Shark Bytes

I too remember "The Real McCoys" as a Sunday night staple on both CBS and ABC.

Yes, it was homespun and I particularly liked Kathleen Nolan, who in 1964 starred in her own spin-off of McHale's Navy called Broadside, also on Sunday nights.

The show really jumped when kate and the kids left but the real downer was when they brought in Uncle Rightly at the end, I think played by Jack Oakey. The guy was not funny. Kinda like when Jack Burns came in to replace Don Knotts on Andy. Still grandpa Amos was the king and cantakerous till the end.
DAGNABIT!!!!

I heard on the radio a sound bite the other day, it was Grandpa saying "Gol' darn it Luke."
It took me back. A lasting memory of of a good comedy. A piece of American cultural TV that we should hold on to for a while longer. Family values are needed today more than ever. Let's hold on if we can.

At the beginning of the series, they told how siblings had the same name, "Luke". Luke said his parents were so happy with the new baby, they forgot that they already had one named Luke.
Anyway, Grandpa Amos was cantankerous with a heart of gold. Always did the right thing in the end. The show was one of the best. It was a about family
values, and how they always solved problems and stuck together. A happy family.

I was very young when I last saw this show, but I remember how I enjoyed it. I also remember that special walk Walter Brennan (Grandpa McCoy) had, like he had a "hitch-in-his-get-along." NEVER JUMPED.

I liked the show when I was a kid but I saw reruns for the first time a few years ago and one thing really bothered me. That was just how generally mean spirited and selfish old grandpa was. It was always his way or the highway. The man seemed to live in a constant state of agitation. I did love the folk humor though. (Smear some polecat grease on your newbie bag and wear it around your neck.) I have always thought it was really the prototype for the later Beverly Hillbillies.

Any show with Walter Brennan could never jump! What a great actor!

I really enjoyed this show. It was a nice clean family drama/comedy. I liked Grampa Amos cuz he reminded me of my dad (who was old enuff 2 be my grampa). There's hardly anything decent on broadcast TV these days & I refuse 2 waste $ paying 4 cable. I wish they had shows like this now.

"Gol' darn it!" "Dag nab it!" Wouldn't you love to have a dollar for every time Walter Brennan said either one of these phrases? This show always perplexed me--I thought Hassie and Little Luke (his name was Little Luke for crying out loud!) were Luke and Kate's children, not Luke's siblings. How were they written out of the show when Kate died? This was the crowning blow to the show. The affable Richard Crenna couldn't shoulder all the burden of offsetting Brennan's grumpiness--we needed Kate and the kids to help out. I always admired Crenna for being able to go from playing skinny, goofy, squeaky-voiced Walter Denton on "Our Miss Brooks" to muscular, sexy, normal-voiced Luke McCoy. That's a good actor! This show was always very moral as I recall--Kate was always telling Grampa that the Lord would get him if he didn't mend his ways. I have a low tolerance for shows with crochety, lazy old farts and Grampa, like "Petticoat Junction"'s Uncle Joe, really gets on my nerves. But "McCoys" had a good cast and was tolerable. I liked the music and Pepito always calling Brennan "Senor Grampa!" Still, if anyone should have been killed off at the end of the fifth season, it was GRAMPA, Gol' darn it (and dag nab it)!

Richard Crenna was fine as Luke McCoy. He was even better in his previous series "Our Miss Brooks" as squeaky voiced Walter Denton. (Crenna started playing Denton on radio while he was still studying at USC.) But my favorite of his roles was in his next series "Slattery's People", which he did a year after "McCoys" ended. "Slattery's People" was an hour-long drama produced by the same company that made "Ben Casey" and it was equally well done, which is saying a lot. Crenna played Jim Slattery, the idealistic but tough minority leader of a state legislature. Crenna brilliantly reinvented himself as a serious dramatic actor with this role. The series lasted a season and a half, and always struggled for ratings. But the show and Crenna received great reviews (particularly from TV Guide critic Clevland Amory who said Crenna was in the big leagues with David Janssen, Robert Lansing and Vic Morrow)and Crenna received two Emmy nominations for the role. When the series ended, Crenna was in demand for movies ("The Sand Pebbles" and "Wait Until Dark"). From his time doing radio while in college until his death, Richard Crenna never stopped working and he never gave a bad performance. A consummate pro.

Does anyone know the relationship between the characters? It seems as if Luke, Little Luke and Hassie were siblings, but two Lukes? Can't believe that even in the Ozarks, or wherever this was set, they'd run out of names that quickly. They all called Walter Brennan "granpaw". They didn't call Richard Crenna, "uncle Luke". What's the story?

Never jumped. I saw this show when I was pretty young, but I remember it getting more interesting and serious when Kate and the kids disappeared. Richard Crenna acted sad and depressed as if it had really happened. It was also the most comedy of the time. I remember one show near the end involving a strike of the growers against the packers, with Walter Brennan as an activist! Mexican workers, money problems, crop problems, this show was as far from the fantasy land of Ozzie and Harriet as you can get.

Three of the five principal characters (Kate McCoy, Hassie McCoy, and Little Luke McCoy) were written out of the show for the final season. Losing the critical character Kate McCoy was an irreversible poor choice. The sparkle was gone.

I stopped watching when Kathy Nolan left the show and became Kathleen Nolan on another show, I think it was BROADSIDE.

When the show lost three characters at once: Kate, Hassie, and Little Luke. Grandpa McCoy was a interesting character, but without Kate and the kids as a counterweight, what was the point?