In response to the previous reviews, I always saw this episode as a take-off on the 50's musical, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". They just shortened it to four (including the father) for the sake of an hour-long episode.
"Seven Brides" was based on an ancient Roman story called "The Rape of the Sabine Women", which I think was written by Plutarch or Livy or one of those people. So perhaps the writers were simply trying to expose the viewers to some classic literature. Or at least to a classic musical. Or maybe by the 20th season of Gunsmoke, they were just running out of ideas. LOL.
"Seven Brides" was based on an ancient Roman story called "The Rape of the Sabine Women", which I think was written by Plutarch or Livy or one of those people. So perhaps the writers were simply trying to expose the viewers to some classic literature. Or at least to a classic musical. Or maybe by the 20th season of Gunsmoke, they were just running out of ideas. LOL.