EPISODE: The Spitfire

Reviewed by Sue W.

Episode 49, Season 2, Aired January 14, 1961 (2nd season)

No "special guest stars". The "featuring" cast includes: Katherine Warren as Grandma Hoad, Anita Sands as Willow, Jack Elam as Dodie, Steve Terrell as Bud, Mary Treen as Mrs. Shawnessy

Written by Ward Hawkins

Directed by William Dario Faralla

SUMMARY:

Joe comes upon Jeb Hoad and his daughter, Willow, as they are setting fire to tinder dry brush to clear themselves some land.  Joe is forced to kill Jeb in self-defense, upsetting Willow just a tad - she sets on Joe like a wildcat. You'll note the infamous "is it split trousers or a shiny zipper" shots that come in the subsequent scene.

We get to meet the rest of the charming Hoad family when they meet up with rancher Bart Hastings and his men. Grandma Hoad, the bullwhip-wielding head of this clan of hillbillies, goes through life assuming everyone hates their kind.  It must not occur to her that the words coming out of her mouth are nothing but pure venom - and that maybe Hastings has cause to be a little wary of their "kind" due to her son Jeb butchering one of his steers without asking. Grandma's son Dodie is another piece of work - he sees Hastings' man, Slim, fingering his gun at the hostile words flying, so he shoots him dead (ML's stunt man Bobby Miles bites the dust once again).  In case we hadn't already warmed to this family enough, Bud (the sensitive family member) lets us know this isn't an isolated incident: "He's dead. We killed another one."

Meanwhile, Joe has brought Willow home all trussed up - she's still screaming bloody murder about Joe killing her pa.  (Ben expresses the need to get the girl clothes etc - never mind she left behind a whole wagon presumably full of same.)  An amusing scene follows which involves a copper tub, a wooden box Hoss rigged to cover it (with just a hole for Willow's head), and Hoss and Joe listening to the splashing and drowning noises outside the bedroom door. More sequences follow of the boys and Mrs. Shawnessy trying to tame Willow and pretty her up. It is rather humorous. But like much of the episode, it's also pretty dumb.

It's all downhill from here. Dodie bushwhacks Adam, the bullet deflected by a book of poetry Adam was reading while riding.  Uh huh.  Roy, Ben, and Hoss confront Grandma and kin about the killing of Slim, and things get a little tense.  A couple of times Grandma declares, "there's a law for you'uns and a law for we'uns, but it ain't the same law." Gag.

Ben et al leave for a moment to regroup, and a gem of a conversation takes place.  Roy tells Ben that "she's defying the law," to which Ben responds, "She's not defying it, she's afraid of it."  Give me a break.  But wait, there's more. Roy tells Ben that the Hoads "are like a pit full of rattlesnakes and twice as dangerous." (a decidedly apt description). “You heard her say she wanted to hang Little Joe, didn't you? Well, she meant every word of that." Ben replies, "She was upset. She had every right to be...." Egad.  With that convincing argument, Ben gets the nod to go speak to Grandma alone. Hoss asks, "Pa, what'cha gonna do?" Ben gives a sappy look and says, "I'm gonna hold out my hand to her."

Ben draws some meaningless lines in the sound stage dirt and offers Grandma land, cattle, and horses. (What, is he nuts!?!) To her

suspicious reaction he says he's not giving, he's trading - in exchange, "you won't make me kill some of yours to protect mine and I won't make you kill some of mine to protect yours". Uh huh, that's what he said.  Pay her off, that's the Cartwright way.  After studying Ben's immensely honest face, Grandma decides to think on it.

Joe tells Adam he promised Willow he'd explain to her family what happened with Jeb, and Adam can't stop him (poor PR has to make like he can't possibly get out of that bed with his injured leg. Bet he was glad he only had a few scenes in this turkey).

At the Hoad camp, Joe manages to kill Dodie in self-defense, too. This also conveniently rids the story of a problem - what to do about Dodie and the law. Grandma is pretty ticked off, even more so when her sons drop their guns and refuse to go after Joe.  They explain how Joe had no choice, that Dodie would have shot Joe in the back. Willow says much the same about the Jeb shooting.  But Grandma ignores all this - she wants Joe dead.  Later, Willow says to Bud, "If'n she says we gotta fight, then we got to. We got to do what she says. You know that." Yeah, this sure makes sense. Let's all get killed for a belligerent old lady whom we all know is completely wrong.

The clan heads for the Ponderosa to "see the one that kilt my sons." Everyone waits with bated breath to see what Grandma will do. But she finally gets around to admitting that Joe had no choice. Then she asks to see all the fine fixin's inside the house and we have happy smiles all around as Ben gladly escorts her.  It's kind of sweet in a sickening way, if you can manage not to roll your eyes at Grandma's sudden personality change.

To me, this episode is a good example of the less than stellar scripts the actors were complaining about in the early seasons. Ward Hawkins wrote some great Bonanza episodes, but this isn't one of them.  Who can say how he got stuck with this one - was he a staff writer forced to dig up something from the bottom of the barrel and fix it? The story itself is just plain stupid and the guest characters are stereotyped to the extreme.  The Grandma Hoad character, especially, is completely over the top, and Ben's desire to extend the hand of friendship is absurd in these circumstances.

By the way - if you feel a need to distract yourself while watching the

last scene (I always do)... we get a really good look at the alternate front door views-into-the-house here. Ben and Grandma are filmed on the interior house set as they are about to go inside (notice that the shots of them at the door are closer shots), so they enter the "real" house with the fireplace etc. visible beyond the door. But the rest of the scene before and after these couple of shots was filmed on the exterior house set, so when Hoss and Joe follow Ben in the last shot, they enter the twilight zone house where there is a red chair near the doorway and they have to turn after they step inside the door so they don't walk into a wall.  It's not all that often that we get to see these two opposing views so clearly in the same scene.

REVIEWS:

“Let's summarize the delightful Hoad family.  They're traveling from Kentucky, killing people along the way who don't like their "kind"; one son picks a random patch of land along the road to claim as his own and clear burn; said son attempts to shoot Joe in the back; family guns down a ranch hand without clear cause; seeks vengeance for the Joe self-defense killing; bushwhacks an innocent man because he happens to be Joe's brother; tells the sheriff that he doesn't represent the law over them - even as they camp on Ponderosa land; another son tries to shoot Joe in the back; every other word out of the grandmother's mouth is hateful poison… But none of this evidently matters to Ben - Grandma's just misunderstood.  Let's be friends.  Pretty far-fetched. But all that said, despite the unbelievable story, the writing itself isn't bad as far as story flow and colorful dialogue go (you just have to ignore what they're actually saying). And the acting is actually pretty good - everyone plays their stereotyped roles to the hilt, and it comes off fairly well in that respect.” Sue W.

“Ma Hoad would surely find it hard to be on friendly terms with Joe, after he'd killed two of her sons, or didn't mothers back then feel like mothers today would? And Ben seems very quick to forgive a woman who wanted to kill his son.” Lynne (Little Joe forever)

“There is one scene that I really like in this episode. When Joe tells his father and brothers about killing Willow's father, Ben can see how upset Joe is by the situation. Ben's concern is for his youngest son, and he keeps his gaze on Joe while he's giving orders to Adam and Hoss on how to deal with things. Then he starts to say something and reaches toward Joe as if to comfort him, but stops. It's as if Ben realizes that there's nothing he can say or do that will make Joe feel better about what happened. Finally, he simply tells Joe to take the girl into the house. I thought that was a nice bit to show a father's concern for his son's feelings, plus a dose of reality showing nothing is going to help Joe feel better.” Susan Grote

“One bit that was right on the money in this ep though (I have to admit, Sue is right about a lot of the dialogue being less than classic) was when Dodie called Joe a little pretty fella!  Have to agree that he certainly is pretty!  :) I had to feel sorry for Adam when he couldn't get out of bed to stop Joe--he had to lay there worrying about what was happening to him.” Leesa

“It was one of those early ones that really set up the characters... Joe jumping into action and protecting the Ponderosa, being a quick draw but regretting that he had to kill someone. Adam riding along reading poetry. Hoss and Joe doing some crazy thing together. Good hearted Ben valuing his sons' lives above all and trying to make peace with the Hoads so as not to start avenging one killing with another. The typical western of that time on TV would not have had such "heart" and the gunslingers blasted the baddies without a blink.” Robin

“I enjoyed the tub scene and the hair curling fiasco.  As usual, Joe came to discuss his feelings with Adam...poor baby Adam...stuck in bed with his jammies...it had a few shining moments so, at least it wasn't a total dud of an episode." Lillian

“It is such an unintentional funny episode that I snort, hoot and outright laugh throughout it.  The late, great Jack Elam is Dodie. How many times did he play that character?  To me the best part of the episode is when Adam gets shot off his horse and says to Sport "whoa boy, whoa" in that incredibly soft, sexy baritone of his.  Gives me shivers.  I always imagine he's saying "whoa, bunny, whoa". LOL.  Not too mention how cute LJ is throughout.  Oh, well!” Gail (bunny bonanza)

“I wonder how Hop-Sing felt about Ben bringing all those scuzzy people into the house?   I can see him running around, muttering in Chinese, with a giant can of Lysol spray.” Ginny

“I have not got this ep, but will have to get it taped just for the entertainment (not to mention the 'ripped pants/shiny zipper).” Ann