed seeing him in anything he did.The Barkleys ran into all manner of people and were constantly helping them out of their various predicaments. They were pretty rich of course, as rich as Bonanza's Cartwrights. But I really think they outdid themselves even more than Ben and his sons. Every episode seemed to end with some financial assistance to help somebody get on their feet. I'm surprised Jarrod didn't run for office with all those potential voters available.With Lee Majors, Linda Evans, and Peter Breck still with us and even Charles Briles, I'm not sure why a Big Valley reunion hasn't been attempted. I'd like to see the Barkleys ride the range into the 20th century.

What a great western....know what I missed the most when I was drafted and sent to Vietnam in the summer of 1966, my family of course and my fiancé, but knowing I would not get to see "The Big Valley" for a whole year until I got back!! Great stories and watching the individual personalities of the Barkley's mesh together through all kinds of crises...Jarrod the cool, suave lawyer who used a lot of wisdom, Nick the brawler, ranch boss and tough guy, Heath the level headed version of Nick who used a little common sense when Nick wanted to use his fists, Audra, oh wow, what teenage boy was not in love with her on the show and the classy Barbara Stanwyck, the matriarch and cool head of the Barkley clan who used her wisdom and extraordinary ability to reason out any crisis. What kind of color film did they use in the series? I have been overjoyed to watch the BV on the western channel since it came back on in December 05 and every episode is crystal clear with brilliant color. Every episode has a lot of current and former Hollywood stars like Coleen Dewhurst, Richard Dreyfuss, Adam West, Julie Adams, James Gregory, William Shatner and many others.....the stories were well written and kept the viewers interest throughout the entire episode. Only thing I could not understand is how so many people came walking through the door of the front of the Barkley home without knocking! Also a couple episodes when they entered the side door and just showed up in the house!! Audra always seemed to get smitten with a lot of handsome men on the show who dumped her in the end...or their relationship had too many holes in it to last. Loved the episode when she loved Bradford Dillman and fell off a cliff and was hanging onto the proverbial tree stuck in the side of the mountain! Oh yes, he threw her a rope and all ended well, ha-ha!! Would love to see a BV reunion with Lee Majors, Linda Evans and Peter Breck reprising their roles.