If you know my writing you I am first one to say actors hardly turn in a performance at all often -- that in fact the director matters most.l in how good everyone acts. But as the family bachelor patriarch in this series James Arness turns in a performance I have a hard time believing the he is much more than scripted in. So unlike Marshall Dillon is Arness in this. I do not what the director did to get Arness to seem this wild, rough and ornery acting.

(On other points. The show is certainly on the left-wing side. The Union Army I believe in this Shanghai guys into joining their service. Some very pretty ladies I'm this too!)