Did Bobby's dream about Jesse James in the episode "Bobby's Hero" creep anybody else out besides me? I know it's just fiction, but it was a little strange seeing the Bradys die and Bobby's look of horror on his face.

Yes, I'll admit it was very un-Bradylike.

those hideous screams....i bet robert reed thought that was the stupidest thing!

Yes, this did seem a little creepy to me; it is one of the episodes I remember from back when the show first aired. The look on Bobby's face was what I remember most. Barry explains that part in his book. I could tell that they were trying not to make it too scarey, though, with the obviously fake gun and the overdone acting when they were shot.

Also, in this episode, Bobby brought his cap gun to school. If this would have happened today, Bobby would have been suspended.

Jesse James was a mean, dirty killer...a mean, dirty killer...a mean, dirty killer...

That was the creepy part, the "mean dirty killer"...

Jesse James saying "bang" when the gun was shot was dumb.

Yes,

Saying the word "bang" was stupid. They should have had the gun make a realistic noise. However, this episode is brilliant on all other counts and is "ahead of its time" for story-lines and subject matter.

I consider "Bobby's Hero" and 'Her Sister's Shadow" to be the best episodes of the series for writing and content.

Jack

In "Growing up Brady," Barry Williams said the horrified look on Bobby's face wasn't really acting at all. Just before they shot that scene, the director took Mike Lookinland aside and told him to imagine his entire family being shot to death, blood, etc, just anything to scare the hell out of him so that his horror looked real on camera.

I remember seeing this one... It made me cry... :(
awww it was so sad!! Poor Bobby :(

I always wondered why Bobby didn't get shot!

'twas above all men he towered,
when he shot Mr. Coward
and laid snake Jesse in his grave!

In "Growing up Brady," Barry Williams said the horrified look on Bobby's face wasn't really acting at all. Just before they shot that scene, the director took Mike Lookinland aside and told him to imagine his entire family being shot to death, blood, etc, just anything to scare the hell out of him so that his horror looked real on camera.
That's terrible! He was just a kid! That is a good book, "Growing Up Brady". I read it a long time ago and really enjoyed it.
As for this episode, I have probably seen it ten times (as with all the other ones), but I don't remember much about it! How's that for weird?:crazy:

Andrea

Yes it was a silly episode but there have been kids who would admire killers like Jesse James so maybe they thought it was best to show that it was not a good idea.

As for that elderly man who said that his father was killed by Jesse James, he would have had to be very old considering Jesse James was killed in the 1880's and this was the late 1960'- early 70s.

Yes it was a silly episode but there have been kids who would admire killers like Jesse James so maybe they thought it was best to show that it was not a good idea.

As for that elderly man who said that his father was killed by Jesse James, he would have had to be very old considering Jesse James was killed in the 1880's and this was the late 1960'- early 70s.


Excatly that guy would have to have been over 100 years old. It was a good story about how to be careful about whom you choose to make your heroes, but it was too overdone to the point where it became cheesy.

Burt Mustin, who played the old man, was born in 1884, so he wasn't much younger than the character he was playing!

Bobby's Hero was a Season Four episode, airing in February of 1973.

Jessie James was born in 1847 and died in 1882.

And yes, Burt Mustin (who played Mr. Collins) was himself born in 1884, and passed away a couple of weeks before his 93rd birthday in 1977

I remember talking about that either when the show originally aired or during one of the early reruns...we kind of wondered if Mustin was old enough to have lived back then... we figured it was close, but in those days, we couldn't just look up an actor's age on a web site.

Turns out Mustin was almost 90 when the episode was made. Once he started playing Gus the Fireman on Leave it to Beaver, he really didn't change a whole lot over the last 15-20 years of his life

It must have been strange to the kids on the show to be acting with someone who was born in 1884....or, if they didn't know that at the time, I'm sure they found out at some point.

Interestingly, there are some sites in Missouri honoring Jesse James! His birthplace is just north of Kansas City (marked in my 2009 Rand McNally atlas, at that!), but I remember recently seeing a billboard along I-44 west of St. Louis for another attraction dedicated to him! :eek:

Interestingly, there are some sites in Missouri honoring Jesse James! His birthplace is just north of Kansas City (marked in my 2009 Rand McNally atlas, at that!), but I remember recently seeing a billboard along I-44 west of St. Louis for another attraction dedicated to him! :eek:
As recently as 2007 Hollywood was still making movies about Jesse James. ( The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

Don't overlook how Jesse James [and Frank and the Youngers] were viewed in their native Missouri in their own time and for decades to come. They had been Confederate scouts who, after the war, applied their trade to robbing yankee treasure and were largely thought heroic. Even my dad, born 1920, liked to sing the ballad and said [bragged] that his mother's family was distantly related to 'the Jameses.' This is just another example of how terrorism in one view can be patriotism in another.

As recently as 2007 Hollywood was still making movies about Jesse James. ( The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

Twas above all men he towered,
when he shot Mr. Coward,
and laid snake Jesse in his grave!

As recently as 2007 Hollywood was still making movies about Jesse James. ( The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)

That sounds like something that's anti-Jesse James, so I guess he's not revered that much by Hollywood.

Actaully, it sounds rather pro Jesse James to me. It calls it assassination rather than execution and calls Robert Ford a coward.