The Real McCoys

A small part of a very large family named McCoy who hailed from the hills of West Virginia, put a down payment on a land in the Imperial Valley of Southern California and moved there and into our television sets for a considerable in the late fifties and early sixties. We know there was a whole lot more of them because occasionally some kinfolk came to visit.

After a career with three Oscars under his belt and at that time he was the only one who had that many, you'd think Walter Brennan might want to slow up at the age of sixty three when he started that series. Not only did he keep up the grind of a weekly television series, but Brennan's movie career didn't slow down a might. You might remember he played a pretty substantial role in Rio Bravo and in How the West Was Won while The Real McCoys were still running.

The rest of the McCoys consisted of Richard Crenna and Kathleen Nolan as Luke and Kate, a pair of young marrieds. Kate married into the McCoys, but like Ethel Kennedy you'd think she was born into the clan instead. Kathleen was a wise old soul in her own way inside a beautiful young lady. She was the heart of the show, more than Brennan at times.

Richard Crenna went on to a career that involved him playing a lot more than hayseeds like Luke McCoy. But he said many times that the real value of The Real McCoys for him was as an acting school. Just working with and watching Walter Brennan every week was more valuable than acting lessons with Stella Adler or the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Two younger siblings came along with Luke, Kate, and Grandpa. There was Lydia Reed and Michael Winkelman as Hassee and Little Luke. I thought it a bit much to name a kid after Tallahassee because someone sent them a picture postcard from the place and they thought the name was so pretty. Lydia had enough teenage angst, settling from West Virginia into sophisticated southern California without that added to her woes. As for Little Luke, I guess the McCoy clan got squeamish on names after Tallahassee and stuck with one tried and true.

Tony Martinez, all barely five feet of him, played their Chicano farmhand, Pepino. The Chicano and hill cultures blended very well together. At the time Tony Martinez was considered to have a breakthrough part for Latinos. Pepino was always a cheerful guy, but a hardworking person of real dignity and was never demeaned in any way by the stories.

As I said other McCoys got in the cast. Jack Oakie did several episodes as Uncle Rightly McCoy when Brennan was on extended leave in a movie. And several episodes had the McCoys make a visit back to West Virginia where we ran into the real head of the clan, Great Grandma McCoy played by Jane Darwell. That's right, Jane was Amos's mother and in fact she was just about old enough in real life to be just that.

They should have canceled the show after Kathleen Nolan left or paid her what she wanted. A lot got taken out of the show when she left and Luke was left a widower.

In many ways the Real McCoys was a survival story about a family leaving one culture and trying and succeeding in making it in a different location with different ways. Maybe that's why The Real McCoys was as successful as it was. Isn't that what the American Dream is all about?

I always loved this show, except for the final season. It was bad enough that Kathy Nolan left, but the kids (Hassie and Little Luke) were also phased out within a handful of episodes. Then, even Grandpa Amos McCoy was gone by the spring of 1963, leaving only Luke and Pepino for the final 13 episodes or so. The show was such a heart-warming sitcom until then, but the final season we had to witness the family disintegrate. Very depressing.

The Real McCoys is a genuine classic from the golden age of television. A fine series. They really don't make well-crafted, heart warming shows like this anymore. Walter Brennan was simply amazing as old Amos McCoy, the patriarch of a family transplanted from Smokey Corners, West Virginia to "sunny Cal-i-for-nai-ay" as the theme song tells us. The stories are at once funny and often touching and there are some great people in the cast. Richard Crenna, fresh from playing squeaky-voiced Walter Denton on Our Miss Brooks, drops his voice to it's proper register to play Luke McCoy, Grampa Amos's grandson. He plays him as a sometimes naive, sometimes wise newlywed. The bride in question is lovely Kathy Nolan, as beautiful a woman as any who ever graced a sitcom. Her Kate is the balancing conscience which is a big asset to the show. (Indeed, when she was absent in the show's last season, it was the last hurrah for this long-running series.) Hassie, the 13 year-old "old maid" as Grampa would say is played by Lydia Reed, whose only other performance I have seen was in the 1956 MGM film, High Society. She was very good in the film and is very good in the Real McCoys. Michael Winkleman plays Little Luke with a naturalness not seen in today's high-strung attempts at situation comedy. Tony Martinez plays, Pepino, the "ranch hand". He plays off of Walter Brennan quite well and is an asset to the cast. Finally, we have Andy Clyde and Madge Blake as brother and sister neighbors George and Flora MacMichael. They are pros who know just the right way to play their scenes. The series is populated with many well-known character actors and this show has a cozy, home-spun feel to it. Indeed, it is a predecessor to the many rural comedies that followed in the sixties, like Andy Griffith, Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies. Some people have complained about the DVD episodes being edited, but I saw these same episodes when CBS ran this show as part of their morning comedy block of shows, from 1962 to 1966. These appear to be the same prints as shown on the network back in the day. I vaguely recall seeing some nighttime telecasts in prime time, but mostly I recall the morning CBS run. The stories are well-written and some are very heartwarming. The characters are three-dimensional and seem like genuine human beings. This series is all but forgotten these days and I don't think the DVD releases exactly set the world on fire sales-wise, but I am enjoying the set I got for one penny and think this should be picked up by one of the nostalgia channels like ME-TV or Antenna TV. This classic series is ripe for re-discovery.

I had seen episodes of The Real McCoys as a very small child during the original airings in the early 1960's. Many years had passed before I had the chance to see it again. Except for the ill-advised sixth and final season, without the lovely and talented Kathy Nolan as Kate, it is a heart-warming and wonderful family show that all too sadly is of the kind that is no longer made anymore. It is just great that the entire series is being released on DVD. I will certainly add the first five seasons to my collection. As for the sixth season, the show had lost it's heart with the departure of Kathy Nolan. Not until Don Knotts left The Andy Griffith Show did such a loss cripple a show again. Yes, The Real McCoys was basically a comedy show, but it often had touches of realism and drama you never saw on the later classic The Beverly Hillbillies. It had solid acting throughout, even down to the supporting cast. It also had a heart.

This was indeed the grandfather of all shows and it set the standard for its precessdors,"The Andy Griffith Show"(CBS,1960-68),"The Beverly Hillbillies"(CBS,1962-71),"Petticoat Junction"(CBS,1963-69),"Green Acres"(CBS,1965-71),"Mayberry RFD"(CBS,1968-71),"The Waltons"(CBS,1972-81),and not to mention on the same category "Hee Haw"(CBS,1969-71),and "The Dukes of Hazzard"(CBS,1979-85)as the foundation for the successful "rural" comedy show. The Real McCoys was just that,a mountain family who moved from the hills of West Virginia to the countryside of California. It format was the first to feature a "real star" as the understanding Grandfather Amos McCoy(played by Oscar winning actor Walter Brennan),his faithful son Luke(played by Richard Crenna),and his lovely wife Kate(played by Kathleen Nolan)and their two wonderful children. And their was the next door neighbor(played by Andy Clyde),and the hired handyman Papito who manages to work around the farm and to keep things in order. However his son Luke and the rest always had their hands full and they share some of the sorrows and joys during the family's up and downs.

The show ran on two different networks---first it was on ABC-TV for four seasons,and then it went to CBS-TV for its last two and during its six year run the show went on to win Emmys for actors Walter Brennan and Richard Crenna. The last time this show was ever seen was recently on TNN(formerly The Nashville Network before it changes the logo to The National Network)and for those who like some down home spun country humor with a message in between,well "The Real McCoys" was the show to watch and set the standard for other country sitcoms to follow.