Arthur Lilly (George C. Scott) had come to Medicine Bow to be the new school teacher. He is told that have not had a teacher since the last one left. The last teacher was Celia Ames (Colleen Dewhurst), who appeared in the first episode "The Executioners." At the time, Scott and Dewhurst were married.
The episode title, "The Brazen Bell," is taken from the Oscar Wilde poem that Lilley reads to the convicts.
At one point, to distract the convicts, the teacher reads Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", which was first published in 1898. Two shows after this one, ("Riff-Raff") the Virginian and Trampas enlist in the Spanish-American War, also in 1898.
Released theatrically in the UK in April 1963 as supporting film to 40 Pounds of Trouble.