User Reviews

JOHNNY RINGO "Single Debt" 1960 JOHNNY RINGO was a western series that ran for 38 episodes during 1959-60. The series starred Don Durant as the title character with Karen Sharpe, Mark Goddard and Terence De Marney as series regulars. The series follows Durant, (Ringo) a former gunfighter who decides to go straight. He becomes the Sheriff in the small town of Velardi in the Arizona Territory. The series was one of several (Rifleman, Wanted Dead or Alive, Shotgun Slade etc) with a "gimmick gun". Durant carries a special LeMat revolver equipped with a shotgun barrel under the six gun barrel.

This episode is the 31st episode of the series.

This one has Sheriff Durant tracking down the killers of a local Chinese family. The killers are played by Warren Oates, Ralph Thomas and Alvy Moore. The whole thing was over a chunk of land that the Chinese family owned. This did not sit well with Oates and his brothers. They decide to drive the farmers out into the desert country where they die.

There is a run in with Durant who just manages to escape the same fate as the Chinese family. Needless to say a spot of gun-play is needed to settle the issue.

Every television series features an episode or two that makes a worthwhile, socially responsible statement about mankind in the larger scheme of things. The episode entitled "Single Debt" in producer Aaron Spelling's western series "John Ringo" qualifies as such a show. This episode examines prejudice on the part of lowlife Americans toward an Asian family. The Chung family, Foo (Peter Chong), Charlie (James Hong of "Chinatown"), and Lisa Lu (Judy Dan), are peaceful farmers tilling the soil who do nothing to upset anybody. Burt Scanlon (Warren Oates of "Return of the Seven") is a no-account rancher who wants the Chung family property and has no qualms about getting it. Initially, Scanlon appeals to their greed by offering them $600 dollars for their land. He claims that he is being more than fair, but the Chungs turn him down cold. At this point, Burt and Billy Joe (Alvy Moore of "Green Acres") whip out their six-guns and usher the Chung family some 20 miles into the parched desert to get them to negotiate. Nevertheless, they refuse. Later, Ringo rides out and finds them, but he cannot save them. Burt and Bill Joe get the drop on him and leave him afoot with nothing but a bottle of liquor. Miraculously, Ringo makes it back to town, looking like hell. At first, Cully (Mark Goddard), Mayor Headerson (Willis Bouchey), and the others townspeople believe that Ringo is drunk as a skunk and behaving inappropriately when he staggers up to the Golden Wheel Saloon and slaps leather with Billy Joe and Webb Scanlon (Ralph Thomas), shooting them dead on the spot in the first scene. Burt gets out of town before Ringo has a chance to kill him. Thereafter, Ringo recounts what happens. Naturally, everybody is appalled by the conduct of the Scanlons and Ringo stands redeemed in their eyes. Later, Ringo and Cully track Burt down, scare off his horse, and leave him to die in the vast sun-scorched wasteland. Afterward, Ringo goes back to fetch Burt because it would be inhuman to leave him out there to die. "Single Debt" ranks as one of the best episodes in the short-lived "Johnny Ringo" series. Prolific editor Arthur Helton helmed this episode, the only one that he did for "Johnny Ringo," but he is best known for his notorious, so-bad-its-good "Cat-Women of the Moon." The message of tolerance toward other races of humans makes this a memorable episode.