theowinthrop I am not sure what was the first television series that suffered from the loss of a cast member by his or her death. I think it may have been WHAT'S MY LINE? because the original show had the great radio comic and wit Fred Allan as one of the players, and he died while still appearing on the show. That was in the 1950s.But WHAT'S MY LINE? was game show, so replacing Allan was not hard. In 1966, a comedy show appeared on the CBS line-up on Saturday nights called PISTOLS 'N' PETTICOATS. In it the Hanks family, headed officially by grandpa (Douglas Fowley) and grandma (Ruth McDivitt), but really headed by Henrietta (Ann Sheridan) were known for their abilities as sharpshooters (even Henrietta's niece, Lucy (Carole Wells). "The story goes that granma was best at shootin' buttons off a rustler's vest. Granpa kept his gun in trim - nobody messed around with him..." as the theme song went. All of the characters would surprise the villains with their skills in the episodes. It was just as well that they were so good, as the local sheriff (Gary Vinson) was a clumsy stumble-bum - and Lucy's boyfriend.Sheridan was at the end of her career - really beyond that. She had not done anything really big on screen since her heyday in the 1940s (I suppose I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE was her last big production). But she was a favorite with audiences, who had named her the "Oomph Girl", and she had a spark opposite Cary Grant in WAR BRIDE, or Jimmy Cagney or Ronald Reagan or Bette Davis and Monty Wooley in THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER. Still, I recall that when news of her casting came out in 1965 it struck many as odd. Why did she decide to do it?I don't think we will ever know. Sheridan had appeared in about half the episodes when she left the series and died of cancer. It was a shocker at the time.The show stumbled on, but unlike it's near contemporary F-TROOP it never found the proper balance that made the latter a big hit (and a revivable show too, for that reason). Both shows had a good ensemble, but the scripts of F-TROOP seemed better thought out, even experimental. In one F-TROOP episode entitled "THE DAY THEY SHOT AGARN", the entire episode was about Agarn being court-martial-ed on the mistaken belief he murdered the missing Sergeant O'Rourke. All through the episode somebody is singing a mournful tune about his execution (which never is completed). At the end, when O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) returns, and Agarn (Storch) is cleared, they are talking to Captain Parmenter (Ken Berry) and trying to figure out who has been singing this depressing song. O'Rourke and Parmenter look around and see some derby-hatted gentleman singing it nearby, and they order him out of the fort!That did not happen on PISTOLS. The stories were rather routine, for all the hard work of the performers. I only can recall one for an ironic aspect - Pat Buttram played an unscrupulous mountain man whose family cheated people. In an early episode he is caught by the family and he ends up going to jail. He returns in another episode, and he is a "reformed man" now. I recall he notices a little boy dropped a silver dollar on the floor of a store, and (naturally) he steps on it to hide it from the boy. He picks it up, but suddenly he feels ashamed at his greed. He calls the boy over and returns the dollar to him. Why should I recall this scene from a show? Well, it's Pat Buttram, and of course in the late 1960s he found his television immortality shortly as the great Mr. Haney on GREEN ACRES - the ultimate in weird swindlers. Haney would not, perhaps, have robbed a boy of his dollar, but the fact that both characters are swindlers made me remember Buttram's performance on PISTOLS. But note - he is a supporting player in an episode or two. It's not like recalling the performances of the leads. And I can't recall them too well now. But I recall performances by the leads from F-Troop to this day. One can blame the death of it's star for the demise of PISTOLS 'N' PETTICOATS, but one can also recognize that good shows survive due to clever scripts above everything else.

cmilne523 I was a pretty young kid when this show was on, but I can remember how much I loved it. I was surfing around on this site and came across Spring Byington's biography and I thought it was she who co-starred in the show as Ann Sheridan's mother, but come to find out, it was Ruth McDevitt. But I did remember the name of the show. I wish it would come out on DVD so I could see the show again. I loved all of the characters on the show. It didn't seem hokey or stupid or sappy to me, it seemed smart and funny, and so did all of the people on the show. Of course, like I said, I was just a kid. I was so sad when Ann Sheridan died and the show ended. I know sometimes if someone leaves a show, whether its a death or a career change, they will replace the person with another actor, but it sure wouldn't have worked in this case, so it was just as well the show ended, although all too early.

solsburydp With so many old television programs being released on DVD, I'd love to see this one released. Rarely seen since it's original run, it certainly deserves to be released along with a bunch of other one year wonders. Big market for entertaining programs that lasted one year or less like Pistol's & Petticoats. In my opinion, other great programs to be considered for a DVD release would be unique programs like "The Hero", "Camp Runamuck", and the totally off the wall but very funny "Quark". If a network like "Trio" can find success with their "Brilliant but Cancelled" series, there must be some interest in these strange, unique, and sometimes hilarious programs.

artzau I loved this show about a family of gunslingers that, as in the credit song recalled "Grandma shooting the buttons off a rustler's vest." The show was rather stock 60s TV mind pablum but still enjoyable to sit down and vege out on, laughing at the goofy situations. Not to mention, it was a pleasure to see Robert Lowery, Ruth McDevitt and the immortal Lon Chaney Jr., all vets whose faces you've seen hundreds of times before. And then, there was the beautiful Ann Sheridan who tragically died of cancer, still working up to the last. In some of the last sequences, where she was only in small scenes, she was so weak, she could hardly stand. It was hard to watch but still, it was an inspiration to see this courageous woman.