The Virginian: Bruce Dern makes Ken Berry look like a slacker

Thanks to a Starz/Encore Networks free preview weekend, I was able to watch my first ever episode of "The Virginian" via Encore Westerns. A momentous occasion, to be sure, yet somehow I forgot to alert the media.

This is one of those TV oaters that aired in a 90-minute slot, and even taking out commercial breaks, you get 75 minutes plus of western adventure/drama, which can result in a rather leisurely pace. I tend to really appreciate those half-hour shows like "Have Gun Will Travel," and my limited exposure to programs like "Virginian" and "Cimarron Strip" doesn't give me much spark for the 90-minute western.

But "Virginian" seems solid enough. From one episode, though--admittedly a minuscule sample size--it doesn't appear to offer too much to distinguish itself from other horse operas. Not to offend any Clu Gulager fans, but the regulars just don't thrill me (Lee J. Cobb isn't in the one installment I saw). This episode, "A Little Learnin'," is well written, though, with a rather unsettling ending that really takes the shine off the apparent happy ending the story offers. I'd watch the show again.

The thing that made me laugh when watching this episode was the sight of Bruce Dern at the beginning. "It shouldn't be a surprise Dern is in this one," I thought, "since he's in EVERYTHING." I wrote about the perceived ubiquity of Ken Berry recently; well, as I say in the title of this post, Bruce Dern makes Ken Berry look like a slacker.

I wasn't even around in the sixties to enjoy Bruce Dern as he happened, but I've seen enough TV from that decade and the early to mid seventies to make a confident if unscientific declaration that the man was indeed in every single television show of the era. At first I thought it was just westerns, but I remember him in "Alfred Hitchcock" and "Fugitive," so there you go. You've heard of the Golden Age of Television? When that ended, the industry went straight into the Dern Age.

Not only is Dern on the guest roster (and not even billed in the opening credits despite playing--this can't be a spoiler if you know Bruce Dern--the lead creep heavy in the episode), but we also see the likes of Harry Townes, Susan Oliver, and Albert Salmi, none of whom are wallflowers in old-school TV drama (actually, each probably has a longer resume than Dern, but I think it's funnier to compare DERN to Ken Berry, so I stand by my original focus).

So not only does "The Virginian" look an awful lot like all the other westerns of the era; throw in the illustrious guest stars, and it looks like every other TV drama, period! Believe me, I don't mean this as a slam. This is a solid episode, and the familiar faces add to the show's appeal, especially if you're underwhelmed by first impressions of the regulars.