Watching an old western made me remember this scene, so I looked it up. I remember how powerful this episode was for such a lighthearted show. Jessie James died in 1882. This episode was from 1973. If that man was 3 when his father was shot, that would make him 94 in that scene. It's actually plausible!
In real life Burt Mustin was born a year after Jesse James died. The character Jethroe Collins was probably 3 or 4 when his father was killed. So by the 1970s he would probably be in his nineties.
The train robbery where he killed people was 1864. So Jethro was 112 in the episode. And his father was either from northwestern Missouri or Iowa, not California.
@@dazedwit1577 Well he did say that he and his family were heading to California at the time of the train robbery. And it's plausible that Jethroe Collins would be 112.
And the irony was that this was actually the sanitized version of the episode. The original premise was that Bobby would idolize a skyjacker. ABC nixed it fearing that children would learn the wrong lesson from it, even though it would still end with Bobby learning that skyjackers were not people to idolize.
There was another train robbery where he killed a passenger in 1881. So Mr. Collins could have been 2 then, and 93 going on 94 in the present. Burt Mustin was 88 going on 89 at the time, though, and died at 92.
1976, I was 10 years old. My dad came home with this old, old guy. He was a Texas Ranger during the 1890s. And he showed the bullet wounds/scars on his chest..Watching this reminds me of that day in my living room circa 1976.. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Texas_Ranger_Division
"A mean dirty killer"! Bobby should have realized that Jesse James was nothing but a cold-blooded killer, Until he has nightmare about his family members being shot to death on a train ride. He was no hero!! Burt Mustin great actor in that part! One of my favorite episodes.
Awww, I love this sweet old man. His story was so tragic about how Jesse James killed his father. It really helped Bobby to begin to understand things more on a personal level and how Bobby would have felt had it been his father whom Jesse James shot. Ultimately what lead to his nightmare and kinda made him “wake up” about everything. 😢 😢 😢
I think Robert Reed won a script battle here. The acting here is so powerful and emotional it could be used for kids headed down the wrong path about guns. Fact- They did the classic dream sequence with no rehearsal for Mike Lookinland because they wanted his acting to be "real." They filled Mike's head with all kinds of images about killings before the take and got Mike all emotional. During his dream and waking up, when he's crying, his emotions were 100% not acted. He was so upset they had to take him outside to calm him down after the take. That ending scene where he gives up his guns moves me to tears! One of the most powerful episodes in TV history!
Before he finally passed in 1977, Burt Mustin was all over TV. He had also appeared in the My Three Sons episode in 1970, where Robbie and Katie visited his former hometown, Bryant Park and saw how things changed, before the Douglas family relocated to North Hollywood. Meanwhile in Bradyland, Bobby really needed to pay very close attention to the man, who's father was shot and killed by Jesse James in cold blood!!!
He popped up in the Twilight Zone episode Night of the Meek ("Nothing for yourself, Santa?") and as an elderly friend of Edith Bunker's in All in the Family.
Really one of my favorite episodes of this show. Because the episode isn't really about Jesse James. It's about hero worship. It could have worked better if the story was about Hitler or Stalin, but really they needed someone less hateful.
I don't think using Hitler or Stalin would have worked as well because, as you said, it's about hero worship. While dictators like Hitler and Stalin have long been seen as the monsters they are, many outlaws and psychos like Jesse James have been romanticized as time goes on, with people in academia and the entertainment industry taking creative liberties with history to portray them as brave rebels and whatnot. So, it would make more sense that an impressionable kid like Bobby with no real knowledge of history would idolize him.
Hearing Mr. Collins describing how he and his family dealt with his father's death got me emotional because I am reminded of John Lennon's death. I imagined Yoko Ono crying herself to sleep at night. I also imagined Sean having recurring nightmares about it. I'm not sure if they ever actually done those things I described but it's plausible.
Absolutely spot- on comparison! They just think he was some cool revolutionary who "Fought the establishment," but in real life, he fit well with the way the old man here describes Jesse James: A mean, dirty killer.
I'm no Jesse James apologist, but he never shot up a train bound for California. The James Gang never pulled a job west of Austin, TX - and their Austin caper was a one-off stage robbery. Almost all of their crimes were in the Midwest - east of the Missouri. Also, the image of James as an indiscriminate killer would be almost as mythical as the idea that he was some kind of hero. The James Gang did kill people who tried to stop their robberies, but only as a last resort. Jesse James did kill a (probably) innocent conductor on a train to Davenport, IA, though. It was some kind of grudge left over from the Civil War.
Jesse James' last killing of a train conductor occurred on July 15, 1881; this show was taped in 1973, which means a span of 92 years between the two events. This would mean the man here is no less than 97 years old... LOL!
The episode aired in early 1973, so if he was 4 at the time, it’s possible Mr. Collins could have been 95 at this point. Burt Mustin (born two years after James’ death) was 88 going on 89 when this was filmed. He died just four years later at 93.
I'm sure you'd feel differently if someone you loved was killed by evil. If all you care about is money, then evil is all you have to look forward to on the other side. Good luck to you on that one
This would have come out only a few years after Arthur Penn made Bonnie and Clyde, romanticizing their own actions. I can't help but wonder if that was an influence on this. (Don't get me wrong, I love Penn's Bonnie and Clyde as a terrific movie that deserved every award it got, but I can enjoy it as art and also acknowledge it's nothing close to history.)
Mr. Collins has got to be pretty old. Jesse James died in 1882. Mr. Collins says he was just a little boy at the time when Jesse James killed his father meaning he was probably around 4 or 5 years old. This puts Mr. Collins birth at around 1877. The episode was produced in 1973. This means Mr. Collins is about 96 years old when he meets Bobby and tells him how Jesse James killed his father. Mr. Collins looks good for 96.
Bobby's teacher, school Principal and his parents overreacted to his admiration of Jesse James. Bobby was a young boy and young boys go through phases. If they had left well enough alone, Bobby would have grown tired of Jesse James and moved on to some other affinity like skateboarding or baseball. Did they really believe that he would go through the rest of his life imitating Jesse James?
It just hit me about the message the writers perhaps were conveying. Replace Jesse James with a Che Guevara, or some other counter culture "charismatic rebel" who used violence to carry out their goals. The analogy is clear about how young (or uninformed) people get enamored with the image of figures who appear to be strong or daring leaders but in truth are nothing more than tyrants seeking their own gratification. This was a good episode. I don't think it was written lightly.
Considering Jesse James was killed in 1882 and Mustin was born two years later, he would've had to add a couple years to his character to make it accurate.
When Bobby wanted to watch the movie about Hesse James, and Mike and Carol first said No, but then decided that if he did sed the movie, it might make him realize what kind of person Jesse James was. But, the way they showed the movie on TV, would only convince him more that he Jesse James was really a hero. One must wonder that if anyone's parents let them watch a movie, thinking that it would knock their child into reality, only to have all the violent footage cut, leaving their child unconvinced of what kind of person their hero really was, if the parents might take legal action against the network, or whatever TV station aired the movie, and cut all the scenes that they hoped would convince their child of who his hero really was.
The thing that makes me ill, is the people who either name their newborn children Jesse James, and the "outlaw culture" of people who idolize this guy. That's like naming your kid Charles Manson.
@Stephen Treadwell. Billy the Kid really WAS a good guy! He was fighting against corrupt killers and the crooked cops who murdered his boss in cold blood, but Jesse James was a racist psycho who did kill people in cold blood. I saw a doc about Jesse that told of him making tobacco pouches out of the testicles of Union soldiers he had killed.
In the 1960s and '70s, if you were filming a movie or TV show and you needed a cantankerous old man you called Burt Mustin and he always delivered the goods. He was in literally everything back then.
Realistically, I don't think he could pass as the son of the father who was killed by Jesse James. Depending how young he was when it happened. If this was in the early 1960's he could pass as the son. He would have to be at least 110 years old in 1973. My great grandfather lived 100 miles north from Northfield MN, where the famous 1876 bank robbery took place and he was 13 years old at the time of the robbery. He died in 1960 at the age of 96. And this episode is around 1973? Pretty old man! I remember this actor as the fire chief in "Leave it to Beaver" , and he looks like the same age as he did back then!
Just think that when this episode originally aired Ted Bundy was toot'in around on some road in his bug and John Wayne Gacy was starting his contracting business.
The episode originally aired in February 1973. Jesse James was killed in April 1882. That's a 91-year difference -- or comparable to 1928 and 2019. There are still people around today who were born in the 1910s and 1920s, so there were people in the 1970s who were born in the 1880s or earlier. Furthermore, the actor, Burt Mustin, was born in February 1884 and was 88 when they filmed the episode (he turned 89 a few days after it aired), so he's of the same generation as JJ's kids. His youngest child was born in 1879.
At the time of this episode Jesse James had been dead for 89 years. The actor who played Mr. Collins, Burt Mustin, was actually born 2 years AFTER Jesse James had died.
This is just like the people who worship Charles Manson. It's insane! I'll admit, Manson was certainly interesting to watch and at times he did say some surprisingly insightful things but the idea that people look up to a man of such evil is disgusting. Kids liking bad guys is one thing because they're often romanticized but adults should know better.
Jesse James was born in the 1880s and didn't begin his "career" until years later. This episode takes place in the very early 70s so this man could've been in his 70s or 80s. Plausible.
This episode aired in 1973. The actor Burt Mustin was about 90 years old, however his character of Mr. Collins was probably supposed to be about 93 or 94, since Jesse James died in 1882. The story of his father's death probably took place close to when jesse james was killed by Bob Ford.
His character of Mr. Collins would have probably been about 94 or 95. The episode aired in 1973, and Jesse James was killed in 1882. He explained that he was too young to remember the death of his father by jesse james, so the incident he was referring to probably happened close to James murder.
No, that's a myth that Jesse James was a modern-day Robin Hood. That was a sensationalized story. The facts are that he robbed and killed people, and kept the loot for himself (and other gang members).
It's looks like fun feel like flash back past life look back at movie maze party oasr awesome picture awards TCM hollywood full TV show documentary about biography book club fun more information on DVD and pay for the first time ever since
wow! this is 1 damn powerful episode!!!! where bobby worships that murderous scum whose name I won't dignify by mentioning. i was so proud of the Brady bunch creator to air this episode to expose that vermin!! Even to this day I get chills watching this awesome scene!!!! this episode was long over due for which Hollywood and fiction was responsible for sugarcoating the truth about this vermin!!! like the old man stated to bobby as he gives him a sobering reality check on that scum- he was a mean dirty killer!!! it was perfectly fitting that this scum met his fate getting shot in the back by one of his own men to collect a bounty!!!!
