This episode is truly one that is unique. It is most likely the most hilarious episode of Gunsmoke one could have ever seen. It is priceless. It all starts with Matt getting back very early one morning with a prisoner whom he had been tracking. Matt hadn't had any sleep in 36 hours and it showed. He was in no mood for a fist fight but that is what he got from the man who tried to escape. Well he put an end to that and in the jail cell the guy went. Finally getting a chance to sit down on his cot, he looks up at the clock only to see that the night is pretty much gone and it won't be long before the town is up and moving if some aren't already-it was just before 5 am.This is the end of Matt's quiet day. First we have Festus who shows up with a bag of catfish that he had just caught and needed to clean. Matt informs him that he would like to get some sleep and would he go outside to clean his fish. OK so Festus drags table and all out the door making a rather loud clamor doing it not really thinking about what he was doing. Then he yells at the milkman for having a squeaky wheel on his cart. All the while poor Matt is still trying with no success to get sleep. Festus also informed Matt that if he wanted to see the Judge that day with his prisoner he had better do it that morning as the Judge was planning on leaving on the morning stage. So much for the idea of sleep for Matt.This is just the beginning. Next in line if you will, one of the ladies of Dodge shows up pulling a young boy by the ear for making a disaster out of her weekly baking. He destroyed her pies. Throwing one of them at her.Then it is time to go see the Judge with his prisoner. Matt gets attacked again. This time the prisoner puts a fork in Matts arm. Festus rather helps one this fight and Matt gets to the Judge with his prisoner. The judge decides that the man is still in army custody and should be handled by a higher court and taken to Fort Dodge. He does help Matt out though and orders that Festus and Newly do that and that Matt "get some sleep you look awful". Matt then proceeds to go see Doc about his arm. He there gets told that Kitty is upset with him to put it lightly about missing out on a picnic she had planned for the two of them. Matt sees Kitty on the boardwalk but she won't talk to him. Kitty ends up with problems of her own as two old mining partners get into a fight over a mail-order-bride and to whom she will marry. In so doing they nearly destroy the Long Branch.She is met with no choice but to get Matt to put an end to it. I love how he does it. She opens the door at the office, looks at Matt and says two words-"fight,Long Branch. To watch this was as funny as it gets. Matt gets that taken care of and of course must make peace with Kitty-which you know they both want. They end up making a date for dinner that night with Kitty cooking for them there-she doesn't want to go out. Matt is all smiles over that but still very tired. The evening is soon there and Matt and Kitty are finishing their meal-which Matt offers high praises for-best meal he ever had he tells her. Well then of course you finish it off with good liquor-right- of course. 1837 Napoleon brandy. Then they hear glass breaking downstairs. This time Kitty says 'short of murder,I'll handle this". She does and when she comes back she finds Matt stretched out at an angle on her bed sound asleep-snoring like a buzz saw, and the look on her face is priceless. She is beside herself. She takes her soup tureen and smashes it hoping to wake Matt up-doesn't work-then out the door she goes-with a bang,of course. Down the stairs she heads, the old guys are living it up again-she dumps their beer over their heads and with Sam wondering where she is going it is getting late she could get molested-" really" she says. This is too good folks-well worth watching!
Review of A Quiet Day in Dodge
