Off the Beaten Path: The Barkley family mansion and barn in "The Big Valley" — and where in tarnation did they drop off Miss Kitty in "Gunsmoke"?

The Barkley family mansion, as seen in the title sequence for "The Big Valley" (1965-1969)

It's fairly well-known that the Barkley family mansion on the TV series "The Big Valley" was located on the old Republic backlot in Studio City, Calif. But I recently uncovered a few tidbits about the sets used for the show that I don't think have been publicized much, if at all.

The Mansion, as seen on "The Big Valley"

Here's another look at the Barkley family home on "The Big Valley." This screen shot comes from the episode "Under a Dark Star," which premiered Feb. 9, 1966, during the show's first season, and would have been shot during 1965. The building on the Republic lot that served as the Barkley mansion tends to be referred to somewhat generically as "The Mansion," or the Mansion set.

"The Mansion," on the Republic backlot in Studio City

The above shot of the mansion is unrelated to "The Big Valley" or any other production, as far as I know, but has been circulated as something of a reference shot of Republic's Mansion set, and also appears in Tinsley E. Yarbrough's quintessential reference work "Those Great Western Movie Locations." Tinsley suggests in the book that the mansion was originally built for the 1949 John Wayne movie "The Fighting Kentuckian."

"The Big Valley" — closing credits

Here's the shot of the mansion that appears while the closing credits roll at the end of episodes of "The Big Valley." The one-hour series aired for four seasons and 112 episodes on ABC, from 1965-1969, and was part of a group of Western TV series including "Bonanza," 'Gunsmoke" and "The Virginian" that helped elevate the genre from its primary role in the 1950s as children's entertainment into a well-regarded adult dramatic format.

The Barkley family barn, as seen on "The Big Valley"

A less well-known fact about sets for "The Big Valley" is that the Barkley family's red barn, which appears in a number of episodes, was also located on the Republic backlot, and in fact was adjacent to the Mansion set. The shot seen here comes from the episode "The Fallen Hawk," which premiered March 2, 1966.

This version of the screen shot identifies the barn and the small gray house, both of which were part of the Duchess Ranch set. This set and the Mansion set were two completely different sets, but they happened to be right next to each other.

"Santa Fe Passage" (1955)

In fact, the Mansion set occasionally snuck into the shot in productions that featured the Duchess Ranch set, as in this example from the Republic Western "Santa Fe Passage," starring John Payne and Rod Cameron.

This version of the shot from "Santa Fe Passage" points out the Duchess Ranch set along with the Mansion in the background.

Additions and upgrades to the Duchess Ranch barn for "The Big Valley"

Even though the barn as it appears in "The Big Valley" is seen from close to the same angle used in "Santa Fe Passage," its appearance is markedly different in the two productions. For "The Big Valley," along with a new red paint job, the barn had a number of additions built on — such as the new covered entry area highlighted here. A new corral area was also set up using white fencing.

Here's another look at the new covered entry area that's part of the barn set for "The Big Valley."

The barn also boasts a new turret on top.

"The Golden Stallion" (1949) — Duchess Ranch

The same set was featured in countless productions over the years, but usually looked more like a typical dusty old Western ranch set, as in this example from Republic's Roy Rogers vehicle "The Golden Stallion."

"The Big Valley" — notice the gate to the corral area

I want to call your attention to the gate to the new corral area seen in "The Big Valley," because it was used to help establish the setting where the producers wanted viewers to believe the Barkley family compound was located.

"The Big Valley" — another version of the gate, from the episode "Image of Yesterday"

This screen shot of a similar corral gate — presumably meant to represent the same gate — comes from the "Big Valley" episode "Image of Yesterday," which premiered Jan. 9, 1967, during season two, and would have been shot in 1966. This gate appears in a number of episodes, with characters riding through it as they arrive at or depart from the Barkley compound.

"The Big Valley" — "Image of Yesterday" (1967)

The location of the gate is clearly meant to define the setting surrounding the Barkley family home on "The Big Valley." However, in the real world, the gate was nowhere near the buildings, but was located miles away in what is now the suburbs of Oak Park, Calif., near Thousand Oaks. It appears that the only part of the "Big Valley" set that stood in this location was the replica of the gate.

A close look at the gate and fence that stood in modern-day Oak Park reveals that it's not a perfect match with the gate at Duchess Ranch on the Republic lot in Studio City. While the supports on the crossbar at the top and the diamond-shaped bracing on the gate itself are a good match, the configuration of the fence is a giveaway.

Another bend in the layout of the fence belies the producers' attempt to replicate the Duchess Ranch set.

"The Big Valley" — shot in the Oak Park area

Another shot from "The Big Valley," this one from the episode "Wagonload of Dreams," was taped near where shots of the gate were taken. You may be able to spot the similarity in the background hills between this photo and those featuring the Oak Park gate set. (See the next photo, for example.) This episode first aired Jan. 2, 1967, one week before "Image of Yesterday," and would have probably been a part of the same location shoot.

"The Big Valley" — "Cage of Eagles"

The gate and background hills appear again in the episode "Cage of Eagles," which aired later in season two, premiering April 24, 1967. Here again, the scene is shot in Oak Park.

Here I've combined parts of the two shots above to show that they contain the same rocky bluff in the background. It's obviously much more distinct in the top half of the composite, from "Wagonload of Dreams," but you may be able to match up the bluff's overall shape with the shot on the bottom, from "Cage of Eagles."

"Branded" TV show (1966) — same bluffs in the background

It wasn't easy to determine the location of the "Big Valley" gate set, in part because Oak Park isn't one of the first sites that come to mind in film location research. But this particular locale did see some action, especially in the mid-1960s, with the above shot from the TV show "Branded" being another example.

I wanted to point out which bluff from the "Branded" shot matches the bluff seen in both shots from "The Big Valley," because some of the other bluffs are similar in appearance and it would be easy to get the wrong impression. The "Branded" shot comes from the episode "Call to Glory, Part 3," which wrapped up a three-part series of episodes that aired in February and March 1966.

The bluff at the right in this shot can also be seen in "The Big Valley," in the shot from "Wagonload of Dreams," where it appears above and to the right of the wagon. The bluff in the center of this shot is not seen in any of the "Big Valley" shots, but surfaces here because the "Branded" scene was shot from a much higher angle.

Google Earth photo: Hiking trail in Oak Park

A photo I found posted on Google Earth, taken by a hiker along a trail on the outskirts of suburban Oak Park, captures the same bluffs seen in "Branded" and "The Big Valley," albeit from a different angle.

I've labeled the bluffs appearing in the photo posted by the Oak Park hiker to show how they match up with the "Branded" shot, which appears below with similar labels.

Here's the "Branded" shot again, labeled to show how the bluffs match up with the photo posted by the hiker.

"Gunsmoke" (1965) — the Miss Kitty dropoff point

The Oak Park shooting location first came to my attention as part of a search by Michael DeMarquette, one of the readers of this blog. Michael is a "Gunsmoke" fan and mentioned that he had been searching for the remote location seen above, where Miss Kitty gets dropped off by the stagecoach in the episode "Gold Mine."

This clump of rocks in the "Gunsmoke" scene was the focal point of Michael's location hunt.

Amanda Blake as Kitty, stranded at the clump of rocks

In the "Gunsmoke" episode, Miss Kitty is dropped off by the stagecoach and left at the clump of rocks — and it's pertinent to the theme of the episode that she was indeed stranded in the middle of nowhere. The episode premiered on Christmas Day in 1965 as part of "Gunsmoke's" 11th season.

As it turned out, the same clump of rocks also appeared in "Branded," although it was shot from a different direction and contained different hills in the background.

The hiker who posted the Google Earth photo taken along the trail above Oak Park, with the bluffs in the background, also posted this shot, taken from close to the same spot. The shot contains the same hills seen in the background during the "Gunsmoke" sequence.

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the hills above Oak Park as they appear in the background of the hiker's photo and in the "Gunsmoke" sequence. The same hills appear in both photos.

While I had a hand in helping to put a few of the pieces together, it was Michael who nailed down the "Gunsmoke" location as Oak Park. Between the two of us, we were able to determine that the site of the original clump of rocks where Miss Kitty was dropped off was approximately here — in what is now a residential back yard. And in an enticing twist, it's possible — although far from certain — that some of the original rocks may have survived.

Off the Beaten Path is a series of posts that are not specifically focused on the usual subject matter of this blog, the Iverson Movie Ranch. Past subjects have included Corriganville, Bell Ranch, Pioneertown and other old filming locations. You can go directly to the Off the Beaten Path posts by looking up the term "Off the Beaten Path" in the long index of labels at the right of the page, or by clicking here.

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Ditulis Itsuyasuzukige — Rabu, 03 Desember 2014 — Add Comment — Big Valley, Branded, Duchess Ranch, Golden Stallion, Gunsmoke, Oak Park, Off the Beaten Path, Republic backlot, Santa Fe Stampede