User Reviews

Ben takes a trip to a town named Concho to visit his old friend and war buddy Sheriff Paul Roman (Leslie Nielsen). Paul has been a very productive lawman for the town and has a beautiful wife, Katherine, and a small boy, Timmy. Paul has the respect of the town but has been complaining to his wife about recent headaches and nightmares. People have been noticing that Paul has been acting, at times, strange but with his performance as the town sheriff- not too many people worried.

But things take a bad turn when Sheriff Roman projects himself back in the war and becomes psychotic thinking people are out to kill him. He barricades himself in a warehouse and begins shooting everyone that comes close. The townsfolk are restless and believe the only way to solve the mentally ill Sheriff is to kill him.

Ben, on the other hand, wants more time before the citizens rush the warehouse and force an ending to the killing. It is a touch and go situation as Ben tries to get help for his friend's illness but time is running out.

It appeared that the writers has a nice story but very little dialog. So there is a lot of useless fluff scenes between the barricade and the final assault. Would have been better with another side plot that would have stretch the story but that was not the case. The best thing about the episode was the fine acting by Leslie Nielsen as he played his character to near perfection. Plus it was nice to see Jack Lambert in one of the lead characters.

What do you do when the sheriff goes mad. Worse when he's the only one with a gun in town because he's banned firearms It's the situation that Ben Cartwright faces when he visits an old friend Sheriff Leslie Nielsen.

Lorne Greene is in Nielsen's town on the way back to the Ponderosa. He sees that he's troubled with mysterious headaches, but still when he starts firing on the town and barricades himself in a building it comes from out of nowhere.

Nielsen gives a top drawer performance as a sheriff suffering from post traumatic stress issues from the Civil War.

Definitely a must for Leslie Nielsen fans. This sheriff is as far from Frank Drebbin as you can get.

Leslie is Holed Up in the Warehouse with a rifle and deadly wicked aim. The scenarios is remarkably Modern...even for 1969, when the episode first aired. The Sheriff thinks he's Back in the War, and needs to defend his men from assault. He snipes at the townspeople who see no other solution than Burning Him Out. Ben is the Sheriff's best friend and it's his job to negotiate a peaceful solution. Ben discusses sending the Sheriff to "a Hospital" with the Doctor....."Frankly Doc, I think he might be better off with a bullet through his head. I've seen those places......(describes the squalid cells)....and an unmarked grave." But Doc tells Ben there's a New hospital in D.C. that deals with problems like these.....this in fact was true. The new hospital was the first to deal with psychological issues of Post War casualties.

Fortunately there's a son who can reach the Sheriff's heart...if Ben can get them to talk to each other before it's too late. The townspeople believe setting the Warehouse on fire is the only way to deal with a Sheriff who's already shot five people. The little boy just wants Ben to promise, "not to shoot my daddy".

I met Leslie Nielsen when I was the kid's age and he stood up to my Dad......something I hadn't seen before. Leslie's performance is brilliantly profound, mixing psychotic pathos with comedic self-awareness. My cousin locked himself in the bathroom and Leslie had to talk him out of there...because he had to Go.