Description: Season 3, Episode 20
Air Date: February 2, 1962
Plot Summary: A famous TV actor finds himself angering the real life villains he mops up on his show.
Review: Although this would typically be a lackluster episode, the comedic aspects are genuinely entertaining. TZ was kind of poking fun of the ridiculous nature of Old West shows that were all the rage back in that era. In this instance, the main character, Rance McGrew, is supposed to be an invincible gunslinger who easily defeats all manner of historic figures. In reality, Rance is a bumbling bitch who can't even draw his gun without wreaking havoc nor go a single action scene without crying "stuntman!" I think TZ's writers could have dabbled in comedy quite readily given the subtle humor and parody aspects accurately portrayed. One thing I enjoyed especially was the crew making bets with one another regarding the various debacles Rance would do during a shoot (like breaking glass). The annoyance everyone has with Rance, and the crew's general lack of enthusiasm, is priceless. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode is rather lame. All that happens is the real Jesse James, representing the spirits of other dead gunslingers, shows up to teach Rance a lesson. After scaring the little bitch, Jesse magically becomes Rance's agent and says they're going to redo the scripts to properly represent the historic figures and make Rance look like a fool. Eh...rather pointless really--the comedy is golden though. In other words, this episode is a hit and a miss. It's surprisingly funny, but the overall events are not interesting and a little too cartoonish for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment