MovieChat Forums > The Big Valley (1965) Discussion > Audra was Eye Candy for Men and Barkely ...

Audra was Eye Candy for Men and Barkely Boys were Eye Candy to Woman


Watching the show as a teenager I thought the Barkley Brothers were so handsome, Yet, my brother could not take his eyes off of Audra. To this day we call the Barkleys, our eye candy treat from the 60's.

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For sure! I have to admit to being enamored with Audra, but first season Audra, as I liked her hairstyle much more then.

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I always thought the two youngest Barkleys, Heath and Audra were meant to be the "sex symbols" of the show. Of the Barkely men, I think Richard Long/Jarrod was cast for his acting ability and experience. Peter Breck/Nick provided the muscle and comedy. Lee Majors/Heath was to be the young "heartthrob/hunk". Obviously one of the main reasons Lee Majors was cast as Heath is because he was to provide the "beefcake" on the show. There were a number of episodes that featured Heath's exposed chest. Heath was the Barkley brother that appeared most often with an unbuttoned shirt or no shirt on at all.

Linda Evans was obviously meant to be eye candy for the straight male viewers. The show's costume designer dressed Audra in the tightest blouses and riding pants ever seen on a female tv western character. By seasons 3 and 4 with her long blonde hair, blue eye shadow, thick eyelashes, and tight outfits, Linda Evans/Audra was quite stunning. She looked like a "Western Barbie" doll came to life! LOL It is highly doubtful that any real woman in the old west during the 1870s looked liked Audra Barkley ( or Victoria for that matter)!

In the first season, the look of the show and characters was a bit more authentic to the old west. However, by seasons 3 and 4, Victoria and her offspring looked so clean, colorful, and gorgeous, all reality was thrown out the window!

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I agree with you about the first season being the most realistic and things going a bit downhill after that. Unfortunately ratings were never very good for the show and I think they took the wrong direction in trying to appeal to the audience. Should have concentrated less on the human appeal and more on good stories.

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I read somewhere that the reason they picked Linda Evans was that they wanted a beautiful woman to attract male viewers. The reason they picked Lee Majors was given he had the qualities they were looking for to play the character Heath Barkley. Vulnerbility. Linda and Lee auditioned together in his second audition and it was said that they had great chemistry together and sealed the role for both. Linda and Lee became great friends and remained friends after the show was over. And no the women were totally not authentic for the time period as many have mentioned but you are right about the first season

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Gawd,Linda Evans as audra barkley was sooooo beautiful,gawd she was such a beautiful woman,heck I couldn't even keep my eyes off of her.

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I like that there was a male sex symbol in addition to a female one. Nowadays, it seems like many shows have overtly sexual attire and scenes involving women, and then the male characters are these total shlubs. Or they at least aren't nearly as sexualized as the female characters are (and Heath was with all his shirtless scenes).

Also, I find all three Barkley brothers attractive in different ways. I like that Jarrod is brainy but still tough and manly; I like that Nick is sort of the "bad boy," but still very honorable and moral, and that he's tall; and I like that Heath seems sort of sensitive and caring, while also still being tough and manly (I'm sensing a theme here...).

It reminds me of the boy bands of the '90s - there's a "type" for everyone!

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Even Eugene (the forgotten brother) had a sensitive appeal and I thought was charming. My sister called Audra, the window dressing of the show. She said, that Linda Evans had such an inviting smile, who wouldn't want to watch the show.

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I read somewhere that they put Linda Evans on the show just to attract male viewers. She was very inexperienced as an actress but whe was a looker

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That is actually true, and Linda Evans said she knew exactly why she was on the show. However, she took the opportunity to hone or acting skills and credits Barbara Stanwyck for being her primary mentor.

In her biography, Evans even states that Stanwyck never stopped calling her "Audra."

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I'm fairly new to the show and have yet to see any of the Eugene episodes. Will have to keep an eye out.

And yes, Audra was very lovely. In addition to having a classically pretty face, she looks very kind when she smiles.

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Eugene was in like a handful of episodes only in the 1st season.

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He was only in eight episodes and Linda Evans who played Audra was a very popular figure in Hollywood a very nice person they said liked by all

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Very popular, and well liked. As for her ''inexperience'', she did very well on ''The Big Valley''. Thanks in part to Barbara Stanwyck, some of the episodes which centered on her were excellent.

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Audra and Heath may have been the Barbie/beefcake characters but I think they had crossover appeal, meaning that both men and women liked Audra/Heath. Audra was beautiful but she sweet and approachable, not a siren at all which I think added to her appeal.

Lee Majors is the six million dollar man, everybody loves him. But it was disappointing to learn that Majors was a bit of an arrogant jerk during his Big Valley days. Stanwyck tried to mentor him as well because like Linda Evans he was an inexperienced actor, but Majors was not amenable to that.

Every time I watch the show's opening and notice how, unlike the others, Majors could barely manage a smile, I often wonder why he appeared to be such an angry young man.

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I know you heard stories that Lee was arrogant jerk but don't believe everything you read. One person who worked on the set said that though Lee could be moody and irritable at times he was a very likeable young man. Lee admits to those moods and was unapproachable at those times. He is also a very self assured young man and Barbara and Lee did have tifs on the set but don't blame them toally on him as Barbara could also be difficult. Lee is extremely well liked in Hollywood and most who work with him say he is great to work with. Peter said that the three guys got along very very well and he and Lee maintained a friendship and worked together several times after the BV was over. There is a lot of things in the internet and about 10% might have a little truth in them.

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Stanwyck was very open about wanting to help both Majors and Evans, but she could be somewhat imperious in that way too. In an interview she did with People in 1985 (when she was working on The Colbys), she talked about how Linda didn't really listen to her much at first when she offered advice and, in her own words, she "didn't like that very much." Through most of her career, she had been very generous in helping newcomers (William Holden, Robert Preston, Robert Wagner, even her own husband, Robert Taylor) and she probably never expected that those she was helping might sometimes have opinions or want to try things in a different way. I have never read anything she said about Lee after the show ended (or any of her other costars for that matter, except Linda) but she wasn't really one to talk much about her past work. Would be interesting to know if she kept in touch with Majors or Peter Breck over the years (I do remember reading she was very upset over Richard Long's premature death in 1973).

Sweet merciful crap!

It's just tea! *sips* Needs more gin.

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There is conflicting info about what Lee was behind the scenes. There were stories in the 70's when he did Six Million Dollar Man that he was moody and was kind of cold towards Lindsay Wagner. When she was able to negotiate a better contract for herself than what Lee had, he referred to her show as " The Bionic Ripoff". He also refused to appear on her show in the pilot till his demands were met. When Universal catered to his demands, he then settled down and went to Lindsay and they became friends. Richard Anderson who co-starred with them was asked about his time on the bionic shows. He said he adored Lindsay and is still friends with her and he said " Lee is Lee" and left it at that. All 3 do appearances together.


Barbara got frustrated with Linda when she pretty much threw her career away when she met and married John Derek. John wanted Linda to give up everything and be with him at all times. He even tried to break her contract with Big Valley. A few years later when John dumped her for underage Bo, Linda decided to revive her career and struggled for a while till she hit super stardom with Dynasty in the 80's. Barbara told Linda " I'm so proud of you Audra"

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As I said yes Lee had these moods which he admitted to. But some stories are made up by the press. Harve Bennett who produced the SMDM said that the set was a very fun set to be on and that Lee set the tone. Now when it comes to money Lee is practical as Universal studios had treated him very badly and broke all the promises they made to him when he signed his contract and he was very angry and personally wanted off the show. The feud between him and Lindsay did not exist except in the press and Lee and Lindsay are still close friends today and appear together in fan conventions whenever possible The truth in Hollywood is very elusive so my warning is don't believe everything you read in the internet unless it comes from the mouth of the person themselves and even then you can't be sure. I would like to add that Lee hated the press generally because they wanted to know too much about his private life so he was not very cooperative with them so in turn they didn't like him either. He once said of all the stories done about him he liked only three or four. Nobody is perfect but I have read that everyone has met Lee Majors has thsi to say he is a great guy and will do anything for you.

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I recall reading that when the idea of "Bionic Woman" was first conceived Majors was hoping that his wife at the time, Farrah Fawcett, would be cast in the role. But eventually he accepted Lindsay Wagner in the part and they became friends. In fact when they tried to do a updated remake of the Bionic Woman a few years ago, an interviewer asked Majors if he was planning to watch the series. Majors replied that if Lindsey Wagner was not in it, he wasn't interested.

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Yes I just read that myself.As far as I am concerned if there was arrogance it was not Lee Majors. He is extremely self assured which can be mistaken for arrogance sometimes but Barbara had only had one opinion and that was her own. Lee has only said positive things about Barbara but no she has never mentioned him at all but stayed close to Linda

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Again, I don't think that the fact that she never mentioned Majors (that I know of) is necessarily a negative thing. She didn't do that many interviews in the first place and when she did she talked very little about past films, tv shows, or costars. The People interview I quoted from before was when she was making The Colbys and she only spoke about Linda Evans because she was in the room and she pointed Evans out to the interviewer. I haven't read many interviews or articles about Majors but the ones I read where he did mention Stanwyck were always kind.

Sweet merciful crap!

It's just tea! *sips* Needs more gin.

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You are right she was not talkative. I read a article about the Colbys where she had a lot of problems and was upset because she thought Linda was going to make appearances in the show but did not. I did not watch that show so I don't know. For many years people asked lee about his relationship with Barbara Stanwyck I guess because of all the bad publicity in the first season and he was always very kind but in one interview where a reporter pushed him really hard he said in the four years I knew Barbara she was all work and there was no socializing. He saw her one more time in 1980 when he and Linda were socializing as they were both getting over broken marriages and they took her out for coffee and that was it.

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Audra and Heath may have been the Barbie/beefcake characters but I think they had crossover appeal, meaning that both men and women liked Audra/Heath. Audra was beautiful but she sweet and approachable, not a siren at all which I think added to her appeal.

Lee Majors is the six million dollar man, everybody loves him.


Agreed. I've met many women in my life who seem to think that other women don't like them because they're (in their own minds, at least) attractive. But only really mean, insecure women will actually act on their jealousy toward a pretty woman who's also as genuinely nice and likeable as Audra (and none of the women I'm talking about were half as pretty as Linda Evans).

It's walking around thinking you're so great that everyone must be out to get you (and trying to seduce every man you meet, leading others to see you as untrustworthy and desperate for attention) that causes people to not like you.

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This show was before my time, I wasn't born until 73 and I did watch a lot of Bonanaza, Gunsmoke and Rawhide re-runs in the late 70's and early 80's but never did catch this one. Only recently have I started watching them, I really like the show so far and I gotta say that Audra is smokin' hot. If they did put her on the show for eye candy they picked a perfect one. Seriously like WOW. Lol

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I just wish Evans and Majors were better actors - they really didn't have the chops, even if they had the bodies. Stanwyck and Long were the seasoned actors in the bunch, Breck being just a cut below them in ability IMO. But Evans and Majors just didn't really have it at that point in their careers. They seemed to be their for the eye candy.

On the other hand, I could look at Long's blue eyes all day........

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Well I take exception to that. Yes they were new and learning but Lee did the best he could with some really bad writing and directing but he did well in some episodes. When the producers of the show found out that women had a maternal instinct with regards to Lee Majors all they wanted to do was injure him in every episode so what is he suppose to do? And he himself said he hated taking his shirt off all the time but not given a choice. Yes Richard is a fine actor and very handsome but that is no reason to put down Lee Majors as he did not have the experience that Richard had or Peter. Linda Evans on the other had was in the show for eye candy and I heard that said in the internet and not a great actress but very well liked in Hollywood and she had the hit Dynasty on her resume and awards to go with it.

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I'm afraid I'll never be a Lee Majors fan as far as his acting ability is concerned. It just never developed IMO, writing or no writing. We'll have to agree to disagree on that, I guess.

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That's fine if you don't like him personally but do not make a general statement about his acting as that is your personal opinion and many have no problem with his acting. That's like me saying Richard can't act and you wouldn't agree with me but of course I know he can and does very well. Lee admired Richard very much and every actor has his own style and people are drawn to what they like but they should not put down others

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I can't see how anyone other than the most shallow viewer can find Lee Majors appealing. While I doubt I could have articulated it back then, I always thought LM was SO wooden, he seemed to have no character whatsoever.
Breck was wonderful; I loved when he was on-screen. Long was very convincing in his role. Evans looks pretty much transcended any lack of talent, but she played her part well. I wasn't familiar with Ms Stanwyck's previous work, and the white-haired lady didn't really say much to me at the time (however, these days I can't get enough of her).
But I'd see Lee Majors and wonder why he was even on the show. I guess these shows need some kind of male triad, I suppose.

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It was basically Bonanza with a matriarch and one daughter in the mix.

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