Father Murphy

- Season 1

(1981)

When a gold rush strikes the town of Jackson, greed in the form of Paul Garrett, the town bully, causes the death of a number of gold panners. A school mom (Mae), a freighter (Murphy), a panner (Moses) and an 11 year old street kid (Will) combine to take care of the orphaned children. At first Murphy gets cold feet who runs off Will when he is afraid of getting too close. But the quick wit of Mae brings Will and Murphy together. When Mr. Rodman threatens to take away the orphans to the workhouse, and it looks as though the Church won't provide support in time, a ...

Now that they are settled in at Gold Hill and feeling safe, a visiting Priest sent by the Bishop throws a wrench in the gears. Father Parker's inexperience and one of the boy's bed wetting cause Murphy, Mae, and Moses problems.

Moses decides to take on a hate filled youth. The youth starts to change for the better, until a dreadful accident on a freight run.

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 for empty food shelves and Thunder who cannot be ridden, it looks like Gold Hill may be in trouble.

A mountain man (Eli) comes down from the mountains with his adopted child (Drew) and brings the child to Gold Hill for some education. Later, a number of the kids get themselves put into the Claymore work camp in order to save Ephram who was sent there.

After Ephram is jailed and sent to Claymore work house and Will and Drew get themselves sent there also to 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.

When Gold Hill runs short of money, they accept an offer of a school administrator, along with state funds. This results in unforeseen circumstances, including Murphy and Moses being kicked out and Gold Hill becoming a work camp.

When the owner of Gold Hill shows up talking constantly to his invisible mother, it brings more than a few laughs, and worries from the Gold Hill folks that he might actually find gold and they will have to leave.

An old man who wants to woo an old educated woman decides to go back to school at Gold Hill. But he ends up also teaching.

Will finds a gold nugget, and when his father sees him cash it in, Ned 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 leaving 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, Will is presented with the news of the death of his father. Will is angry and glad his father is dead. Murphy does an ...

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 mothers savings, he reports the gambling hall to the gambler's mother, who heads a group that want 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.

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.

A woman (Amanda) involved with bank extortion, is in a stage coach accident along with a number of other people, including a nun who was on her way to Gold Hill. All of the people on the stage perish but Amanda. Amanda decides to switch clothes with the nun, and continues on to Gold Hill. Nervous at first, she is moved by the love of the kids and changes her ways. But trouble brews when her accomplice recognizes her in town, then the sheriff recognizes her picture. She rushes back to run away, but finds Murphy at the bottom of the well, asphyxiated from deadly gas. ...

After Mr. Rodman's son (Archibald) is expelled again from a school, the Rodman's come up with the idea to put him in Gold Hill as an orphan and 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 in order to delay until Father Parker can return. With some fatherly loving, Archibald starts to change for the good. In the meantime, Mr. Rodman threatens to get the Sheriff when he discovers that Archibald is off with Murphy. Murphy and the kids ...

A rich widow (Ms. Hansen) comes to Gold Hill to adopt an older boy to take over her husband's empire. But when she decides to adopt one of the boys that is not up for adoption, it invokes a crisis for Gold Hill.

Father Parker discovers a sick boy on the trail, and sees it as a sign 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 in order to earn enough money to go back home to Pennsylvania. While working in the saloon, he starts to touch the lives of people, especially a barmaid and a drunk. He starts to realize that he does matter, that he does make a ...

As potential adoptive parents visit, orphans must deal such emotions as angst, disappointments and/or joy.

Fr. Parker sells the kids favorite old horse, Laddie, not knowing the kids attachment to the horse. Some of the kids take off after the rustlers to save Laddie.

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.

A local man and a friend of Murphy has a daughter he cannot control. At his wits end, Emmas father brings her to Gold Hill. She proves to be a bad influence on the Gold Hill kids, but trouble really comes when Emma 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 have his way and have the kids transfered to the Claymore work camp. Meanwhile Fr. Parker continues to be blocked by Garrett in purchasing a ...

Murphy finds and buys property under the guise of opening an honest gambling establishment when in reality it will be the church for Fr Parker. This is where he and Mae get married making them now eligible to adopt the orphans.