User reviews

Watching this Bonanza story sure makes one mindful how in the 21st century we've come a long way in dealing with influenza. It's come to the Ponderosa and Lorne Greene has a bunkhouse filled with sick cowhands. Not to mention a lumber camp where they are also coming down with it and Dan Blocker and Michael Landon keep dropping off wagon loads of sick help.

The story involves a conflict between Dr. Harry Holcombe and Louise Latham who does his nursing and Meg Foster over from Ireland who has different ideas about treating the sick. Ideas she learned from none other than Florence Nightingale. She cures those in her care at the ranch house which include Lorne Greene, Mitch Vogel, and Victor Sen Yung. Foster does the cooking while Hop Sing is ill.

Nice performances showing the conflict between the two women Latham and Foster. This is a good episode.

Unlike the many Bonanza shows which tease with race issues, mental illnesses, gender, age, and yatti yatta, this one deals with the influeza, and it did it very well. It is a safe subject, after all, who could possibly take the opposing side? Well, they found a contention anyway, the method to cure it. It was a great show to watch, except the acting of Dr. George Woodtree, which bombed. Fortunately, it was very brief.

Meg Foster plays a nurse who has ideas that differ from the preferred doctor of the Cartwrights on fighting an influenza outbreak. Foster gives a solid performance. Louise Latham, a solid actress, plays a nurse, who thinks the conventional treatment is best regardless of lack of improvement. It's a good message about how experts can be wrong. And it looks how the legal system can mess things up when it gets involved in health care. It's been a while since I've watched a Western dealing with an illness outbreak. Stars In My Crown dealt with this as one of the story threads in the film. There's something to be said about getting too caught up in credentials, also.