woodway77
Cowboy Stanley rides again, to help save Great Uncle Stew's dude ranch. As with all the Stanley productions, this show has great values and dialogue that kids and adults can understand and appreciate. Stanley appears with the usual cast of friends and family as they journey to the dude ranch Stanley's dad remembers well. Disappointed at first with the run-down ranch, the gang soon finds themselves involved in an adventure to hunt dinosaur bones and save the ranch from the clutches of "Rockin' Rory", the local theme-park owner (not listed in the credits, but gleefully and greasily portrayed by Randy Quaid, playing much the same character as Yancy O'Del/Alameda Slim in "Home on the Range"). Hard work and persistence pay off.. Stanley saves the day!
mitas-pov
This is a great episode with some wonderful underlying themes, such as overcoming fear, working together to help protect the environment and people's rights, learning about your own history and that of the more distant past, and other good life lessons for kids. The beloved late John Ritter lends his vocal talents to the character of Great Uncle Stew.When Stanley and his friends get to go to Great Uncle Stew's ranch, Stanley almost realizes his life-long dream of being able to ride a real horse. But when Uncle Stew's ranch is in danger of being taken over by an amusement park owner so he could build a bigger parking lot for his customers, Stanley and friends try and come to the rescue, and have a little fun learning about the history of the Old West along the way. The fact that the ranch is a possible repository for dinosaur bones makes it interesting for everyone, and the group sets out on a dinosaur bone hunt to complete the skeleton that his great uncle began to build, hoping that a completed skeleton will bring enough tourists to the ranch to prevent the developer from being able to take the ranch over.Stanley's dream of finally riding a horse is put on the back-burner when he finds his desire to ride is overshadowed by his new-found fear of horses. But when his dog, Harry, turns up missing during a thunderstorm, events turn in favor of Great Uncle Stew... Or does it?Maybe it is too early in your youngster's life for lessons in serfdom and Medieval Fiefs, so if you don't care to hear about the underlying societal and governmental theme for this particular episode then feel free to go to the next review now...This is an early lesson in the practice of Eminent Domain. The ranch is saved from the developer only to have it declared a national park by the U.S. government. Is this really such a good thing? Well, from the perspective of preserving the dinosaur bones and the land they are buried in, it's a great deal. The more land we can keep from unrestricted development, the better... but does it really benefit Great Uncle Stew? Not really, and this is the real spoiler.In order for any piece of property to be declared a National Park, it has to be under the jurisdiction and ownership of the U.S. Government.From the Wikipedia: "Origins - The power of eminent domain in English law derives from the form of real property. Many landowners assume that their property right is absolute under the law, but this is rarely the case. Instead, a county or other authority has created the property in fee simple, a concept that derives from feudal fiefs. " For more info, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment05/14.htmlPublic use of lands, which converts ownership of the land from a private individual to a government entity, mean that the previous owner is subject to the restrictions placed on that land at the whim of the government. This means that if the government decides that it is no longer a good idea for you to have cattle on the land because the land has protected classes of plants, animals or any number of reasons, then you have to abide by the governmental restrictions. Most of the time you will just have to sell your property to the government and move off of it. As far as this episode goes, either way, Great Uncle Stew looses his working ranch. But they do allow him to stay in the bunkhouse and have a job for the rest of his life. Whoopie. Yay.Oh - why couldn't I have just stayed a kid?
