It is common knowledge that one of the many complex reasons why Pete Duel committed suicide on December 31st, 1971, was he was depressed he was starring in a TV series, and he didn't like the quality of the plotlines for Alias Smith and Jones. (As a 12 YO kid in 1971 I distinctly remember reading about his depression...it was first mentioned in his obituary!) Sadly, IMHO he wouldn't have thought the plot was poor for this first episode where Roger Davis takes over his role as Hanibal Hayes. The story begins with Hayes and Curry minding their own business and resting down the embankment of a road when a travel bag full of counterfeit money lands on them. Hayes comes up with a plan to use the money by going to the town of Lordstown posing as a man looking for land to buy, with Curry in tow as his advisor. The pair pick Lordstown because when they were running with the Devil's Hole Gang, fellow gang members Wheat Carlson and Kyle Murtry always wanted to hold up the Saturday afternoon into Sunday morning poker game that is played on time religiously beginning at 3 PM by these cattle ranch owners, with huge sums of cash at the table in a locked room at the hotel. Just as Hayes hopes will happen, word gets around town that he is supposedly wealthy and gets invited to play in this legendary game, where he then intends to legally win huge poker stakes off really rich men. By having put counterfeit money in a safe deposit box, as opposed to depositing it into a savings account, the phony money has done its job by giving him his undeserved reputation as a wealthy man worthy of being invited into the poker game, but what Hayes doesn't bank on is a crooked banker (pun intended!) finding out the money is counterfeit and knowing just having possession of counterfeit money is a crime. To make matters worse, during the second sitting in on the poker game a week later, the Devil's Hole Gang shows up and robs the game! It's great fun to see if they get out of this jam with their former gang members and still retain their friendship, and how they can turn the tables on the crooked banker, played by Jim Backus, late of his role as Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island. All in all, a good plotline where probably Pete Duel would have liked it. Eight on the one to ten scale.
