Four-Leaf Clover

Daniel and Yadkin (again) encounter a distressed traveler, in this instance Francis Clover(George Gobel). They help him into Boonesborough, and find the learned Clover is a prime candidate for the schoolmaster's job. Unfortunately he was also in charge of transporting Boonesborough's gunpowder, which some helpful Shawnee offered to handle for him.

Another around-the-fort outing, but one reasonably engaging by showcasing Gobel's deadpan humor. Character actor Gobel was a 1960's TV fixture, pioneering the clueless naif in trouble act later refined by Jason Alexander as George Costanza in "Seinfeld." The laughs here (although not presented as a straight comedy episode) come from Gobel's inability to comprehend the importance of the settlement's gunpowder. Gobel did the same act as a would-be wagonmaster on "Wagon Train." Also along for the ride as a settler is Alvy Moore, the longtime agricultural extension agent Mr. Haney on "Green Acres." Frank De Kova, the yuk-yuk Indian chief on "F-Troop, tries his hand as a heavy menace tribal leader here.

Gobel's bumbling and stumbling, supposedly redeemed by his book learning, is the hour's tentpole; for dramatic tension the Shawnee (contractually obligated villains) are pounding on the fort's gate. We do get to see the interior of the Boonesborough powder magazine, usually seem from the exterior when used as a gaol. Plus, there is a fair amount of action, surprisingly for a semi-comic outing.

Light on the history side tonight; the Shawnee have been menaced-up by making them look like New York Mohawks, and it should be noted for the record that the mass production of gunpowder in the U. S. was by the Du Pont family in Pennsylvania during 1802.

An expanded fort-centered episode much enhanced by Gobel's guest turn; unfortunate that he could not have been made a semi-regular as the schoolmaster, which would have provided bottle-episode breaks from Cincinatus' schtick.