Gunsmoke (TV Series) The Bobsy Twins (1960) User Reviews

"The Bobsey Twins" is utterly mean-spirited entry in series

[chuck-reilly · 6/10 · 28 February 2020]

In 1960's "The Bobsey Twins," the title seemingly being a spoof on the popular children's classic books, the subject matter here isn't anything a child would ever want to watch. Two imbecilic hillbillies (the "Twins") roam about aimlessly on the prairie outside of Dodge City and murder some hapless victims. Their disgusting acts include allowing a distraught woman to run off into the wilds where she will eventually die from exposure. It is established right away that these men have absolutely nothing resembling a conscience, no ethics, and no brains. Then these two winners end up in Dodge and announce to all within earshot that their mission in life is to kill Indians. When Marshal Dillon gets wind of their plans, he immediately disarms them and chases them out of the Long Branch Saloon. Unfortunately, there's more than one watering-hole in Dodge City and the boys end up blabbing about their warped intentions in another drinking establishment. That's when a very young Richard Chamberlain decides to play a joke on these two bozos and tells them that the local blacksmith is half Cherokee (he's actually of German descent). The twins immediately drop their drinks and head over to the guy's shop to perform their civic duty. Luckily, the good Marshal hears about it before they can execute the blacksmith by hanging him from the rafters. After one of the hillbillies is shot in the shoulder and the other is threatened with death, the two sorry fellows surrender to the Marshal. Then the dumbest of the two nonchalantly blurts out that they didn't get to kill any Indians after all, "only a few white people." That's all the evidence the Marshal needs to solve the other murders. Then Dillon "nonchalantly" informs the two twins that they'll both be hanged by the neck until dead. This entry, written by series creator John Meston, is one of the most mean-spirited and cruel stories in the entire twenty-year run of the program. Maybe he wanted to convey just how bad it was out in the Old West. If that was his sole intent, he certainly succeeded. All that was missing was for the television audience to witness the Twins hanging from the gallows of Hays City. It was certainly a fate which they richly deserved.

Solid

[jdcoates · 8/10 · 5 May 2019]

Solid episode. Each character gets their day. Like so many good episodes unflinching violence of the West. 1 error.

Not a spoiler. And one of them or character Focus scenes, and some of the best of the series, you have a scene where Marshall Dillon and the doctor are having dialogue, bantering back and forth. The doctor quotes the verse below and is impressed when Matt response if that's from "Chronicles" They were both incorrect as it's from The Book of Psalms: Psalm 55:21 "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart:"

Twin Dingbats

[darbski · 10/10 · 18 October 2017]

**SPOILERS** Yes, I agree with the other reviewers, as much as I can. A couple of them are a little deep in psychology for me, but the west definitely had it's share of idiots and crazies. These two old boys just fit the picture very well. I'm gonna mention something else.

Morris Ankrum, and Ralph Moody. Two actors who played many parts in many shows. In this one they are both dunces with guns. Ankrum was called "The Eternal Colonel" because of his leadership appearance, and Moody who was usually the "Down Home Fatherly type". They were both in several Perry Mason episodes along with many others. They both must have had a ball playing two dingbats who thought everyone else was stupid. It was a treat to watch each try to out-dummy the other. Also, where in the name of Jed Clampett did they get those hats? One other little point is that while watching something else, it hit me that this would have made a GREAT Alfred Hitchcock episode.

Ambitious

[aimless-46 · 10/10 · 8 September 2016]

Last night I happened to see an episode of Gunsmoke called "The Bobsy Twins" which was originally broadcast on May 21, 1960. This was the most philosophically ambitious episode of the entire long-running series. It concerns two aging brothers (Merle and Harvey Finney) who come west with the simplistic mission of ridding it of Indians. The viewer is introduced to them immediately as they cluelessly stumble across the prairie in search of Dodge City; hillbilly eastern rubes completely unequipped for navigation and survival in the sparsely populated vastness of the West. They are on foot, have not eaten in two days, and look scruffy enough to be Lil' Abner characters. "The Bobsy Twins" title is gradually explained as the viewer comes to understand that like Bert and Nan, these two brothers are children forever - at least mentally.

One of the most fascinating things about the Bobbseys is that they never aged. After the first books the publisher of the series realized that in real time Bert and Nan were soon going to be too old for their target audience, and he put the brakes on their aging. After that Bert and Nan were forever twelve and Flossie and Freddie forever six.

In the allegorical Gunsmoke episode Merle and Harvey are childlike characters, almost witless. They trace their simplistic but somewhat contradictory value system back to a revered father who among other things felt that it was not proper to murder anyone on Sundays, not because it is wrong to randomly kill but because Sunday should be a day of rest. But these impulsive and bloodthirsty "twins" find it impossible to keep even this basic commandment. Frustrated at encountering no Indians they instead kill a man who refuses to share his Sunday dinner with them and then kill a friendly cowboy in order to keep their involvement in the first murder a secret. Both murders are a little contrived, with the brothers basically looking for an excuse to kill someone.

Once in Dodge a cowboy (Richard Chamberlain) in the Long Branch tells them that the livery store owner is a full-blooded Cherokee and they set out to hang him.

What makes the episode so special is that writer John Meston (who originally wrote the story for radio) is not really going off on the hypocrisy of Christianity or of religion in general. Although after the murders they repent having done these deeds on what should have been for them a day of rest, Meston is using the "day of rest" thing allegorically to represent the many childlike minds that grasp hold of whatever simplistic influence is out there as a way to justify their self-indulgence. And their revered father represents those who would use the fear, hate, and prejudices of simpletons like the Finney's to manipulate them for their own purposes (a certain presidential candidate comes to mind).

While the brothers' nativist banter in this episode is sometimes amusing, it is mostly in the script to humanize them enough so that they cannot simply be dismissed by viewers as creatures of a more barbaric species.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

A Matter of Taste

[dougdoepke · 15 May 2013]

Two terminally scruffy, dim-witted old men stumble across the prairie looking for Indians to shoot. Instead they find a young couple's campsite, but the couple can't spare any food for the two hungry drifters. So they shoot the man, leaving the woman to wander off. The only thing they worry about is whether killing is in "keeping with the Sabbath" as their pappy said. Clearly, they're two of the worst looking, most demented characters of the early series.

An entry like this is mainly a matter of taste. There's a somewhat humorous undercurrent to their demented talk, and I suspect it was to try to relieve the brutality of the simple-minded violence. Their obsessive talk of killing Indians because they've heard about it, suggests the dangers of loose talk, though where these nut-cases come from is never made clear. What the episode suggests in rather disturbing fashion is an alien world out there on the open prairie, where anything might emerge. Anyway, it's certainly an offbeat episode, more off-putting than suspenseful.

(In passing-there's a load of obvious irony in the title.)

What a pair to draw to!

[hpringnitz · 9/10 · 28 March 2022]

Those murderous twins were two of the most evil characters Meston ever dreamed up. Disguised somewhat by the strange comical type music in the score of this episode, they would make one's skin crawl. Thankfully, they got their just desserts in the end due to their own stupidity. But yikes!

The Most Vile & Evil Villains

[Johnny_West · 5/10 · 13 April 2020]

The Bobsy Twins is a snide and sarcastic reference to a sweet and uplifting children's book series called The Bobbsey Twins, that began in 1904, and published 72 books in the series, until 1979. The Bobsy Twins were kids, not killers. Unfortunately, when John Meston wrote them up, they took a deadly turn! John Meston wrote for the "adult" Westerns genre. The philosophy of the "adult" Westerns was that the Old West was harsh, mean, and full of criminals, con-artists, bush-whackers, bandits, road agents, serial killers.

Meston did not romanticize the Old West. He wrote 196 of the early episodes of Gunsmoke, and very few have any happy endings. His last screenplay for Gunsmoke was in 1965. Meston was writing scripts for radio shows and television from 1947 to 1975. Meston was nominated once for an Emmy Award.

This story left a lot untold. Merle and Harvey Finney are brothers who came walking hundreds of miles from Boston. How did they survive such a long journey without any money? It would have been interesting if once they confessed to Marshal Dillon as to their most recent killings, they had added a few more. It would make sense that they had probably been killing people all the way from Boston. This episode feels incomplete without a backstory.

In some ways, this story parallels the murder of the Clutter family by a pair of ex-convicts who traveled four hundred miles to rob them, and kill them. This was headline news in 1959. Later it became the book (and movie) In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote.

Morris Ankrum and Ralph Moody play the psychotic brothers. Morris Ankrum was on hundreds of TV shows and movies (277 credits), many of them Westerns. He was also a Judge on many episodes of Perry Mason. Ralph Moody was another veteran actor. He appeared on Gunsmoke five times, also on many Western TV shows, and five times on Perry Mason.

These two old hands deliver an incredible performance as a couple of maniacs who kill people without batting an eye or missing a step. It is just like warming up coffee for them.

The only upside to this episode is an appearance by Richard Chamberlin, who would go on to be the lead in the Dr. Kildare TV series. Chamberlin also became the first actor to play Jason Bourne (in 1988), and he won Golden Globe Awards for his acting in Dr. Kildare, The Thorn Birds, and Shogun.

More of an oddity than an entertaining show.

[kfo9494 · 4/10 · 13 September 2013]

I am sure that some will find this episode confusing even downright distasteful but if you had ever read the Bobbsey Twin books then this is a spoof of that collection. However it does not mean that the episode was entertaining since most of the episode was more macabre than interesting but with that knowledge it will be more of a semi-comedy than horror story.

The episode centers around two older twin brothers named Harvey and Merle Finney. They are on their way out west to kill Indians after hearing what they have done to white settlers. Along the way they were only taught, by their father, that killing is fine but never on Sunday.

After a brutal killing of two cowboys on the trail and the disregard for a woman in trouble, the two find themselves in Dodge ready to kill Indians. When someone at the Long Branch makes a joke and tells them that the man running the stables is part Cherokee, the two have their first Indian victim.

With characters that was actually more sad than interesting plus the uncomfortable subject matter, this is an episode that will not be on the top of anyone's list. Even when you take it for a spoof on the children's book it was still not an entertaining episode. This is an episode you will watch for a novelty and not for viewing pleasure.

More Meston Meanness

[ben-thayer · 3 May 2021]

That phrase comes my good friend grizzledgeezer, who used it often during the days of the discussion forums to describe John Meston's predilection for murderous characters. In fact, I would venture an opinion that this episode is the epitome of the geezer's description.

I've given it some thought, and IMO it's likely not that far from the actual truth in some ways. In the late 1800s there were all kinds of people existing in that part of the country with mental states pushed to the edge of sanity with everything from PTSD to schizophrenia, and there was no treatment to speak of other than being locked away in an asylum. And a lot of these people were heavily armed.

Longtime fans of the series are certainly aware that Meston and other series writers did not shy away from depicting depraved mental states in their characters, two examples are the episodes Potato Road and Kitty's Injury. And even more Meston characters didn't necessarily appear mentally handicapped outwardly, but were shown to be utterly and completely depraved sociopaths who murdered casually with a sneer of pleasure. Meston wrote them into his stories on a regular basis.

But this entry seems somewhat different. For whatever reason, the showrunners decided to depict the brothers in a humorous quality- despite them being typical Meston murderers. Along with Ralph Moody's mannerisms, the goofy background score, and those tall, pointy hats....it's there, and it's kinda puzzling.

I dunno...people laugh at different things, could be this is something John Meston found funny.

John Meston... Larry McMurtry's godfather

[grizzledgeezer · 31 August 2013]

"Gunsmoke" was originally intended to be a "hard-boiled" adult Western, what William Paley called "Philip Marlowe of the Old West". When writer John Meston and producer Norman MacDonnell, developing an adult Western of their own, came across Paley's pilot, the project was revived, and the result was "Gunsmoke".

Meston was the chief writer for the radio series, and many of his radio scripts were recycled for TV, sometimes censored to remove material considered too "mature" for the TV audience. Though one cannot know Meston's intentions in detail, there's no question he wanted to thoroughly disabuse the audience that there was anything the least-bit "romantic" about the Old West (an anti-theme Larry McMurtry would later embrace).

Meston's stories are often dark, violent, and just plain nasty. One has the comic title "Never Pester Chester", in which Chester is roped and dragged nearly to his death by two cowhands who don't care for Chester asking them to behave a bit more politely in Dodge.

There is no motivation -- of any sort -- for their behavior, other than that they're immoral and not-sane. These sorts of characters -- "Meston maniacs" -- populate his scripts. Meston reasonably (???) assumed there were plenty of such people in the Old West, so there was nothing wrong with using them to tell vicious, violent stories -- whose sole purpose was to remind the audience just how bad the Wild West was. *

The question (to me) is why CBS Standards & Practices didn't object to such crude and unmotivated violence. The answer might be that television standards were influenced by motion picture standards. One rule required that evil //always// be punished, without exception. ** It therefore doesn't matter //what// the villain did -- however vile, depraved, or disgusting -- as long as he was punished in the end. ***

This is, of course, hypocritical beyond belief -- it's okay to titillate the audience with depravity, as long as the perpetrator eventually "gets it". (DeMille was notorious for this sort of thing.)

One of the oddest things about this episode is that Harvey and Merle murder Grant when he refuses to feed them, claiming he doesn't have enough food. Odd, because in most societies, throughout the world, throughout history, even the uninvited guest has an honored place. (Hagen doesn't immediately kill Sigmund, as doing so would break the laws of hospitality.) Murder was an uncalled-for response, but Harvey and Merle were justified in being offended that they weren't fed.

I haven't decided whether this episode should be rated 1 (because of its utter tastelessness), or 10 (for being a vicious slap in the face of the American public). Perhaps Meston was just poking fun at himself. The producers clearly thought of it as comedy, as the music attests. (The music should have been written by Bernard Herrmann (think "The Trouble with Harry") but the talented Fred Steiner was the perfect substitute.)

Regardless, this is a must-see episode -- and not just for "Gunsmoke" fans.

* It's probably safe to say that //no// Western hero -- with the possible exception of David Crockett -- would be considered a decent human being or any sort of role model, by modern standards. Even the famous cattle baron, Charles Goodnight, who is often held up as a model Christian gentleman, was a callous murderer. (See LIFE's "The Cowboys", p62.)

** In Meston's "Passive Resistance" (4.19), a man whose sheep are killed and his house burned refuses to name the perpetrators, because he //will// have his justice -- as the only power evil has is to destroy itself. Episode 9.12, "The Magician", recycles the idea.

*** In "Buffalo Hunter" (4.33), the titular character murders his hands so he won't have to pay them. He kills one of them by shoving his face into a pot of melted lead. He is eventually horribly tortured by Indians.