"The Wiving" is probably //the worst// "Gunsmoke" episode. It is //so// bad -- worse than worst -- that it blots out the memory of other bad episodes.
//Why// it's so bad can't be explained in a few words. Someone would have to pay a lot of money for me to sit down and explain it in detail, because doing so would be a major project. And I'm not going to do it for free. The following précis will have to do.
Suffice it to say that it's terrible story telling. Stories are about //people//. And if you don't establish who the people are -- that is, what they want, why they want it, and how they intend to get it -- you have no story, because you have no basis for plausible character interaction.
"The Wiving" starts as a simple farce, with crazy farm boys kidnapping saloon girls to become their wives. The writer seems to assume that putting attractive young people together will automatically result in them pairing off into happy relationships. He doesn't recognize that it doesn't work that way in real life. Even if he did, he doesn't have the patience to do the hard work of figuring out how the dynamic of kidnappers/victims can be developed into a compelling drama. (As a comedy, it would probably be offensive. Unless you're Billy Wilder.)
Had this material been treated seriously, over two episodes, it might have been one of the best "Gunsmoke" stories. As it is, it's a dramatically lazy mess from beginning to end.
PS: "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is based on a Stephen Vincent Benét story, "The Sobbin' Women". ("Sobbin'" is a pun on "Sabine".) The brothers all have first names beginning with H.
//Why// it's so bad can't be explained in a few words. Someone would have to pay a lot of money for me to sit down and explain it in detail, because doing so would be a major project. And I'm not going to do it for free. The following précis will have to do.
Suffice it to say that it's terrible story telling. Stories are about //people//. And if you don't establish who the people are -- that is, what they want, why they want it, and how they intend to get it -- you have no story, because you have no basis for plausible character interaction.
"The Wiving" starts as a simple farce, with crazy farm boys kidnapping saloon girls to become their wives. The writer seems to assume that putting attractive young people together will automatically result in them pairing off into happy relationships. He doesn't recognize that it doesn't work that way in real life. Even if he did, he doesn't have the patience to do the hard work of figuring out how the dynamic of kidnappers/victims can be developed into a compelling drama. (As a comedy, it would probably be offensive. Unless you're Billy Wilder.)
Had this material been treated seriously, over two episodes, it might have been one of the best "Gunsmoke" stories. As it is, it's a dramatically lazy mess from beginning to end.
PS: "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" is based on a Stephen Vincent Benét story, "The Sobbin' Women". ("Sobbin'" is a pun on "Sabine".) The brothers all have first names beginning with H.