The Apple Dumpling Gang -Special Edition-

Head for cover! Don Knotts and Tim Conway are Wild West outlaws who can't hit the broad side of a barn -- but never miss when it comes to rounding up laughs! The hilarity begins when a roving bachelor (Bill Bixby) inherits three young orphans and a wealth of problems. When the youngsters stumble upon a huge golden nugget, they must fend off the greedy townspeople. So the kids join forces with the bumbling outlaws to stage a robbery of the gold. Little do they know a surly gang of sharpshooters plans to beat them to the draw! If you're aiming for fun, saddle up and head out with THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG!|When planning sets for the film, the designers decided three copies of the bank had to be built. One was indoors on a soundstage while two matching exteriors were built on the backlot, one of them roofless with burned beams exposed.|Location filming took place at the Tropico gold mine, in Rosamond, California, and in the Los Padres and Deschutes national forest in Oregon.|The pairing of Don Knotts and Tim Conway was so successful, it led to a 1979 sequel THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG RIDES AGAIN.|The story is based on the 1971 novel by Jack M. Bickham.|The movie inspired the TV pilot "Tales Of The Apple Dumpling Gang" in 1982, which led to the show "Gun Shy," which aired for one month in 1983.