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Gunsmoke: General Parsley Smith (1955)
Classic episode leaves you guessing to the end.
Don't let the name fool ya. This is an excellent episode, and another that leaves you guessing to the very end, with strong performances from all involved. Sure, you could watch solely to admire the beauty of a very young James Arness, but there's so much more to this fine episode. Milburn Stone was especially good in this, showing us Doc's gentler nature. An entertaining, classic episode well worth watching.
Gunsmoke: The Queue (1955)
Gunsmoke takes on racism, bigotry and religious hypocrisy.
Sebastian Cabot and Keye Luke both give fine performances in this excellent and unpredictable episode. It's the first time Gunsmoke addresses bigotry and hostility towards an ethnic minority. A classic, early Gunsmoke episode with good guys, bad guys, religious hypocrisy (a recurring theme in Gunsmoke), and things not always being as they seem. There's also a great scene with Luke, and Milburn Stone in Doc's office, with Doc trying to yank out a tooth while Matt watches. You'll probably want to rewind it a few times to catch the physical acting and expressions from all three actors.
Gunsmoke: The Hunter (1955)
Good, dark episode with a peek into Matt's early life.
Peter Whitney makes his first of six guest appearances on the show, as an antagonistic buffalo hunter from Matt's past. Whitney is a formidable match for Matt, and he'll leave you, as he often does, feeling uneasy. There's a nice scene with a very young James Arness and Amanda Blake outside the Long Branch, where Matt shares an unsettling story from his past with Kitty. It's a joy to watch all the main characters in these early episodes, and see how they mature and evolve over the course of the series. Another fine season 1 episode.
Gunsmoke: Obie Tater (1955)
Excellent early episode.
Royal Dano is wonderful in this first of his many guest appearances on Gunsmoke, showing us every emotion in the book. While the episode is mostly dark and sad, it also has its lighter moments, including Matt singing (for the first time on the show), and some fun interaction between James Arness and Amanda Blake in The Long Branch. This is a fine, classic episode.
Gunsmoke: Waste: Part 2 (1971)
Emotional finale to this fine two-part episode.
This is the second part to one of the best episodes in the later seasons of Gunsmoke, and indeed, of the entire twenty year run. My full review can be found under Part 1, but just as a quick summary, this was an excellent story, beautifully told, with fine performances from all involved. It's a sad story of lives wasted, of greed, judgement, misplaced love, and love misplaced. It's about the need for forgiveness - and to forgive. Ruth Roman (Maggie), Ellen Burstyn (Amy), Jeremy Slate (Ben Rodman), David Sheiner (Preacher), and Johnny Whitaker (Willie) are all superb in this emotional episode. James Arness, as Matt, has his hands full trying to both protect, and provide moral guidance to a down on their luck group of prostitutes and their madame - refugees from a dying prospecting town - and the newly orphaned Willie, who's grandfather was killed by the same outlaw Matt had been chasing, who (along with his gang) is now chasing the women - and their stash of gold dust.
Gunsmoke: Waste: Part 1 (1971)
One of the best episodes of the later seasons.
This two-part episode does indeed play like a movie, as was noted by another reviewer. A very GOOD movie. It's a character study more than anything, with characters all beautifully acted by top notch guest stars, and James Arness at his finest, as the moral compass throughout this journey. It's also a story of judgement (including self-judgement) and forgiveness. With the exception of Willie, the young boy so touchingly played by Johnny Whitaker, none of the good guys are without sin. All are in need of some sort of redemption, or even just a glimmer of hope. Though the story is mostly character driven, it all leads to a tense climax, and also provides just enough comic touches - though not the kind that distract from the seriousness, and pathos of this excellent episode. The comic scenes are early on, before things turn south for most of the characters. While the bad guys don't seem to have any redeeming qualities, the good guys are, as I noted, multifaceted, and indeed, even Willie's grandfather, in the opening scene, comes across as not particularly likable, quoting prices - on his death bed - for the water he sells to thirsty desert travelers. If his grandson didn't love and depend on him so much, the viewers probably wouldn't care much for him, either. Even so, while the old man isn't particularly pleasant, he's no criminal, and certainly not in the same class of bad as the outlaws, led by Ben Rodman (a cool Jeremy Slate) and the despicable Preacher (David Shriner). Ruth Roman (as Maggie, the resourceful, yet weary madame to the group of fallen women), Ellen Burstyn (as Amy, the prostitute who gave up her son years ago) and Johnny Whitaker are all memorable in their respective roles and if you don't feel anything for them you should probably check your pulse. This is not a feel good episode in any way, and in that respect harkens back to the earlier, grittier B&W seasons. The title says it all. It's a story of wasted lives. Men killed - and killing - over the price of a drink of water in the desert; lives wasted loving cold unworthy, and broken men; lives wasted over plain old unbridled greed. James Arness, always a joy to watch when playing opposite women and children, shows us an older, wiser, weathered (and compassionate as ever) Matt, who while on the trail of a killer, doesn't have to think twice when life presents him with a more pressing problem in the form of the young boy, who finds himself suddenly alone in the desert wilderness, without any family, and a group of hardened, soiled women in a predicament of their own after one of their group betrays them. Matt is in essence, the storyteller by virtue of being the sympathetic ear and moral guide to Amy, Willie, and to a lesser degree, Maggie. Shug Fisher rounds out the stellar guest cast with a nicely subdued performance as Maggie's employee/companion, Jed. This is easily one of the best late season episodes, but also one of the best of Gunsmoke's entire run.