Jed Hockett and his three sons are newcomers to the Dodge City area and have settled on a farm in the hill country nearby. None of the men are married, but they intend to remedy that situation as soon as possible.
A woman named Hannah Cobb is the new owner of the Long Branch Saloon. Miss Hannah is quickly learning that managing a saloon in Dodge City is quite a challenge.
Jed sends his sons to Dodge with orders to find wives. They visit the Long Branch and set their sights on three of the women working there. After the boys get into a brawl -- adding to Hannah's frustration -- Matt Dillon threatens to jail them.
Later that night, the boys return to the Long Branch, break in, abduct the three women plus Hannah, and take them back to the farm. The women naturally resent their captivity at first, but a bit of Stockholm syndrome sets in as the three saloon workers - Fran, Emily, and Sarah - begin to fall in love with their captors.
Fran Ryan makes her first Gunsmoke appearance as new Long Branch owner Hannah Cobb replacing Amanda Russell's Kitty Russell character. There is some precedent for Ryan replacing a character in a series. Ryan had replaced actress Barbara Pepper as the character Doris Ziffel in the series Green Acres after Pepper's health forced her to leave the show. Ryan had appeared in the Gunsmoke Season 17 episode "The Wedding" in a different, smaller role. She played Hannah in five episodes of the series and one of the Gunsmoke movies.
(It is my opinion the omission of any satisfying explanation about the departure of the Kitty Russell character from Dodge City is a tremendous failing of the producers and writers. With the exception of this episode and its dreadful sequel, the Hannah Cobb character was relegated to a minor role on Gunsmoke.)
Harry Morgan, wearing a big, bushy, obviously fake beard, portrays Jed Hockett in one of the more puzzling (and terrible) performances of his extensive and generally stellar career. For some reason (director's instructions? Morgan's choice?), Morgan's character nearly shouts or screams almost every line. The character is supposed to be passionate and spirited, but the performance is simply annoying and obnoxious.
John Reilly, Herman Poppe, and Dennis Redfield play the Hockett sons, Ike, Luke, and Shep. Reilly had appeared late in Season 19's "Ride a Yeller Horse." Poppe had also appeared once previously in Season 16's "The Tycoon." He played the same sort of silly character in all his Gunsmoke appearances. Redfield is another actor that had made one previous appearance. He was the Lem Rawlins character in Season 19's finale, "The Disciple."
Karen Grassle, Linda Sublette, and Michele Marsh play the three women who are abducted by the Hocketts. Grassle, who would soon begin playing Caroline Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, makes her single Gunsmoke appearance here. This is Sublette's first Gunsmoke role. She would return later in the season in the sequel episode to this story, "Brides and Grooms." Sublette's acting career only lasted about four years and included few roles. Like Sublette, Michele Marsh makes her Gunsmoke debut with this episode, and she would return for the sequel episode. Her acting career was considerably more extensive than Sublette's, however.
Most of this story takes place on the Hockett farm, although there are some early scenes set in the Long Branch Saloon. Frequent viewers will be accustomed to episodes where the major Gunsmoke characters have minor roles in the story. James Arness has more screen time than Ken Curtis and Milburn Stone, but even his role in the story is minor with negligible impact.
Writer Earl W. Wallace was involved in providing stories, scripts, and teleplays in a few episodes later in the run of the series. He provided one story ("Trail of Bloodshed") late in Season 19, and six in Season 20. He obviously intended this episode to be a lighthearted love story. Unfortunately, it is so lighthearted it becomes inconsequential. There is no reason for the viewer to be invested in any of the characters, as they are all throw-away caricatures, as opposed to being real people with any substance or depth. Once the story moves to the Hockett farm, too much time is devoted to sappy dialogue.
Additionally, the entire premise of men abducting women and forcing them to work in the hopes of somehow wooing them into marriage is abhorrent and offensive. This episode first aired in 1974, but even during that now-distant time it is surprising to think anyone thought this story was worthy of being produced.
In Season 7, there is an episode titled "Marry Me" where a young mountain man named Orthy Cathcart abducts Kitty Russell and intends to force Kitty to marry him under similar circumstances. That episode is a much better treatment of similar subject matter. Unlike the Hockett men who act out of sheer stupidity, Orky acts out of ignorance of acceptable social norms, but that does not make his actions acceptable.
This is the second episode directed by familiar character actor Victor French. He had previously directed the first, far superior episode of Season 20, "Matt Dillon Must Die."
An even more head-scratching aspect to this story is that someone decided it warranted a sequel, which - amazingly - is even worse. John Reilly and Karen Grassle are replaced with David Soul and Amanda McBroom in the second story. (Reilly and Grassle probably wanted no part of the sequel after seeing the results of the first episode.)
"The Wiving" is as bad as Gunsmoke gets, with the possible exception of the awful sequel.
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