The Dude Ranch

Originally aired October 12, 1936, this episode finds Fibber McGee and Molly trading their usual domestic chaos for a week of "roughing it" at the G-Bar C Dude Ranch. But the old west has gone modern, and instead of cowpokes and cacti, they're met with tuxedo dinners, phony wranglers, and ping-pong showdowns between Potawatomis and Cherokees. Fibber, in full braggadocio mode, regales the ranch hands with wildly embellished tales of his marshal days as “Coyote Killer McGee, the cleverest cartridge-clipping cayuse-climbing caballero of Calaveras County.”

From faux shootouts and long-distance calls from Detroit to outlandish western skits and a surprise visit by Perry Como and Ted Weems, hilarity ensues as Fibber’s frontier fantasies clash with the posh reality of the dude ranch. Complete with Johnson’s Glow Coat ads and remastered for clarity, this whimsical episode of Fibber McGee & Molly proves that the Wild West is no match for McGee’s wild imagination.