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Father Murphy Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
21 Episodes 1981 - 1982
Episode 1
Father Murphy
Tue, Nov 3, 1981120 mins
When a gold rush strikes the town of Jackson, greed in the form of town bully Paul Garrett causes the death of a number of gold panners, and schoolmarm Mae, freighter Murphy, panner Moses, and 11-year-old street kid Will team up to take care of the orphaned children. At first, Murphy gets cold feet and runs off Will when he is afraid of getting too close, but Mae's quick wit brings Will and Murphy together. When Mr. Rodman threatens to take the orphans to the workhouse and it looks as though the Church won't provide support in time, a surprise priest shows up to assist.
Episode 2
Eggs, Milk and a Dry Bed
Tue, Nov 10, 198160 mins
After being sent by the Bishop, Father Parker arrives and finds out to his surprise that Murphy has been pretending to be a priest. Add to this Fr. Parker's inexperience and a little insecurity, it leaves Murphy and Parker not getting along. After being taken to the cleaners on a purchase of livestock, Fr. Parker becomes more humble. Meanwhile, Moses figures out who has the bedwetting problem and works to help him.
Episode 3
Establish Thou the Works of Our Hands
Tue, Nov 17, 1981
Moses decides to take on a troubled Black young man, Lijah who was headed for the work house. Lijah is so filled with hate, especially for white people, that he cannot see that the Gold Hill people care. After getting in a fight with the kids and punching Moses in the stomach, Murphy decides that he has had enough and orders Lijah to go with him on a freight run or he will send him back to prison. Lijah starts to change on the freight run, but has a setback when there is an accident. But love wins over and Lijah comes up with a career choice that changes his life.
Episode 4
A Horse from Heaven
Tue, Nov 24, 1981
While in town to sell two cows for much-needed money, Father Parker receives a sign to purchase a horse, Thunder, to enter into the town's $1000-jackpot horse race. With Mr. Rodman breathing down Gold Hill's neck about empty food shelves and Thunder refusing to be ridden, Gold Hill could be in trouble.
Episode 5
By the Bear That Bit Me: Part 1
Tue, Dec 1, 1981
Mountain man Eli comes down from the mountains with his adopted daughter Dru and brings her to Gold Hill for some education. Later, some of the kids get themselves put into the Claymore work camp so they can save Ephram, who was sent there.
Episode 6
By the Bear That Bit Me: Part 2
Tue, Dec 8, 1981
After Ephram is jailed and sent to Claymore workhouse and Will and Drew get themselves sent there so they can rescue Ephram, they discover that it isn't as easy to get out as they thought. It looks hopeless until Murphy hatches a plan to get them out.
Episode 7
False Blessings
Tue, Dec 15, 1981
When Gold Hill runs short of money, they accept an offer of a school administrator, along with state funds. This results in unforeseen circumstances. First Mr. Simpson kicks out Murphy and Moses. Then he starts to implement more rules that results in less learning for the children, until they ultimately become a work camp. Things come to a head when he imprisons David and Matt in the mine with no food or water. Things look lost until Will discovers an important document.
Episode 8
The Ghost of Gold Hill
Tue, Dec 22, 1981
Philbert, the owner of Gold Hill, shows up talking constantly to his invisible mother, which brings more than a few laughs. But then the Gold Hill residents start to worry when Philbert finds gold, because it means that they could be kicked out. Will hatches a plan to scare Philbert, but he doesn't scare easily. Finally Will decides to put Ephram up into the mine and have Ephram use a skeleton head they found to make Philbert think his father is talking to him. It works when Ephram convinces Philbert that he should stop mining. As a last act of kindness, Philbert signs the ownership of Gold Hill over to Murphy and Mae.
Episode 9
Graduation
Tue, Jan 5, 1982
Amos, an old man who wants to woo an old educated woman, decides to go back to school at Gold Hill to learn. Meanwhile, Stanley, who was rescued from Claymore work camp in the "By the Bear That Bit Me" episode, is having immense trouble with math. Amos helps Stanley with math by showing him the game of Blackjack. When Mr. Rodman finds out that Gold Hill has an overage student, they force him to leave--but not before Gold Hill is able to have Amos as their first graduate.
Episode 10
Will's Surprise
Tue, Jan 12, 1982
Will finds a gold nugget, and when his father Ned sees him cash it in, he kidnaps him to get the money. Ned locks Will in a shed to try to make him tell where the rest of the gold nuggets are. Ned is involved in an accident that leaves him speechless and near death. Time is running out, as Will has no water, and only rotten potatoes to eat. Finally Murphy puts the pieces together and finds Will. When Will awakens, angry that his father left him for dead, he's presented with the news of his father's death. Will is angry and glad that his father is dead. Murphy does an unselfish act so that Will will not grow up hating: he tells Will that his father said he was sorry and that he loved him.
Episode 11
Eighty-Eight Keys to Happiness
Tue, Jan 19, 1982
While Murphy and Mae are gone, the kids talk Moses into letting a gambler temporarily use the school as a gambling house, in exchange for a percentage of the profits and a piano. When Mr. Rodman finds out, he becomes enamored with gambling. When he loses his mother's savings, he reports the gambling hall to the gambler's mother, who heads a group that wants to remove gambling houses. As this group heads to Gold Hill along with a returning Murphy and Mae, a split decision will lead to either Moses getting caught or him hiding what has transpired.
Episode 12
Knights of the White Camelia
Tue, Feb 2, 1982
A young ex-Confederate army bugler comes to the school looking for a meal. After he begins attending the school, he exposes his Southern attributes by rebuking Moses for "acting like an equal"; his beliefs eventually lead him to join a group of white-sheet-wearing racists in their nighttime excursions to rid the town of Blacks.
Episode 13
The Parable of Amanda
Tue, Feb 9, 1982
Amanda, a woman involved with bank extortion, ins in a stagecoach accident with several others, including a nun who was on her way to Gold Hill. All of the people on the stage perish but Amanda, and she decides to switch clothes with the nun and continue on to Gold Hill. Nervous at first, she is moved by the kids' love and changes her ways. But trouble brews when her accomplice recognizes her in town, and then the sheriff recognizes her picture. She starts to run away, but finds Murphy at the bottom of the well, asphyxiated from deadly gas. She has a choice: run and get away, or help Murphy out of the well and get caught.
Episode 14
The Spy
Tue, Feb 16, 1982
After Mr. Rodman's son Archibald is expelled from another school, the Rodmans attempt to plant him at Gold Hill as an orphan and a spy. When Murphy returns from a trip, Archibald finds out about Murphy posing as a priest when Mr. Rodman comes by. When Archibald's true identity is revealed, they take him camping to delay until Father Parker can return. With some fatherly loving, Archibald starts to change for the better. Meanwhile, Mr. Rodman threatens to get the Sheriff when he discovers that Archibald is off with Murphy. Murphy and the kids return to confront Mr. Rodman, knowing that Archibald can reveal the truth about Murphy.
Episode 15
The Heir Apparent
Tue, Feb 23, 1982
Ms. Hansen, a rich widow, comes to Gold Hill to adopt an older boy to take over her husband's empire. When Will gives her a ride home from interviewing the boys, she falls for him although he told her that he is with Murphy. But it's Will she wants to adopt, which invokes a crisis for Gold Hill. Murphy decides that it's what's best for Will, but he handles it badly by turning away from Will, who feels so unloved that he decides to go with Ms. Hansen. When Mae asks Will how he feels about the test for the school he will attend back East, she finds out how he's really feeling and talks to Ms. Hansen, who then gives him an impossible test, which he fails. Poor Will feels like he has been rejected by Murphy and now by Ms. Hansen, so he is ready to leave. But loving words from Murphy solve everything.
Episode 16
In God's Arms
Tue, Mar 2, 1982
Father Parker discovers a sick boy on the trail, and sees this as a sign that he was to help him, but the boy dies before Fr. Parker can get him to a doctor. This, along with the feeling that he is making no difference in the world, causes a crisis in faith. He decides to stop practicing his faith and to stop being a priest. He takes a job in Jackson to earn enough money to return to Pennsylvania. While working in the saloon, he starts to touch the lives of people, especially a barmaid and a drunk, and starts to realize that he does matter, that he does make a difference.
Episode 17
The Dream Day
Sun, Mar 14, 1982
This whole episode looks at what orphans would go through as potential parents visit the orphanage to look for children, and of course different children handle the situation differently. Matt, an extrovert, easily has parents fall in love with him. His brother David, an introvert, practically gives up before trying. David and Matt deal with the situation of Matt getting an offer to be adopted, but having to leave David. Another orphan, Chris, has never known his parents, and has had the experience of parents not wanting him because he cannot answer questions about his past, so he decides to invent a history in order to get parents.
Episode 18
Laddie
Sun, Mar 21, 1982
Gold Hill is running out of money, so when a cowboy drops by and offers to buy an old horse name Laddie, Fr. Parker sells him for $15, not knowing that Laddie is the kids' favorite and that they are very attached to him. The kids hatch a plan to go save Laddie and take off after the rustlers. When Mae and Moses find out about the plan, Moses catches up with the kids and they talk him into talking to the rustlers, but he finds out that they are stealing horses and is beaten for it. After waiting a while for Moses to return, they find him at a lady's house, near death. Lizette goes to Jackson for the sheriff while the rest of the kids go after Laddie.
Episode 19
Matthew and Elizabeth
Sun, Mar 28, 1982
Richard Garrett, the equally evil brother of deceased Paul Garrett, arrives in town to pick up where Paul left off. Problems erupt when Matt gets a crush on Richard's daughter Elizabeth.
Episode 20
The First Miracle: Part 1
Sun, Apr 4, 1982
Murphy's friend, a local man, has a daughter he cannot control. At his wits' end, he brings his daughter Emma to Gold Hill. She proves to be a bad influence on the Gold Hill kids, but the real trouble starts when she falls in love with Murphy. She figures that if she gets Gold Hill closed down, Murphy will have to go off with her, so she tells Rodman of Murphy's secret. This creates a crisis and it looks like Rodman will finally get his way and have the kids transferred to the Claymore work camp. Meanwhile Fr. Parker continues to be blocked by Garrett in purchasing a building for a church.
Episode 21
The First Miracle: Part 2
Sun, Apr 11, 1982
Murphy finds and buys property under the guise of opening an honest gambling establishment; it will actually be the church for Fr. Parker. This is where he and Mae get married, which makes them eligible to adopt the orphans.