u/Tiger3311

Which Gunsmoke episodes do you really hate and why.

There's a number of them but two that come to mind are: "Never Pester Chester" (S3 ep10), and "Cholera" (S2 ep14).

In "Never Pester Chester" a big, mean, violent cow hick drag Chester nearly killing him just for asking him to stop harassing the ladies. This angers Matt, he throws him in jail until he finds out if Chester is going to die.

Chester pulls through of course, Dillon says he can't charge him and has to release him, but he gets a good ass beating before he rides off free to drag and assault his next victim (it wasn't even a good ass whipping, not even close).

I hate these stories where they claim no laws have been broken, like you can beat some poor person for no good reason within an inch of their life, then set free. The bad guy doesn't even lose a tooth.

I wonder if Arness ever complained that "man, you're really painting Marshal Dillon as a real asshole!" "the marshal would never, say, do, act like that".

The "Cholera" episode is really bad too, another example of "duh gee, my hands are tied, I can't charge him..." even though he catches the guy in the process of committing arson, admitting to it, then later following through with the crime; also confessing to kidnapping Doc, then let's the guy walk away, no punishment. Matt: "it's okay, he caused his son to die, the lord won't let him get away with it, it'll have to be enough for now" They all lived happily ever after, uh huh.

Which episodes do you really hate?

The episode Hack Prine from season 1 ep 26, I first thought the episode was set in a different town, Dodge looked different, then the Marshall's office was all different, the sign, front door, no pot belly stove, gun rack on a different wall, plus the side door is gone. The Long Branch is different too. Looks like James Arness is wearing a different hair piece too.

Looking into it I learned this was actually the pilot episode, interesting that they sneaked it into the middle of the season 1. Its a good enough episode, I guess maybe they thought it wasn't the right story to lead the series off with or something?

Back then did the networks even air pilot episodes?