The Big Valley was a television Western which ran on ABC from 1965 through 1969.

It starred Barbara Stanwyck as Victoria Barkley, the widowed matriarch of the Barkley family of Stockton, California. Richard Long played Jarrod Barkley, her eldest son and a respected lawyer. Hot-tempered younger son Nick Barkley, who managed the family ranch, was played by Peter Breck. (Both Long and Breck had been regulars for a short time on another classic Western series, Maverick, although in different seasons; Long had played "Gentleman Jack Darby" to pick up the slack when Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. began 77 Sunset Strip and could no longer play "Dandy Jim Buckley," while Breck had taken over the role of "Doc Holliday" when Gerald Mohr was unavailable.) Gerald Mohr guest starred in an episode called "Flight from San Miguel" as Dr Raoul Mendez, a Mexican rebel leader trying to escape the country. This was to be Mohr's last-ever TV Western. He died of a heart attack in Stockholm, Sweden, three months after the episode was made. Linda Evans played Audra, Victoria's only daughter. In the first episode, Lee Majors was introduced as Heath, the youngest, and the illegitimate son of Victoria's late husband; Heath gradually gained acceptance from the rest of the Barkley clan. The character of Heath originally rode into town one day from the mining area of Strawberry. Later on his new mother Victoria Barkley goes to find out about his past by visiting Heath's surviving relatives from his mother's side of the family. It was learned the Tom Barkley never known he had fathered Heath. Incidently Tom Barkley was killed in 1870 six years before Heath came to Stockton looking for his family roots. It was mentioned that Heath had grown up in Calaveras County. During the first season Lee Majors character Heath struggled with his new found family and name. The regular cast was rounded out by Napoleon Whiting, who played Silas, the Barkleys' majordomo. Guest stars included Jill St. John, George Kennedy,William Shatner and many others.

One accidental running gag (that also occurred on the TV western Bonanza) is that in every episode in which one of the Barkley sons got seriously involved with a woman, as soon as he got married, she was killed off or died gruesomely in the same episode. As with other show of the time the male characters had love interests but usually the story lines lasted only one episode then you never saw the girl again.

Victoria Barkley also had a younger son named Eugene, who appeared in the pilot and sporadically in the first season. Eugene attended college, which explained why he was away from the ranch for long periods of time. Eugene was studying at Berkley. Another victim of the Chuck Cunningham syndrome, he was written out and never referred to again over the remainder of the series' run.

The series was produced by Four Star Television.

Dell Comics published a short-lived comic book for 6 issues in 1966-69. (the last issue reprinted the first, and came out two years after issue #5). All issued had photo covers.

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Western television series | ABC network shows | 1960s TV shows in the United States | Western television series | Period piece TV series | Dell Comics titles | Television shows set in California

La Grande Vallée