Jonathan Harris is best recalled for his snooty humorous characterizations (as on THE BILL DANA SHOW) and his greatest part, "Dr. Zachary Smith" the half-villain/half good-guy in LOST IN SPACE. But occasionally he showed up in parts which were worthy character studies for his talents. Here, in this episode of BONANZA, Harris was playing the greatest British novelist of the 19th Century: Charles Dickens.
It is 1868, and (regretfully to be sure), Dickens had agreed to do a second tour of the U.S. with public readings from his many novels. This was done because it was quite lucrative to Dickens (his performances were packed - he was one of the popular attractions of the day). However he had serious reservations about coming to America. He had come in 1842 and spent six months here on a tour of the then boundaries of the country: New England, the south, the mid-west, and as far west as Missouri and the Mississippi Valley. He was disgusted by the commercialism of the Americans, and the fact that we claimed to be freedom lovers and yet we had slavery in much of the country. The result was that he wrote "American Notes For Foreign Consumption", which bitterly attacked our hypocrisy, and then put additionally anti-American characters and scenes in his comic novel "Martin Chuzzlewit". Dickens caused a great outcry against his reputation here, which lasted for decades.
He had another reason to attack Americans (which other British writers and artists complained about). In the 19th Century there was no copyright protection in the U.S. for British or foreign writers and artists, unless they published in the U.S. on the same date or about the same date as they did in their homeland. Only Gilbert and Sullivan successfully fought this, after 1880, by having American and British initial productions to copyright in both countries. Dickens never tried this (he was aware it could backfire - if he published first in America, British "copyright pirates" could steal his book without any trouble.
It was a lot of luggage for Dickens to take back to America, but he found the American of 1868 friendlier than he expected. The commercialism was still there, but the Civil War ended slavery. Now that America was in step with most of the Western World, Dickens could note what the country's future was like. However there was still the matter of the copyright problem, and Dickens did not like it.
This episode has Dickens coming out to the West, and giving his show in Virginia City. His icy politeness and memories of the earlier messier trip remain, but he is prepared to do his show - until he discovers that his fans in Virginia City are reading editions of his novels that are by those very copyright pirates that cheat him of his due wages. When he realizes this during his performance, in anger, he abruptly stops his performance nastily saying that "Little Nell shall die!". Subsequently he is pursued by a fan who wants his autograph but has gotten a copy of one of the pirated editions. Quietly, Dickens rips the book up. This does not sit well with the fan (Frank Albertson) because the book is not his - it's his boss's, who fires him as a result. Soon afterward the printing business of the boss is destroyed, and Dickens arrested for destroying it.
Harris did a great job as the novelist. His brittle ego is there, but also (in scenes with the Cartwrights) the nervousness and secret shame he always had due to his poverty background and the arrest (for debt) of his "McCawber" like father John Dickens. Albertson is also good as a worm who turns. Although the story is totally fictitious, it was good in illustrating a really big business problem that split the intellectual unity of the two English speaking countries until the U.S. joined the international copyright movement in the 20th Century.
It is 1868, and (regretfully to be sure), Dickens had agreed to do a second tour of the U.S. with public readings from his many novels. This was done because it was quite lucrative to Dickens (his performances were packed - he was one of the popular attractions of the day). However he had serious reservations about coming to America. He had come in 1842 and spent six months here on a tour of the then boundaries of the country: New England, the south, the mid-west, and as far west as Missouri and the Mississippi Valley. He was disgusted by the commercialism of the Americans, and the fact that we claimed to be freedom lovers and yet we had slavery in much of the country. The result was that he wrote "American Notes For Foreign Consumption", which bitterly attacked our hypocrisy, and then put additionally anti-American characters and scenes in his comic novel "Martin Chuzzlewit". Dickens caused a great outcry against his reputation here, which lasted for decades.
He had another reason to attack Americans (which other British writers and artists complained about). In the 19th Century there was no copyright protection in the U.S. for British or foreign writers and artists, unless they published in the U.S. on the same date or about the same date as they did in their homeland. Only Gilbert and Sullivan successfully fought this, after 1880, by having American and British initial productions to copyright in both countries. Dickens never tried this (he was aware it could backfire - if he published first in America, British "copyright pirates" could steal his book without any trouble.
It was a lot of luggage for Dickens to take back to America, but he found the American of 1868 friendlier than he expected. The commercialism was still there, but the Civil War ended slavery. Now that America was in step with most of the Western World, Dickens could note what the country's future was like. However there was still the matter of the copyright problem, and Dickens did not like it.
This episode has Dickens coming out to the West, and giving his show in Virginia City. His icy politeness and memories of the earlier messier trip remain, but he is prepared to do his show - until he discovers that his fans in Virginia City are reading editions of his novels that are by those very copyright pirates that cheat him of his due wages. When he realizes this during his performance, in anger, he abruptly stops his performance nastily saying that "Little Nell shall die!". Subsequently he is pursued by a fan who wants his autograph but has gotten a copy of one of the pirated editions. Quietly, Dickens rips the book up. This does not sit well with the fan (Frank Albertson) because the book is not his - it's his boss's, who fires him as a result. Soon afterward the printing business of the boss is destroyed, and Dickens arrested for destroying it.
Harris did a great job as the novelist. His brittle ego is there, but also (in scenes with the Cartwrights) the nervousness and secret shame he always had due to his poverty background and the arrest (for debt) of his "McCawber" like father John Dickens. Albertson is also good as a worm who turns. Although the story is totally fictitious, it was good in illustrating a really big business problem that split the intellectual unity of the two English speaking countries until the U.S. joined the international copyright movement in the 20th Century.