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Episode
#704: "The Face on the Bar Room Floor"
Original Air Date:
October 15, 2000
(7th Season Premiere)
Teleplay by: Martha
Williamson & Burt Pearl
Story by: Daniel H.
Forer
Directed by: Peter H.
Hunt
Produced by: Martha
Williamson, Jon Andersen & R.J. Visciglia, Jr. |
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Guest Cast: |
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Everett/Jack Clay |
Richard Chamberlain |
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Benjamin Clay |
Ray Walston |
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Carson Clay |
Chaney Kley |
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Barkley Stubbs |
Keith Szarabajka |
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Simon |
J.G. Hertzler |
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Karla |
Lee Meriwether |
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High atop a New York
penthouse, Tess is entertaining at a society party hosted by bon
vivant Everett Clay when his octogenarian father Benjamin, who still
runs the family business, makes a surprise appearance to chastise his
son and grandson about their wasteful ways. The following morning,
Benjamin tells Everett the Bible story of the prodigal son who
squanders his fortune. Benjamin reminds Everett that his great
grandfather started this company carving handmade buttons and that
he's being disinherited to learn the importance of self-reliance and
hard work, handing him a framed deerskin jacket, with buttons carved
by his great grandfather. Angry and penniless, Jake busts the frame,
when Tess appears in her Cadillac, offering Everett a ride to
Colorado, where some friends of his had invited him to stay. Before
long, they arrive in Central City, the mining town that was in its
heyday at the turn of the century. They stop at the historic Teller
House saloon where Everett notices a portrait of a woman's face
painted on the barroom floor. Tess tells Everett some of the folklore
surrounding the fabled portrait, then goes on to tell him its
connection to his great grandfather, Jack Clay. It turns out that the
woman whose likeness appeared on the barroom floor worked at the
saloon and was friends with Jack Clay. Tess recounts the story of how
Jack had come to Central City to hawk his miracle elixir, preaching
its curative powers with the conviction of an evangelist. Jack loses
a game of poker to a known con man named Barkley Stubbs, who not only
left town with Everett's horse and gun, but a bag full of handcrafted
buttons he made for his wife. With Monica and Andrew as his guides,
Jack tracks Barkley to a remote mountaintop and finds him unearthing a
treasure. Jack holds Barkley at gunpoint to hand over the treasure.
Monica tries to talk Jack out of it when Barkley makes a move for the
gun. A struggle ensues and the gun goes off, wounding Barkley.
Physically unable to reach the nearest hospital, Barkley prepares to
meet his Maker. But before he does, he advises Jack to put his
button-making skills to use, and gives Jack the map to find his way
back to Central City. Tess explains that Jack left the treasure
intact, taking only his due. Realizing what this means, Everett
searches the deerskin jacket, finds the treasure map and returns to
the spot to unearth the treasure his great grandfather buried over a
hundred years ago. But when he opens it, he is flabbergasted to find
a lone button -- the button that came off during the struggle between
his great grandfather and Barkley Stubbs. When Jack realizes he'd
come all this way for naught, Jack goes into cardiac arrest. He's
rushed to the hospital and while the doctors work on reviving his
body, Monica goes to work on his soul. With Monica's help, Everett
finally comes to understand the lesson his father had been trying to
impart. When Everett regains consciousness, he calls his father to
apologize and to assure him that he's coming home a changed man.
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