User Reviews

I really enjoyed this episode. Leslie Nielsen and Robert Horton were exceptional. The first 20 min really dragged, but I kept watching since I was interested in seeing Nielsen having known his work only from Airplane, Police Squad, and Pumper Pups. It's a detailed story, every scene builds up to the conclusion, really well done. Writers, actors, everybody was great in this one. One bonus is a very young Micheal Burns, who joins the cast in Later seasons. He also is in a great episode Later that focuses on Bill Hawks.

A highlight episode , one of my top 5 so far!

The Jeremy Dow Story is one of those transition episodes of Wagon Train after the death of Ward Bond with Flint McCullough taking over the train temporarily until a new wagonmaster is assigned. In the real world that meant taking scripts that were probably assigned to Bond and I believe that's what happened here.

The title role is played by Leslie Nielsen whom we meet as a drunken derelict in a small town. He's all that's available to be a temporary driver for the Milliken family husband James Lydon, wife Mari Aldon, and adolescent Michael Burns. What he doesn't know is that Aldon is his former wife and Burns his real son.

Back east Nielsen was the headmaster of a prep school in New England which caught fire and several kids lost. People think he died a hero trying to rescue the kids, but instead he panicked and ran and has run ever since.

Young Burns thinks of his 'late' real father as a hero and the two do some bonding without him letting on. Then Nielsen gets the chance to be the real hero people think he is.

The scenes with Burns and Nielsen are quite touching and the story will move you considerably.