Good concept, poorly executed.

From my favorite movies..

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's commonly said of shows like this that they were products of a more innocent era. But it wasn't really so innocent; and as far as TV went, what now looks like innocence was closer to mannerliness: TV was conceived as a guest in the home, and minded its words accordingly. Its purveyors assumed they could and should satisfy everyone, and that everyone shared the same proprieties and ideals to be satisfied. Gradually, this cohesive culture was eroded by a more divisive one; but while it lasted, it produced shows like Here Come the Brides.This was one of the last examples of the TV Western, now an extinct form, and, to viewers unacquainted with it, HCTB must look like all the others. But it didn't at the time. It seemed to have a dash, a bounce, and a sweetness not seen before. In fact, the first episode brought me more plain, simple happiness than anything on TV before or after. Home videotaping didn't then exist, but I made an audiotape of the episode, and wherever I went, if I was feeling lonely, I'd give it a listen, and it always cheered me.Before airing, the show was promoted like Petticoat Junction, as a broad farce with cuties. It had that aspect; but what the promos didn't disclose was that it was a rollicking frontier comedy of the North to Alaska school: a mixture of swagger and sweetness--in effect, a musical without the songs. Which is just what it was. In the late fifties George Sidney, the director of several musicals, had planned another one, to star Burt Lancaster and Shirley Jones. The writer was N. Richard Nash, in whose frontier comedy The Rainmaker Lancaster had played the title character; the hero of this story, Jason Bolt, bore him more than a slight resemblance. A script and songs were drafted, but ultimately the production was dropped. The script no doubt was filed, and a few years later someone seeking properties to develop happened across it; hence this show.The producer, Bob Claver, had done an earlier Western, Iron Horse, with a similar period flavor and a similar confidence-man hero. For HCTB he brought in E. W. Swackhamer to direct the pilot episode (later, he would direct all of the show's best ones). Whether Swackhamer influenced the casting is not recorded, but it seems likely, since he was friends with both its leading man, Robert Brown, and leading lady, Bridget Hanley (whom he afterwards married). I expect it was the combination of the three that gave the show its exuberance. Brown seemed born to the part of a honey-tongued backwoods cavalier, and Hanley showed exactly the right kind of gumption for a blend of women's advocate, den mother, and understanding sweetheart.A show doesn't always remain in the same state, and HCTB passed through at least three: the pilot; the season subsequent; and the one after that (which unfortunately was the last). The pilot looked as if it would make a fun-filled series as it stood; one episode was attempted on that theory, and failed (though it was reworked and shown later), the characters running around aimlessly and with motives that made little sense. Someone--probably script editor William Blinn, to judge from his other work--reoriented the show toward community, friendship, love, and family. The leading character went from hoodwinking the townsfolk to becoming their leading light; his logger gang, originally outsiders (like the brothers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), became the town's most frequent denizens.The first half of that season was undoubtedly the series' apex. It had two strong supporting characters who later left: hard-headed, good-hearted logger Big Swede and prim but highly principled schoolmarm Miss Essie. It also featured striking turns by guest actors, and utilized a wide range of scriptwriters, who had fun exploring the characters before everything became fixed and while things could still be stretched for the heck of it.The TV pilot made two big changes from the proposed movie: the hero's love interest, a shady lady, was eliminated; and his big task became, not to import the "brides" he had promised the town, but to keep them there for a year. This gimmick must have seemed certain to guarantee one season; and it did. Without it, the show slowly came apart in its second year.Not that the gimmick had worked in practice. The local mill owner was out to send the brides packing so he could collect the agreed-upon forfeit, a timber-rich mountain. But he was a notorious skinflint who had paid to have them brought, and gained from their presence there as much as anybody. He made a few half-hearted attempts to tempt one or another girl away; but none was believable, and soon the show gave up on the idea.What it became about instead was logging, and courtship--but mainly, fun: impersonations; impostures; wagers; contests. In the second season it sobered up slightly and settled into a long string of swindles and abductions (the producer wanted action but TV was in one of its anti-violence phases, so nobody could be killed).The three leading actors made strong impressions; this show was the best any of them ever did by a long way. The others besides Brown were the pop singer Bobby Sherman, who showed a surprising depth of feeling as the insecure, guileless, sometimes quick-tempered youngest brother, and David Soul as the middle one, who began as a cocky lothario and then turned into a kind of fulcrum holding the excesses of the others in balance: reserved, occasionally too smug in his own intelligence, but generally acting as the voice of reason. However, the most touching scenes were Sherman's--as when, after being cured of his speech impediment by a visiting medicine man, he learns his benefactor was a charlatan and reverts to stuttering again--publicly, in his girlfriend's hearing. Her heart goes out to him; ours do, too.

the years this TV show broadcast were tumultuous in our U.S. VN was ending. Nixon got US troops OUT of VN. Nixon, who opened to the US, the inscrutable China will only be remembered for a common illegal practice: __________fill in the blank. He just got caught. POOOLIZE...HERE COME THE BRIDES took us away from the real world of huge conflict and social misery. HERE COME THE BRIDES presented the consistent, biological adventures of men and women.HERE COME THE BRIDES diverted me and assisted me to get through the animosity of the times. I imagined characters and the era as an escape route, knowing i would have to put it back down eventually.Reality was not altered, BUT I DID NOT THROW MY SELF ON THE REAL AND SYMBOLIC PYRES OF FLAG AND BRA BURNERS. This particular show was a reprieve and affirmation that all going on was transient.It was transient, and i did no drugs, was sexually abstinent, and had both a filial AND COMMERCIAL TV SHOW telling me i was OK.i hope someone in the cast, crew, production, writer or anyone who worked on this show gets my message. HERE COME THE BRIDES along with my family ALLOWED ME to transcend unhealthy fads and grow past the socio-pathology of those days. YES. THE 60ies WERE A SOCIAL MISTAKE, AND HERE COME THE BRIDES GAVE REPRIEVE TO NON=ADHERENTS. l, maureen

This was a great show to watch and remember watching it as a kid in moving to TN in 1984. It was on the CBN Network aka now ABC Family. No sex, violence, and/or four-letter words. Robert Brown started out as the star of the show. But then the focus turned to Bobby Sherman as he indeed added sex appeal and became more of the focus of the show. Can't wait for the DVD release!! Future Starsky & Hutch star David Soul is in a secondary role as the middle brother. Loved Lonne as she was the mother figure of the brides. As well as the man that played the captain as he added comic relief to the show. Again this show will remind me of when I first moved to TN and started loving this show. Great family show to watch.

"Here Come the Brides" rates as one of my favorite shows of all time. The theme song, so beautifully crisp and clean, frequently resounds in my mind, although I can't remember all the words. The historical fiction genre is my favorite. Robert Brown was outstanding as Jason Bolt. He was bold, handsome, intelligent and resourceful. Oh did I love Bridget Hanley. She was so sweet, pure and full of love for Jeremy. When something would upset her and the tears would drip down her cheeks, I wanted so badly to hug her.Mark Lenard was classic as the villain -- stoic, miserly and always scheming to separate the Bolts from their mountain. But seeing Joan Blondell in her later years was truly a gift. I later became enamored with classic movies and enjoyed her romps with James Cagney and in the Gold Diggers movies. She was a beauty in her day. In HCTB, she was matronly and domineering but in a kind and gentle way. I wish there was a way to see some of the old episodes. I remember that it was in syndication for a short time back in the late 80s and I had the wherewithal to record 3 or 4. The simple, honest messages that the show conveyed are lost today in a decadent sea of sex and vulgarity. I guess I'll just have to be thankful that I had the opportunity to see the show on a week-to-week basis during my high school days. I'll watch my episodes from time to time, fall in love with Candy all over again, enjoy the drunken escapades of Captain Clancy and catch the last vestiges of Joan Blondell's great career.