When the Cartwright men and Candy — making his first on-screen appearance in more than a year — are on a cattle drive, they accidentally step foot on private property. When they are shot at, Ben explains, tries to apologize for their mistake and ask the angry landowner to let them go on their way.
But this man isn't budging, and it won't be long before the Cartwrights are introduced to this mining tycoon's "Kingdom Of Fear."
Aired three years after it was originally produced — hence, David Canary's "special guest star" billing — the episode was among the most violent of the entire run, and was so violent that, when originally set to air in the fall of 1968, NBC executives decided to pull the show from the schedule for a later broadcast.
In any case, the Cartwrights are quickly sentenced to life imprisonment at the prison camp, run by a psychopathic despot known only as "The Judge," and any attempts to escape will be ... shall we say, not be looked at kindly. That doesn't stop the Cartwrights from eventually coming up with a plan to free themselves and the prisoners.
The emotional pathos comes with one of the inmates, Farley, whose wife died at the camp directly at the hands of The Judge.
Tropes associated with this episode:
- Angry Guard Dog: To deal with incorrigible inmates who have crossed the line, The Judge has his goons force their marked inmate to wear a scented prison shirt and then run for their lives ... before releasing the pack of rabid dogs who will eventually track down and attack their prey. Joe uses this knowledge later on against the guards.
- Cattle Drive: The Cartwrights and Candy are on one of these when one of The Judge's henchmen stops them at gunpoint and accuses them (falsely) of trespassing.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After Joe escapes and is running to the Ponderosa to recruit an army to overtake the camp, the guards eventually catch up to Joe. However, Joe is easily able to overtake the lead guard, and then forces him to put on his scented shirt. The guard's fate is effectively sealed as soon as vicious barking in the distance is heard; it's not shown on-screen, but one can guess it wasn't good.
- Shout-Out:
- Cool Hand Luke: A very dead-on representation of the 1967 movie starring Paul Newman, about falsely jailed inmates used as slave labor at a prison camp.
- Special Guest: David Canary had left the series a year earlier, but because this episode was filmed in 1968 when he was a regular and then left unaired for more than 2-1/2 years, he was billed as a "special guest star."
