Samuel Sprig and Clifton Bunker are two over-dressed -- at least for Dodge City -- writers from New York. The pair are looking for a sensational story about events in or around the town. They are disappointed to find little in the way of story material. Bunker even resorts to trying to pay an ill-tempered patron of the Long Branch Saloon to start trouble, but the cowboy tells the writer to mind his own business.
Kitty Russell introduces Matt Dillon to the writers, but Marshal Dillon is not impressed. He can see the two men are out of their element and that presents a possible source of trouble.
Matt and Chester Goode have to go to Hays City for about a week. On their way back, they encounter a group of soldiers. The Captain tells Matt they are looking for Chief Little Hawk and some Pawnee that jumped the reservation about four days earlier and are on the warpath.
Now Marshal Dillon must contend with a Pawnee uprising in addition to the ignorant reporters.
Werner Klemperer appears in his only Gunsmoke episode as Clifton Bunker. Of course, Klemperer would later become famous for playing Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the comedy series Hogan's Heroes. The Bunker character is clearly the more intelligent and scheming of the pair.
Jack Weston makes the first of two appearances in the series. In this instance, he portrays the constantly sweating, less intelligent Samuel Sprig. Sprig simply follows Bunker's lead in the pursuit of their sensational story.
Eddie Little Sky (credited as Eddie Little) appears as Chief Little Hawk in this story. The Lakota native appeared in a total of eleven Gunsmoke episodes. He often played American Indians in westerns and played various native characters in comedy roles.
The theme of a stranger (usually from "back east") causing trouble mostly out of ignorance and misplaced ambition is commonly used in television dramas and comedies. This story shares elements with Season 2's "The Photographer," although neither Bunker nor Sprig are quite as despicable as Professor Jacoby. This story is not as satisfying as "The Photographer" because the perpetrators face few consequences for their actions.
In addition to the formulaic approach to the story, the story is contrived and the details questionable. The Pawnee going on the warpath because someone desecrated their burial place sounds good on the surface, but it does not stand up to scrutiny. It would have made more sense for Bunker and Sprig to be found dead from some kind of Pawnee execution because they were caught defiling the burial grounds. Otherwise, how did Chief Little Hawk learn about the desecration? Did someone regularly check the burial place to make sure it had not been disturbed? And how did Bunker and Sprig find the burial place? Assuming it was on the Pawnee reservation, the viewer is supposed to believe these two bungling reporters with no knowledge of the culture somehow happened upon a sacred burial place without the Pawnee knowing about it.
The moral to this story is cultural misappropriation is wrong, even when it happens out of ignorance. Bunker and Sprig (especially Bunker) do not care what kind of damage their actions inflict on others -- and that damage happens to be significant. They are only interested in getting an exciting story. They do not see the people in the area they are visiting as fellow humans but objects to be used for their own desired ends.
Kitty Russell introduces Matt Dillon to the writers, but Marshal Dillon is not impressed. He can see the two men are out of their element and that presents a possible source of trouble.
Matt and Chester Goode have to go to Hays City for about a week. On their way back, they encounter a group of soldiers. The Captain tells Matt they are looking for Chief Little Hawk and some Pawnee that jumped the reservation about four days earlier and are on the warpath.
Now Marshal Dillon must contend with a Pawnee uprising in addition to the ignorant reporters.
Werner Klemperer appears in his only Gunsmoke episode as Clifton Bunker. Of course, Klemperer would later become famous for playing Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the comedy series Hogan's Heroes. The Bunker character is clearly the more intelligent and scheming of the pair.
Jack Weston makes the first of two appearances in the series. In this instance, he portrays the constantly sweating, less intelligent Samuel Sprig. Sprig simply follows Bunker's lead in the pursuit of their sensational story.
Eddie Little Sky (credited as Eddie Little) appears as Chief Little Hawk in this story. The Lakota native appeared in a total of eleven Gunsmoke episodes. He often played American Indians in westerns and played various native characters in comedy roles.
The theme of a stranger (usually from "back east") causing trouble mostly out of ignorance and misplaced ambition is commonly used in television dramas and comedies. This story shares elements with Season 2's "The Photographer," although neither Bunker nor Sprig are quite as despicable as Professor Jacoby. This story is not as satisfying as "The Photographer" because the perpetrators face few consequences for their actions.
In addition to the formulaic approach to the story, the story is contrived and the details questionable. The Pawnee going on the warpath because someone desecrated their burial place sounds good on the surface, but it does not stand up to scrutiny. It would have made more sense for Bunker and Sprig to be found dead from some kind of Pawnee execution because they were caught defiling the burial grounds. Otherwise, how did Chief Little Hawk learn about the desecration? Did someone regularly check the burial place to make sure it had not been disturbed? And how did Bunker and Sprig find the burial place? Assuming it was on the Pawnee reservation, the viewer is supposed to believe these two bungling reporters with no knowledge of the culture somehow happened upon a sacred burial place without the Pawnee knowing about it.
The moral to this story is cultural misappropriation is wrong, even when it happens out of ignorance. Bunker and Sprig (especially Bunker) do not care what kind of damage their actions inflict on others -- and that damage happens to be significant. They are only interested in getting an exciting story. They do not see the people in the area they are visiting as fellow humans but objects to be used for their own desired ends.