The Wild Man
Sky King

Landres’ masterful direction of Alex J. Wells’ exhaustive teleplay brings to the fore calmly and coolly that vaunted figure of legend, the forest incarnate, actually a hirsute Gallic bear of a man who hates loggers for disturbing the trees where his friends live.

The theme is drafted into service from Metropolis with Penny as “go-between”, a showdown on a water tank quotes White Heat.

One of the loggers steals the men’s payroll and leads the hunt. Sky King drops a bullet down a barrel to prove the case.

The locale is Pineville, far from any ballistics lab. In the end, Sky King is the mediator, what compromise is possible, he laughs.

Death on Sun Mountain
Bonanza

Virginia City, springing up around the ears of miners on the Comstock Lode, feeds them antelope meat at exorbitant prices, the foodstuff of the Paiute.

The Cartwrights have beef on the hoof at a fraction of the cost, war can be averted.

The grand theme has a classic development, faux Indians attack the miners, faux miners take vengeance.

The second theme rises from this (the teleplay is by Gene L. Coon and David Dortort), the proprietor of the antelope concession wants to be “the richest man in Virginia City”, he meets a saloon girl named Glory, and is revulsed by his “monster” of a business partner.

“What are thousand-to-one odds for a man who looks up at the sky and sees a bonanza?”

The Paiute War
Bonanza

Two military engagements of 1860 are the inspiration of this script by Gene L. Coon, depicting a massacre of whites at a small outpost, and the subsequent response.

Two women of the Bannock tribe are forcibly detained at the outpost, their men ejected, until Adam gets wind of it and levels the malefactors. Their leader promises revenge, and when the Bannocks attack he rides to Virginia City to blame Adam for inciting the Paiutes to the deed.

Ben holds a parley next morning between town and tribe, but the taleteller shoots a Paiute and the war is on. The militia is called from California, there is a great effort to bring the Bannocks forth and resolve the tumult, which doesn’t subside until there are a great many casualties and the instigator is dead.

Chief Winnemucca of the Paiutes is portrayed by Anthony Caruso, Maj. William Ormsby by Howard Petrie, William Stewart (the former Attorney General of California and future United States Senator from Nevada) by Douglas Kennedy, Jack Warden is the Indian-hating scoundrel.