The Real McCoys

The Real McCoys is an American situation comedy starring Walter Brennan, Richard Crenna, and Kathleen Nolan. Co-produced by Danny Thomas's Marterto Productions in association with Walter Brennan and Irving Pincus's Westgate Company, it was broadcast for six seasons: five by the ABC-TV network, from 1957 to 1962; and a final season by CBS, 1962–1963. Set in California's San Fernando Valley, it was filmed at Desilu studios in Hollywood. Synopsis The Real McCoys concerns the lives of a family originally from the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, from a fictional place named Smokey Corners. They relocated to California to live and work on a farm they inherited from Ben McCoy, brother to patriarch Amos McCoy. The family included Grandpa Amos (Walter Brennan), his grandson Luke (Richard Crenna); Luke's new wife Kate (Kathleen Nolan); Luke's teenage sister Tallahassie "Hassie" (Lydia Reed); and his 11-year-old brother "Little Luke" (Michael Winkelman). The double-naming of the brothers is explained in the first full episode ("Californy, Here We Come"), when the elder Luke introduces Little Luke to Pepino Garcia (Tony Martinez) and says, "Well, you see, in the excitement of having him, Ma and Pa plum forgot they already had me." Only Crenna appeared in all 225 episodes. The former West Virginians join the Grange farm association, and hire Pepino when he informs them he was Ben's foreman. In the episode broadcast January 8, 1962, Pepino becomes an American citizen and assumes the surname "McCoy." The McMichaels, a brother and sister played by Andy Clyde and Madge Blake in twenty-nine and twenty-one episodes respectively, lived on the hill not far from the McCoys. Amos McCoy and George McMichael, both mischievous, crotchety old men, sometimes quarreled, often about their games of checkers and horseshoes. Kate is friendly with the much older Flora McMichael, George's sister, and becomes involved with life in the community. Although still in her twenties, Kate serves as a mother figure for Luke's younger siblings, Hassie and Little Luke. One episode shows her bewilderment in trying to entice the children to take responsibility for their school studies.