HORACE BING

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Telegraph clerk. (Pilot)

Responsible for sending word to Dr. Mike's family that she was sick with the grippe. (#0101)

Receives book he ordered: "The Mystery of Love." (#0102)

Fights with Hank over Myra. Pays five dollars to "just talk" to Myra. Sent a telegram to the wrong person once - shared story with Myra. Tries not to spill the beans re: things people send over the wires; he "took an oath" of confidentiality (which he often accidentally violates).

Horace is saddled with the unfortunate task of arresting Dorothy Jennings and wiring for a sheriff when she's accused of killing her husband. (#0203)

Horace's crown of goodness is slightly tarnished when he lies about Jake shooting Little Eagle. Later he confesses the truth: that Jake accidentally shot Little Eagle, rather than that he, Jake and Loren where attacked by Indians, as first reported. (#0205)

Horace plays "Abraham Lincoln" in the annual celebration of Washington's Birthday in Colorado Springs. (#0206)

Horace dresses as Ichabod Crane for Halloween. (#0207)

Horace comes from a long line of "dowsers" (people who find water with fork-shaped sticks). Unfortunately, his skills are useless during the town drought. (#0211)

Horace backs Matthew in a high-stakes poker game. Matthew loses his money. (#0217)

Horace joins the KKK, but backs out fast when he figures out what it's about. (#0221)

Horace nominates Mike to run for Mayor. (#0222)

Horace is against corporal punishment. (#0224)

Horace marries Myra. (#0225)

Horace, a virgin on his wedding night, has problems consummating his marriage to Myra, for various reasons (impotence, reluctance/shyness on her part, etc.) Eventually, they overcome their difficulties. (#0226)

Horace crumbles under peer pressure and votes to close the library. (#0309)

Horace, feeling he has nothing to lose, becomes uncharacteristically hostile when he thinks the world's coming to an end. (#0316)

Horace is to play Tybalt in Dorothy's production of "Romeo and Juliet" but loses the part to Hank when he gets laryngitis. (#0320)

Unlike most the townsfolk, Horace keeps an open mind about Darwin's theory of evolution; in fact, he thinks "... this evolution idea's kinda interestin.'" (#0325)

Horace is one of the first townsfolk to feel Preston's sting when he (without consulting Myra) accepts a loan from Preston to buy an ostentatious surrey. Unfortunately, Horace crashes the surrey, breaking the axle, and to compound matters, Myra figures out that the interest Preston charges on it literally doubles the cost of it. (#0401)

Horace is disturbed by Dorothy's description in her book of Myra's life as a former prostitute, not because of Myra's having been a prostitute, but rather, as Myra later uncovers, he feels he was ineffectual about helping her get out of her prostitution contract with Hank. Myra manages to comfort him by telling him he "stood by" her -- "Just 'cause you didn't have the money and you didn't fight Hank doesn't mean you're not a real man." (#0406)

Horace is manipulated by Preston, who sees everyone's weaknesses -- in Horace's case, a desire to be one of the guys -- and capitalizes on them. First, Preston manipulates Horace into sending Myra out of town (on Mike/Grace/Dorothy's Pike's Peak expedition) so Horace can go to the guys' poker game. There, they butter him up and make him feel like one of the guys so he'll vote for the proposed casino/resort Preston and Jake want to put through. Horace does indeed vote in favor of the hotel. Further, Horace comes to the conclusion, in Myra's absence, that Myra should be more of a stay-at-home mom to Samantha; (it was inconvenient for him to babysit so he kept sticking Matthew, Colleen and Brian with the baby) unfortunately, Myra comes to a different conclusion on her expedition. (This episode sows ground for future Myra/Horace conflict.) (#0409/10)

The Reverend persuades Horace to play "Joseph" in his "living nativity," a town Christmas extravaganza in which many townsfolk play a part. (#0412)

Horace and Myra fix a still-grieving-over-Ingrid Matthew up with their visiting cousin, Sophelia ("a Bing cousin for sure -- the resemblance is telling"). It's not a successful date -- she's not pretty, and she doesn't say a word. (#0413)

Horace's mail bag is stolen; from this, townsfolk reluctantly conclude the town needs a sheriff. (#414) After Horace is accidentally shot by Matthew (who thinks he's a prowler) he's more than willing, as a council member, to vote for the enactment of the new Colorado Springs anti-gun law that Matthew, as sheriff, proposes. (#0414)

Horace is not happy when Preston offers Myra a job as a bank teller. At first he forbids her to take the job, but later, in a magnanimous gesture, he allows her to do so. When she says she's her own person and that she doesn't need his "permission" to work, he's at first huffy, but later he gracefully appears with a flower and gives it to her on the job on her first day of work. This episode is the beginning of some marital struggles on Horace and Myra's part -- it's apparent that Myra's feeling constricted in her role as wife of Horace/mother of Samantha. (#0415)

Horace goes along with Myra when she's taken in by confidence men Curtis Roper and Randolph Cummings and invests in their "home-refrigeration-box" scam. Fortunately for the couple, (and other townsfolk), Sully wires ahead to Mike and the Reverend, who are in Denver immunizing some Indian School children, and Mike and the Reverend cook up a bait-and-switch scheme of their own, thus managing to get the people of Colorado Springs' money back. (#0416)

Horace finally loses his temper and confronts Myra about their marriage: "... maybe you ain't the only one who's unhappy," when Myra allows Hank to more or less assume Horace's identity after Hank's grandmother comes to town and Hank wants to appear 'respectable.' (#0423)

Horace, who's received a mysterious telegraph regarding beautiful visiting artist Isabelle Maynard, puts two-and-two together with Grace, who's seen Mike's medical book open to the section on "Leprosy", and together they blab to the town that Isabelle has leprosy, which causes the town to invite Isabelle to leave. (#0425)

Horace and Myra's marital strife is evident when they clash over Preston's increasing reliance on Myra, for instance, at the ground-breaking ceremony for Preston's new hotel. (#0427)

Realizing their marriage is troubled, Horace and Myra separate at end of episode. Myra says she's going to go visit her sister, who's never seen Samantha; Horace watches the train leave, a disconsolate look on his face, and we know that Myra's probably not coming back, ever. (#0428)


MEDICAL:

Horace thinks he's going deaf, until Mike pulls a plug of earwax from his ear. (Pilot)

Contracted influenza. (#0101)

Horace has gout. (#0202)

Gets a black eye from then gets beaten up by Hank when he tells Hank he impregnated Myra (whose "baby" turns out to have been an ovarian cyst. (#0108)

Mike lances a blister for Horace, his "telegraph finger." (#0110)

Shot with an Indian arrow through the arm by Indians while out hunting with Loren and Jake. Horace's mistake was trying to explain to the Indians that Jake shot their friend by accident. (#205)

Horace accidentally touches Matthew and is quarantined in the clinic, along with the Cooper children, when the town discovers Matthew has typhus (he got them from army blankets infected with the virus). Horace helps the Cooper kids escape; sends them to Mike and Sully at the reservation. (#0206)

Horace has an appendectomy. (#0316)

Gets laryngitis. (#0320)

Horace suffers extreme grogginess/disorientation as a player during the All-Stars vs. Colorado Springers baseball game. (#0402)

Horace, guarding the telegraph office after his mail is stolen, is accidentally shot in the arm by Matthew, the new sheriff. (Matthew thinks he's a bandit). (#0414)

Horace has a gall bladder attack so severe that an operation is necessary. Unfortunately, Mike is out in the woods having her baby at this moment, so new doctor Andrew Cook's skills are tested for the first time when he must operate on Horace with only Colleen's assistance. Fortunately for all concern, doctor (and patient!) come through with flying colors. (#0428)



MYRA BING

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Prostitute. Hank the bartender owns her contract.

Helps Mike at the clinic during the epidemic. Myra nurses Horace.

Myra's an uneducated, fairly pretty-though-slightly-on-the-cracker-side, not-too-bright-but tries hard, 20-25ish, basically good person. Her heart's always in the right place and she's (almost) always an ally of Mike's.

She's gentle, somewhat timorous, but possesses a core of inner goodness that gives her surprising strength; i.e., when she risks her engagement to Horace by staying by Hank's bedside, willing him to live, even though he abused her for so long. (#0223)

She's always on the side of the right.

Myra reveals that she's illiterate. (#0114)

At Horace's mother's bedside, Myra explains why she's a prostitute: "My parents died when I was thirteen. I was the oldest. I did what I had to do so's we could eat." (#0115)

Myra tells Hank she won't sleep with him anymore because she loves Horace. (#0204)

Myra helps Horace and the Cooper kids escape when they're quarantined in the clinic. They've been quarantined because Matthew has typhus and they've all been exposed. Myra plays Mary Todd Lincoln in the annual celebration. (#0206)

Myra (probably) backed Matthew in a high-stakes poker game. Matthew loses her money. (#0217)

Myra declares herself "free at last" from Hank; tears up her contract. (#0222)

Myra walks out of the saloon and away from Hank for the last time. Myra goes to church (on Horace's arm) for the first time. Myra champions Hank while he's in a coma. (#0223)

The dress Myra marries Horace in is pink, her favorite color. The girls at the saloon made it for her. (#0225)

Myra talks back to Jake and the Reverend when they barge into she and Horace's home in the middle of the night and confiscate their checked-out library books ("The Scarlet Letter" and "The Vampire," respectively). (#0309)

When Myra begins her sleep-walking stint, the Reverend announces that, if a sleep-walker is awakened, "... their souls are loose, and if you wake them too suddenly, they might never find their way back to their bodies." He asserts, however, that he doesn't believe this, but it still throws Horace and company into a panic. (#0310)

Myra gives birth to Samantha, a beautiful baby girl named after Sam (Samantha) Lindsay. Myra's delivery is very, very difficult, but Colleen pulls her through, with the help of Dorothy and Grace. (Mike is unable to attend -- she's attending Sam Lindsay's final hours on top of Pike's Peak. (#0315)

Myra is still pregnant in ep. #0316; (episodes ran out of sequence). (#0316)

Myra is given the part of a nurse in Dorothy's production of "Romeo and Juliet," but loses the part to Mike when she comes down with laryngitis. (#0320)

When Grace asks Myra (currently nursing new infant Samantha) to nurse the Indian baby Mike and Sully bring back from Washita, Horace is reluctant, but Myra agrees to do so. (#0323)

Myra reveals herself to have a good head for figures, particularly percentages (a skill she no doubt acquired during her years as a prostitute while figuring out her cuts against Hank's) when we see that she accurately assesses Preston's loan interest rate to literally double the cost of the new surrey Horace buys without consulting her. (#0401)

Myra learns, as a result of Dorothy's revelations of her past life as a prostitute in her book, that Horace feels he was ineffectual about helping Myra get out of her prostitution contract with Hank. Myra manages to comfort Horace by telling him he "stood by" her -- "Just 'cause you didn't have the money and you didn't fight Hank doesn't mean you're not a real man." (#0406)

Myra, on her expedition to Pike's Peak with Mike, Dorothy and Grace, complains that motherhood and wifehood isn't quite enough for her; that lately, she's been wearing buns and acting meek. When Grace remarks that her actions were far from meek when she was lowered down into a crevasse to pull up an injured and trapped Mike, Dorothy observes, "Maybe ya oughta wear your hair down more often." To that, Myra replies, "It ain't just the hair. I thought, once I married Horace, all my problems would be solved." Apparently, however, this isn't so, for she further remarks that, "I still wanna be somebody in my own right." Upon the womens' return to town, Horace tells Myra that he doesn't ever want her going off like that again, in opposition to Myra, who came to a somewhat different conclusion on the mountaintop. At end of episode, we are left with the impression of trouble yet to come... (#0409/10)

The Reverend persuades Myra to play "Mary" (as in Joseph, Mary and Jesus) in his "living nativity," a town Christmas extravaganza in which many townsfolk play a part. (#0412) Horace and Myra fix a still-grieving-over-Ingrid Matthew up with their visiting cousin, Sophelia ("a Bing cousin for sure -- the resemblance is telling"). It's not a successful date -- she's not pretty, and she doesn't talk. (#0413)

Myra seems to have become restless and slightly impatient with Horace of late -- Preston notices this as she's going over some figures with Horace in the telegraph office. Preston also notices that Myra's got "a head for figures," and offers her a job in the bank, which becomes, in this episode, an excuse for some marital discord. At first, Horace, jealous, forbids Myra to take the job. When that doesn't work, he "magnanimously" allows her to take it -- which she takes umbrage to -- how dare he "give her permission!" Finally, he comes to congratulate her, even bringing her a flower on the first day of her new job (which she had gone to the bank to decline because of Horace's feelings on the matter). Even though things seem somewhat patched up now, it's likely there will be further problems in the Bing marriage... (#0415)

Myra is one of the few townsfolk who go to Emma for dress alterations when she first sets-up shop in Loren's store. We also see Myra and Horace quarrelling re: Myra's assisting Preston with the ground-breaking ceremony at the site of Preston's new resort -- Horace doesn't feel like she's spending enough time with he and Samantha, their baby daughter. Sadly, a fight between them breaks out at the ground-breaking ceremony itself. Horace lunges at Hank, but somehow Hank ends up knocking Preston out cold, instead of Horace. (#0427)

It's the last straw for the Bing's marriage when Myra rides out with the other women to help find Dr. Mike and Sully, and Horace has to face gallbladder surgery all by himself. Myra's the one to actually call the marriage quits, and tells Horace that she's going to take their baby Samantha to go visit her sister in St. Louis, though we, the viewers, have the feeling that Myra probabably won't be back. (#0428)


MEDICAL:

Examined by Dr. Mike (had a social disease). She pays Mike with a fake pearl necklace. (Pilot)

Mike operates on Myra's ovarian cyst with an assist from Eli Jackson. (#0108)

Dandy John O'Malley, an infamous whore-cutter, cuts Myra in the leg. Only Mike's fast work saves her from bleeding to death. (#0222)

Myra has a boil on her arm, which Jake lances because Dr. Mike is out of town. (#0227)

Myra's sleepwalking turns out to be symptomatic of her pregnancy. (#0310)

Myra gives birth to Samantha, a beautiful baby girl named after Sam (Samantha) Lindsay. Myra's delivery is very, very difficult -- Colleen even discusses the possibility of a Cesarean with Dorothy -- but in the end, it's not necessary, Colleen pulls her through, with the help of Dorothy and Grace. (Mike is unable to attend -- she's attending Sam Lindsay's final hours on top of Pike's Peak.) (#0315)

Myra still pregnant in ep. #0316; (episodes ran out of sequence). (#0316)

Myra comes down with laryngitis. (#0320)

Myra gets a blister on her foot when she climbs Pike's Peak. (#0409/10)

SAMANTHA BING

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Samantha Bing, child of Horace and Myra and named after Samantha Lindsey, is born. (#0315)

She gives her mother, Myra, a very hard time, almost causing her to be delivered by Ceasarian. (#0315)

Samantha drives her parents crazy by crying incessantly; townsfolk try various methods to calm her, but in the end, only Hank can quiet her sobs. (#0318/#0319)

Samantha plays "baby Jesus" in the Reverend's "living nativity," a Christmas celebration extravaganza in which many townsfolk play parts. (Samantha proves to be a very restless baby Jesus.) (#0412)


MEDICAL:

One reason for Samantha's incessant crying may be the 19th century habit of swaddling infants; binding their arms and legs "so they'll grow up straight." (#0319)

Or perhaps her crying's due to her diaper rash. (#0319)

Samantha has a cold. (#0425)

HANK LAWSON (formerly referred to as 'Hank Claggerty,' but born 'Hans Lawsenstrom')

GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Hunk with a bad attitude.

Bartender.

Fights with Horace over Myra.

Has contract for Myra.

Hank confesses he's illiterate. (#0114)

Hank has an illegitimate, autistic, artistically talented son, named Zack, bourn of a whore he loved, named Clarice. Zack is twelve years old in ep. #0116. He gets sent to a special school in Denver at end of episode. Hank gets into a fight (nothing major) defending Zack. (#0116)

Hank packs up his business and whores, intending to leave town for good because of the drought, but has a change of heart and returns to town for the annual Thanksgiving dinner. (#0211)

Hank throws an annual, high-stakes poker game in his saloon. Backs Matthew in a high-stakes poker game. Matthew loses his money. (#0217)

Hank waters his whiskey; Matthew catches him at it. (#0219)

Hank joins the KKK, but backs out when they try to string up Robert E. (#0221)

Hank sends Myra in with Dandy John O'Malley, who cuts her. When Horace angrily confronts Hank about the above, Hank throws him out of the saloon. (#0222)

Hank shows up at Myra and Horace's wedding at the 11th hour and behaves himself. His showing up denotes tacit approval, or at least acceptance, of the wedding. (#0225)

Hank tries to initiate a regular Thursday night "Ladies' Night" in which ladies are invited to drink for free, in order to expand his existing client base. (#0303/0304)

Hank unites with Loren and Jake in a scheme to make a fake dinosaur for fast cash, intending to sell it to a visiting paleontologist who offered cash for dino bones. (#0306)

Hank is surprisingly complacent about the Frankels, a Jewish Immigrant family. When Jake and Loren indignantly ask him why, he explains: "...the winter of '67, I got caught in a blizzard on the north trail. I woulda died if some Jews hadn't come along and found me. They saved my life." (#0314)

Hank, greedy at the thought of gullible people spending their money when they think the world's going to end, hastens their gullibility along by throwing red paint into well-water and painting a horse blue with Loren. (#0316)

It's Hank who suggests Samantha, Myra and Horace's baby, may be crying because she's swaddled; to the town's surprise, Grace agrees with him. When Myra's baby Samantha cries incessantly, Hank turns out to be the only person in town who can sooth her. (#0319)

Hank takes over the role of the villain Tybalt in Dorothy's production of "Romeo and Juliet" when Horace comes down with laryngitis. To Mike's consternation, (she's taken over directing the play since Dorothy's come down with laryngitis also) Hank tries to rewrite Shakespeare. Fortunately, he sticks to his lines in the final production. (#0320)

Hank's saloon is robbed by Belle Starr and her gang. Hank shoots Belle off her horse, putting a bullet through her shoulder. Later, he's inadvertently responsible for Belle's escape from custody when he and Jake free Belle, expecting her to take them to her gang's hideout so they can bring the young outlaws in for the reward on their heads. (#0321)

Hank cruelly needles Mike about the wholesale slaughter of the Indians in the aftermath of Washita. (#0323)

Hank, like Jake, Loren, Dorothy and most the townsfolk, thinks Darwin's theory of evolution is 'bunk.' (#0325)

Hank takes bets against Sully/Mike marriage. (#0326/0327)

Hank clues Mike in that Marjorie, Mike's least-favorite sister, has a veneral disease when she comes to town (with mother Elizabeth Quinn and sister Rebecca) for Mike/Sully wedding. (#0326/0327)

Hank, unlike the other townsfolk, is not disturbed by Dorothy's writing about him as the town pimp -- he says, proudly, "My reputation stands." Further, he accuses the others of being crybabies, "... you're all just mad 'cause she wrote the truth..." (#0406)

Hank misses the Indian reservation Thanksgiving cooked up by the town -- instead we see him go off toward the train, which he will take to Denver, where he'll spend Thanksgiving with his son Zack, as well as pick up some new talent (prostitutes) for his saloon. (#0411)

Hank plays a wise man in the Reverend's "living nativity" extravaganza. (#0412)

Hank runs against Matthew for Sheriff, but loses by 30 votes. He's also very opposed to the new anti-gun law Matthew convinces the council to pass. (#0414)

The newer, softer Hank tries to comfort Myra when she looks down after a fight about her new job with Horace, but she just runs off. Another indication of Hank's softening -- he lets Emma keep her supper date with Matthew and the family at the homestead, even though they're short-handed at the saloon that night. As Emma leaves, he mutters to himself, "Gettin' too old for this." (#0415)

Hank is taken in by confidence men Curtis Roper and Randolph Cummings and invests in their "home-refrigeration-box" scam. Fortunately for Hank (and other townsfolk), Sully wires ahead to Mike and the Reverend, who are in Denver immunizing some Indian School children, and Mike and the Reverend cook up a bait-and-switch scheme of their own, thus managing to get the people of Colorado Springs' money back. (#0416)

Hank, engaged in a neck-in-neck competition with Preston, agrees to lend money to the Reverend to fix up the church because he thinks the Reverend won't be able to repay the loan and that he'll be able to acquire the church and the land it sits on (which the Reverend put up as collateral) fortunately for the Reverend and the townsfolk, Hank (with a little persuasion from Mike) softens his position at the eleventh hour and extends the Reverend some time on his loan, proving once again that he's not such a bad guy after all. (#0417)

Hank goes on expedition (consisting of Matthew, Sully, Preston, Jake, Robert E, Preston and visiting politician Ezra Leonard) to retrieve Caleb, the kidnapped son of Ezra Leonard, from desperate mountain man Noah McBride. In it, he gets involved in a fist fight with Preston, saying, "Why not? It's been a while since I mixed it up," to which Jake replies, "Yeah, at least a week!" (#0418/19)

Hank gladly throws the switch which operates the gallows which drop Johnny Reed, a rapist and murderer, to his death. Hank made the offer to Matthew, the Sheriff, when the gallows-operator wired and said he couldn't make it to Colorado Springs due to his broken leg. Matthew, who thought he'd have to do it himself, discovered he didn't have the stomach for it towards the end of the episode and took Hank up on his offer. (#0420)

In "Woman of the Year," we learn that Hank's been sending his grandmother, Ilse, 'the only person in his family he gave a damn about' (and therefore bothered to lie to) letters about himself which are patently untrue. These letters state that he's the town tailor, married to Myra, that her and Horace's daughter Samantha is his baby and that Hank is active on the city counsel. When Ilse shows up in Colorado Springs unannounced, Hank persuades the townsfolk, especially Myra, to go along with him on this charade so that Ilse will leave town none the wiser re: his true occupation and status in the town -- saloon keeper, pimp, and lowlife. Eventually, however, a jealous Horace confronts Hank and takes his life back from Hank (because there's no tailor shop in town, Myra has even volunteered the loan of Horace's telegraph office for Hank's deception) and Hank is forced to come clean with his grandma. To his suprise, she's loving and accepting, and they part happily and honestly. (#0423)

When Hank's grandmother, Ilse, comes to town to say goodbye to him (she's returning to her home country of Norway for good) we learn that Hank was born 'Hans Lawsenstrom' and that his great uncle Gustav was an artist like Hank's little boy Zack. (#0423)

When Hank and Jake grumble about Preston's incoming health resort, Mike's visiting sister Marjorie pragmatically suggests that Hank and Jake start a business of their own. At end of episode, we see the two men mulling it over... (#0428)


MEDICAL:

Was cut in the upper arm during bar fight -- Mike stitches him up for a dollar a stitch. (#0101)

Accused Grace of poisoning him with her meatloaf; he actually contracted trichinosis from undercooked bear meat. (#0113)

Sully hits Hank in the head with a log when he causes a ruckus at Myra's engagement party. This puts Hank into a coma which only the love of the townspeople, and especially Mike, can bring him out of. (#0223)

Hank gets knocked out by the Reverend, (who uses Jake's rifle butt to do it) and tied up by Matthew when he tries to bring Sully in for the $200.00 bounty that the railroad's put on Sully when they think he helped Dog Soldiers sabotage the railroad. (#0224)

Hank hurts his arm (minor injury) and is later treated for minor cuts and contusions when he and Jake's practical jokes get out of hand. (#0302)

Hank is found unconscious in the saloon, a bloody knife next to him, when he's accused of nearly killing one of his whores. (#2244-0499) (CHECK WITH WRITERS BEFORE USING THIS; EPISODE HAS NOT AIRED AS OF 10/12/95.)

Hank is knocked off his feet by the smaller Preston during a "friendly" boxing match during the expedition to retrieve the kidnapped Caleb. (#0417)