The Adventures of Jim Bowie Gone to Texas (1956–1958) Online

This episode, directed by Hollingsworth Morse and written by Maurice Tombragel, bears the trademarks of most "Jim Bowie" episodes. There are relatively few scene changes, (probably to save time and money), with the result that most scenes tend to run a bit long, thus keeping the story line from developing any real momentum. However, this episode is notable for the flogging given Scott Forbes in its second half. The book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies," covers TV territory as well and it states that the first flogging given to a TV-western hero was administered to the bare back of Keith Larsen in a 10-19-1958 episode of "Northwest Passage" titled "Break Out." However, a shirtless Scott Forbes suffered under the lash in this episode of "Jim Bowie" which aired on 5-24-1957 -- a full 17 months earlier. Forbes' flogging, however, is a bloodless affair with no shots of the whip striking his back, and Forbes' facial expression and body language don't indicate much in the way of suffering. Perhaps the "family medium" of television was reluctant to be more graphic back in 1957. This scene, however, did lead to other whippings given to TV western heroes -- Robert Horton, Ty Hardin, Allen Case, Lee Majors, etc. -- and it remains the only such scene in which the lash is administered to the series hero not for the purpose of punishing him but rather to force him to reveal information. (In this purpose, not surprisingly, it fails.)