The series follows a family in the 1860’s that has decided to take to the Oregon Trail (enter requisite dysentery joke here) and get away from the rumors of civil war that are becoming more and more apparent.
The series starts with Zeb Macahan (James Arness, Gunsmoke), a frontiersman going to visit his family. While Zeb’s parents are still around at the start of the film, their role is small, and most of the focus is on Zeb’s brother’s wife and kids. Timothy Macahan (Richard Kiley) has settled down quite well with Kate (Eva Marie Saint, Superman Returns, North by Northwest) and their two sons, Seth and Jeb (renamed to Luke and Josh respectively) and two daughters, Molly and Laura, but before Zeb has a chance to go out into the wild again, Kate and Timothy decide that they want to leave Virginia and head out West. They ask Zeb to lead their way and after a bit of a rocky start, the seven start on the trail.
Unfortunately, their trip has a lot of pitfalls, and a lot of them happen before their journey really begins. Both Timothy and Seth/Luke (Bruce Boxleitner, Babylon 5, TRON, TRON: Legacy) are conscripted by the Union Army as the Civil War breaks out. Unwilling to start the trip without the whole family, Zeb leaves Kate and her remaining kids to find the missing Macahans.
When Boxleitner’s character finds his father dead on a battlefield, he deserts the army and heads back home. Unfortunately, this puts him in the sights of Union officer whose job it is to track down, and possibly put down, deserters. When the man comes to the Macahan homestead to confront the eldest Macahan boy, Zeb stops the officer and Seth/Luke flees and finds shelter in a rather unexpected place.
What follows is Zeb’s search for the boy while Kate and the kids have to deal with waiting for everyone to get back before their journey can continue. While both Zeb and Seth/Luke’s story is a driving force in this first season, the rest of the Macahans have their own bit of trouble. Not only does there appear to be an Indian war starting to pick up around their temporary home, but a wounded stranger shows up, and no one is quite sure what to think of him.
How the West Was Won was an odd experience. Basically, the three episodes Season One are loosely based on the TV movie which is loosely based on a movie of the same name. While the TV movie can be seen as a pilot, it actually goes beyond the point of the show’s initial season, but the show itself doesn’t start off as early as the film does. As a result, it’s really hard to call the TV movie an actual pilot.
Overall, How the West Was Won: The Complete First Season seems to do a good job of capturing a piece of classic American television to be watched and endeared by those who enjoyed the show while it was on TV. It was interesting to see Arness in a similar, but slightly different role as well as watching young Eva Marie Saint and Boxleitner in action. That being said, I can’t really see this DVD set grabbing that many new audience members but those who watched the show, either during its initial run or through the various syndications it has had, should find this release enjoyable.
