Aired: 1977
DAD: Evan Thorpe (Rod Taylor) / Widower
DAD’S JOB: Wagon Train Pioneer Guy
KIDS: Andrew Thorpe (Andrew Stevens) (17), William Thorpe (Tony Becker) (12), Rachel Thorpe (Gina Marie Smika) (10)
WHERE’S MOM?: Dead.
STAND-IN “MOM”: Margaret Devlin (Darleen Carr) / Girlfriend
Perhaps this is another motif buried in TV Single Dad shows: the idea of the Single Dad taking the Jed Clampett route: “moving away from thar” and heading West. Evan Thorpe packed up his family and headed to Oregon with a wagon train. They were only on the trail for a month when the show got cancelled, though. Too bad.
And no, they didn’t all die of dysentery.