Growing up as a child, among my favorite TV series was TOPPER, so it was a thrill to accidentally see its classic stars Anne Jeffreys & Robert Sterling team up again in this "Wagon Train" episode, recently re-aired on the Encore Westerns cable channel.
Though there are dramatic moments, particularly as Sterling's character comes down with fever and is nursed by Jeffreys, this is a light-hearted episode, with even Ward Bond less avuncular than usual. Stunt casting of the famous TV (and real-life) couple would have been appreciated in 1957 by avid fans, and so this was not the usual soap operatics "Wagon Train" outing.
Convincingly clashing as radically different personalities, the two are thrown together by necessity, as Jeffreys needs a new driver to keep her wagon on schedule as Bond's motley crew makes their way Westward. Neither one can stand the other, making for effective romantic dramedy.
I would be curious to see younger people's reactions to the piece, perhaps not aware of the casting gimmick -one could easily assume that Anne and Robert had never worked together. I thought it held up well, despite a certain predictability endemic to these '50s episodic series.
Though there are dramatic moments, particularly as Sterling's character comes down with fever and is nursed by Jeffreys, this is a light-hearted episode, with even Ward Bond less avuncular than usual. Stunt casting of the famous TV (and real-life) couple would have been appreciated in 1957 by avid fans, and so this was not the usual soap operatics "Wagon Train" outing.
Convincingly clashing as radically different personalities, the two are thrown together by necessity, as Jeffreys needs a new driver to keep her wagon on schedule as Bond's motley crew makes their way Westward. Neither one can stand the other, making for effective romantic dramedy.
I would be curious to see younger people's reactions to the piece, perhaps not aware of the casting gimmick -one could easily assume that Anne and Robert had never worked together. I thought it held up well, despite a certain predictability endemic to these '50s episodic series.