I remember watching this episode for the first time in my teens, watching it with my whole family as part of our weekly Friday Night Movie Night family time. I went in knowing he was the guest star and being pretty sure he was going to be the bad guy because that was how it had gone with all the eps of other westerns I'd seen him in. You can imagine my delight when he proved to play not a bad guy, but not even an antagonist! He plays a hero! Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen!
A stranger (Vic Morrow) rides into a town that positively drips ominous foreboding. No people on the streets. A saloon filled with toughs who are raucously celebrating the completion of a gallows in the middle of town. Bad stuff is about to happen here. Bad stuff has already happened here.
And then we discover that the two men in jail who are going to be hanged that night... are Ben and Adam Cartwright (Lorne Greene and Pernell Roberts). Those yahoos in the saloon are eager to dance and spit all over their graves. The stranger finds this disturbing, but he's a quiet guy not looking for trouble. At least, not looking for this particular trouble.
Actually, he's looking for a group of men who lynched his father and killed a lot of other innocent townspeople a few years ago in Lassiter, Kansas. Because he never shares his name in this episode, folks take to calling him Lassiter after the town he keeps talking about.
Thanks to his family history, Lassiter is very sensitive to wrongful hangings, even when they're carried out by the law and not by a lynch mob. He becomes convinced that Ben and Adam are innocent. Their conviction hinged on the testimony of one scared hired man and one angry young woman -- and the hired man has been murdered, while the young woman is seeking to punish the Cartwrights for her father's death whether they were actually guilty of killing him or not.
Vic Morrow plays Lassiter with exquisite gravitas. He's calm, steady, soft-spoken, and unflinching in his quest to find his father's killers and bring them to justice. He doesn't waste a single movement; every flicker of his eyelids, every sideways glance, every raised eyebrow speaks as much as his dialog ever does. This is a man who will not fail, and the audience knows it. The people of this town know it. Even Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright (Dan Blocker and Michael Landon) realize it, and agree to let Lassiter try to save their father and brother first before they start throwing lead at everyone in sight.
Obviously, Ben and Adam don't hang. Obviously, the guy trying to get them hung is one of the men Lassiter is trying to find. Obviously, Lassiter's calm logic and insistence on seeing truth and justice served are what save the Cartwrights. There aren't any huge surprises here... unless you are used to seeing Vic Morrow play baddies in westerns, and discover to your great joy that he is playing a very good guy indeed here.
Honestly, "The Avenger" doesn't really feel like a typical Bonanza episode... because it wasn't. It was supposed to serve as a pilot for a spin-off series starring Vic Morrow. Another pilot of sorts was filmed as an episode of the lesser-known show Outlaws, with Morrow playing the same character and tracking down another of his father's murderers. But the network never picked the show up.
Part of me is sad about that, because Lassiter is really cool, and I would love to have a whole western show starring Vic Morrow to watch over and over and over. But part of me is okay with it, because if Vic had made a success in that show, he might have been under contract when they started casting the series Combat! (1962-67) and unable to be in that. And that would have been horrible, because that is my favorite TV show of all time, and his character, Sergeant Saunders, is my favorite fictional character ever. So, I just keep enjoying this episode every now and then and don't mourn too much over the series never happening.
You can watch this episode basically anywhere because it's in the public domain. It's easy to find on streaming platforms, YouTube, DVD, etc.
This has been my contribution to the 11th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted this weekend by A Shroud of Thoughts.
An interesting bit of trivia there, about the attempt to sell Lassiter via two different Western series episodes. I agree that it worked out for the best, because Morrow was so good in Combat!
ReplyDeleteBrian, yes, Vic Morrow elevated Combat! in so many ways. But just one season of a show based around this character would have been nice to have too ;-)
DeleteVic Morrow is so good in The Avenger and it really makes me wonder a series featuring Lassiter wasn't picked up because of that. Of course, as you point out, it did work out for the best. I mean, a Lassiter Wester would have been great, but then we might not have Vic Morrow as Sgt. Saunders on Combat! Thank you so much for taking part in the blogathon.
ReplyDeleteTerence, yes, it's kind of shocking. But if I had to choose which to have, I would still pick Combat! because that show was so amazing on so many levels.
DeleteSo glad you hosted this event again this year!