Harland Bristol is the reigning saddle bronc champ. Getting ready to ride Megaton, Harland is critically injured when the rank bronc rears up and slams him into the chute wall. Unfortunately, Stoney Burke was helping out - holding Megaton's head. Harland's brother Cody and his best friend E.J. Stoker blame Stoney for Harland's death. The episode introduces us to the principal characters, establishes themes sewn throughout the series, and gives hints to the eventual outcome. Thematic examples include forgiveness; Cody and E.J. go from wanting Stoney hurt for Harland's death to being his best friends and constant companions. We learn what a sleaze the character of Ves Painter is, and the attendant friction - approach/avoidance - represented by Ves and Stoney's difficult relationship. Stoney falls for Hamilton's girl (much younger than he) and seems willing to give it all up for her. She, however is smarter - or more mature than Stoney and realizes that if he does not go for the buckle -
An old political fight between two small-county commissioners causes the delay of Stoney and the rodeo from getting to the next venue, resulting in the death of one of the cowboys. The Police Commissioner wants his charity boxing match to run on the same night as the Health Commissioner's charity rodeo. Thugs in the employ of one of the boxers pays Ves Painter to help disrupt the rodeo.
Hell's fury is unleashed when Stoney scorns the affections of a spoiled rich girl whose daddy is the town's power broker.
Stoney and E.J. notice that local boy Soames Hewitt is drunk, just moments before he is scheduled to ride a dangerous brahma bull.
Local teen-agers become upset when they discover that the old arena they use for stock car races will be converted into a rodeo IF Stoney Burke agrees to perform there.
Rodeo rider Miller Hill ties himself so tightly to a brahma bull he is riding that he ends up being killed by the animal. His family refuse to accept money that Stoney collects to help them in their hour of need.
Stoney is hit with a lawsuit when the bronc he is riding crashes thru a fence and injures a woman spectator, Loreen Julian.
Stoney's friendship with Ves is put to the test when Ves is jailed for murder. When a money clip belonging to the dead man is found in Ves' car even Stoney begins to have his doubts. A street bum holds the key, or in this case, a watch, to Ves' salvation. But first,Stoney and the boys must find him.
Two men have a large bet, one man bets on Stoney and tries to buy his cooperation. The other one bets on a friend of Stoney's who is riding with a hurt leg.
Stoney helps a pregnant old friend find her husband whom she thinks has been wandering with different rodeos for the last six months.
Stoney enters a prison benefit rodeo. He has a friend who is incarcerated, who forces Stoney to help him escape by taking a teenage girl hostage.
Stoney joins a senate campaign and agrees to make speeches because he remembers how much the senator helped his family, only to be disillusioned later during the campaign.
Cloris Leachman plays Eunice Stocker, E.J.'s cousin. She wants E.J. to train her to be a rodeo trick rider.
A rich man, Byron Latimer, wants Stoney to help him tame his out of control teen-age son, David.
Stoney must compete against an emotionally disturbed bronc rider.
A rodeo champion who Stoney idolizes still feels the need to prove himself by challenging others in Indian wrestling and other feats, which leads to a disastrous encounter.
Two gamblers bet heavily on Stoney's upcoming rodeo contest. But one of the gamblers is determined not to lose, and so hopes to insure that Stoney does.
Sam Hagen is determined that his son Jess win the rodeo championship. But Stoney learns that Jess has a bad knee, and that even a slight injury could permanently cripple him, a fact which Jess doesn't want his father to know.
A fellow rodeo rider and friend of Stoney's is killed during a ride. Before he dies, he asks Stoney to take care of his girlfriend. But the dead man's brother blames her for his death and calls her a jinx, as this is the second time a man she cared for has died. She comes to believe she is a jinx herself.
Stoney experiences a series of accidents at the rodeo arena. He then begins receiving threatening phone calls. Ves becomes convinced that the ""accidents"" were not accidental afterall.
Stoney gets involved in a murder in a city on the Mexican border and runs afoul of both the Mexican and American police investigating the crime.
A former champion horsewoman hires Stoney to capture the stallion that went wild after an accident which left her in a wheelchair for life. She wants him to tame the horse, but her father offers Stoney double the amount if he kills him.
After a simple-minded stable boy helps Stoney and Ves by subduing two men trying to rob the rodeo office, he begs Stoney not to tell the press his name. But an ambitious and unscrupulous reporter uncovers it anyway and tries to hound the young man into another act of violence.
Stacy Morgan tells Stoney she has been following the rodeo circuit looking for her father. But Stoney learns that her father was actually killed in a riding accident four years ago, and that Stacy witnessed it.
A rodeo rider wants to get back on the circuit after being found innocent and pardoned of the murder he had been convicted of. But the town's organizers of the rodeo still don't want him to participate. When he insists on it, some take more drastic measures.
During an exhibition of Indian archery, a government official is killed.
The boys take Stoney to a fancy club for his birthday. He meets the owner and singer who is having a few problems with her boyfriend and partner. Will spending time with Stoney help put things back where they belong?
Dick Clark plays a police sergeant who runs a community center for city juveniles. He works with Stoney and the rodeo's fundraiser to get the center's boys to try to sell tickets for the rodeo. But not all of them are cooperating.
Amy Jensen is in charge of the Caldwell College Student Rodeo. She volunteered for the job because she's got a very serious crush on family friend Stoney. Amy has visions of wedding bells, but Stoney may have other ideas.
Spoiled Donna Weston wants it all but is so far in debt she can't see daylight. Her late father once saved Stoney's life and he feels obligated to help Donna, but she's more than he can afford.
When the shoot gate won't open, Stoney gets trampled by a bronc. He should only have a concussion, but he can't move his legs. The doctors can't find a reason for it, but it keeps him from the National Finals and may keep him from riding ever again.
Stoney is unable to ride at the World Championship Rodeo because of a badly injured hand. Desperate for money to send to his folks and hitting bottom, he takes a job delivering horses to the slaughter house. One of the horses turns out to be Megaton. Stoney takes a good hard look at where he's headed—and the slaughter house isn't it.