Untitled EpisodeBreakDown Gunsmoke 55-64: 2.5 Episodes 9 & 10 The Mistake & Greater Love

In The Mistake, Dodge City is shaken when Earl Haney, the new Faro Banker, is found unconscious behind the Long Branch, pulling Marshal Matt Dillon into a fast-moving investigation. A witness description points toward Jim Bostick, but Chester questions whether the evidence is enough to act on. As Matt follows leads, conflicting alibis surface and the case extends toward Coldwater, where new testimony both supports and complicates the suspect’s trail. Pressure rises as Matt moves toward a risky trap, and certainty begins to fracture as new developments threaten to overturn what he thought he knew.

In Greater Love, Matt Dillon reflects on quiet days in Dodge City before a stage arrival brings news of a robbery gone wrong, pulling him, Doc Adams, and Chester Goode into a tense investigation. At the Brant homestead, a dying man and desperate circumstances reveal conflicting accounts that deepen suspicion around Jed Butler and Rod Blake. When Doc becomes separated from Dodge and drawn into remote cabin situation, tensions escalate into a standoff where loyalty, fear, and survival collide. Matt must navigate fragile truths as situation edges toward a moral breaking point, leaving uncertain what choices will define the outcome.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to Breakdown Gunsmoke, where we're diving deep into classic TV legendary western. We're covering two episodes each time because we're just crazy for gunsmoke. I'm Jennifer Packer, your guide and fan of all things Dodge City.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

I'm Steve Latch, director of the Museum of Western Film History in Low Pine, California, and a lifelong fan of Gunsmoke. In each episode, we're gonna explore plots, characters, and themes that made this TV show a legend. Plus, we'll share some fun facts and angles you might not have noticed before.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

For season two, we're keeping our format, but tightening things up a bit, we'll give you story themes, arcs, and a special Dodge City character moment from each episode. So buckle up, we're heading back to Dodge. First up, we're covering The Mistake, which aired November 24th, 1956. We have a Boot Hill opener. Matt Dylan opens in a reflective mood, walking through Boot Hill and thinking about how different real Frontier Law is compared to the polished versions people back east like to imagine. That idea of clean justice versus messy reality becomes the backbone of the whole story. The story opens with a gentle scene between Kitty and Matt as she comes back from riding alone, and then things start to unravel when Chester reports that Earl Haney, the new pharaoh banker at the Long Branch, has been found badly beaten. Haney is still alive long enough to give Matt a description of his attacker, a man wearing a red shirt with black hair and a mustache. The description quickly points Matt towards Jim Bostick. When Matt confronts him, Bostick insists he was at an all night card game and only left briefly due to stomach cramps, claiming he went to Doc Adams for help. But before anything can be settled, Haney dies and Matt arrests Bostick based on the identification and timing. The case escalates when Bostick later holds up Chester and escapes town, heading toward Coldwater. Chester is uneasy about the lack of solid proof, but Matt presses on, convinced that flight equals guilt. On the trail they gather a partial witness sighting, and Matt continues the pursuit despite growing uncertainty. Eventually they lose the trail overnight and Matt sets a trap using Bostick's horse. When Bostick returns, he draws first, and Matt shoots him in the shoulder, bringing him back to Dodge in custody. Just when the case seems closed, Doc Adam returns and confirms the critical missing piece. Bostick really was in his office during the time of the murder, and in fact another man, Ken Scholes, has since been killed. That confirmation collapses the case against Bostick completely, and Matt releases him, realizing his error. Doc Adam consoles Matt, noticing that anyone can make a mistake, but it's a but it's rare for someone to admit it honestly. My general afterthoughts, this episode highlights the tension between frontier justice and uncertainty, showing how easily circumstantial evidence can lead to a wrongful arrest. Matt's pursuit of certainty exposes the risk of judgment under pressure, but also his willingness to confront error without losing integrity, still gripping even after repeated viewings.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, I'd say the first question I have about this is uh Bostick was in an all-fired hurry to get to Coldwater, had to do it by the next day. Like it was very important, and that's why he broke out of jail. But they never really addressed what it was that was so important. Not that it matters, but I was just really curious what what is what's going on in Coldwater that he has to be there, you know, that the very next day. Um first of all, the first thing that caught my eye was the great new look for Kitty, the r the riding skirt and the hat that she had on. I thought that was that was a neat outfit, something different from what she normally uh wears. Um this just reminded me that Mike Connors was good at anything. He could play very deep, complex characters. And I I appreciated the fact that this was another episode that wasn't afraid to show that Matt is flawed and can make mistakes.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

My Dodge moment is gonna focus on that scene between Matt and Kitty. It's just a gentle scene between the two of them trying to catch up, and that he's like, You went riding alone. Well, yeah, I'd like to do that. You should come with me sometime. What? Ride for fun, for pleasure? You know, and so they're joking with each other, and it's just a nice little moment that kind of gives you a little bit more insight into their relationship, which you don't get to see in the broader spectrum compared to today's TV shows. So it was a nice little moment. That's my Dodge moment, Kitty and Matt.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Well, let's dig into the uh the themes uh for the mistake. Some that stand out here are fallibility of justice. This episode shows how easily law enforcement can misread circumstantial evidence and build a case that feels right but is wrong. And truth versus appearance, what looked like guilt, flight, matching description, timing, is not the same thing as factual guilt.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

We also see some themes about moral responsibility in authority. Matt's role highlights the burden of making decisions that can permanently affect or end an innocent life. Then there's the limits of frontier certainty. In a world without full forensic clarity, justice is often based on incomplete and shifting information or just simply the word of someone. For the character arcs, Jim Bostick shifts from suspect and fugitive to vindicated man, revealing how quickly perception can override truth in Dodge Justice. And Doc Adams, he serves as the grounding voice of reason, ultimately confirming the alibi and reinforcing accountability without condemnation.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

In this episode, Matt Dillon moves from confidence in his deduction to uncomfortable self-reckoning as he realizes he nearly convicted and killed an innocent man. And Chester acts as the moral caution throughout, consistently questioning the strength of the evidence and the speed of Matt's conclusions.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

For the guest cast of the mistake, we have Mike Connors as Jim Bostick. He lived from July 1925 to January 2017. He was active from the 1950s to the 2000s, best known for starring roles in Mannix from 67 to 75, and film appearances in Sudden Fear, 1952, and Swamp Women in 1955.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Yes, when when Connors did this episode of Gunsmoke, he was working a lot in his Touch Connors phase, and he hated that name, Touch Connors. But he was working a lot for Roger Corman during this time in American International Pictures, and his films for that group in this era included The Day the World Ended, where he played the heavy, Oklahoma Woman, The Flesh in the Spur, another Western, Shake Rattle and Rock, Voodoo Woman, and Suicide Battalion. He rose to TV stardom in the 60s in Tight Rope, which was followed by his successful run as Mannix. One of his greatest performances was in the comedy Situation Hopeless But Not Serious, where he and Robert Redford played downed American Flyers in World War II, held prisoner by lonely German air raid warden Alec Guinness, and he keeps them in his basement well past the end of the war. I haven't seen that, but I'm gonna have to seek that out. As good, he was always as good a villain as he was as a leading man. Very, very versatile actor.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Next we have Gene O'Donnell as Earl Haney. He lived from February 1911 to November 1992. He began his career in 1939 and did a lot of small and bit parts in films, including The Ape with Boris Carloff, The Mad Ghoul with George Zucko, Action in the North Atlantic with Humphrey Bogart, and Keep Em Flying, and It Ain't Hey with Abbott and Costello. He worked steadily throughout the 50s to the early 70s in television.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Gene's last two credits were two episodes of the Rod Serling TV series Night Gallery in 1971.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Again, we have Cyril Delavante as the hearse driver. He lived from 1889 to 1975, an English-American actor from the 30s to the 70s, known for roles in The Night of the Hunter, 1955, The Twilight Zone Night Call episode in 64, and House of Wax in 53.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

I love seeing this guy in movies and TV shows in the 60s and 70s, and some of his most famous movies that I've seen, some in the theaters, included Soylent Green, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and Mary Poppins for Disney, and the truly memorable made-for-TV horror movie Crowhaven Farm, which he appeared in with John Carradine.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

And then we have some smaller bit players that a little hard to find some information on. We have Robert Hinkle as the writer, Bert Rumsey as Sam, and Fred Carson as the bartender.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

Well, I did a little more digging on these guys. And we've got some real cowboys in this business. I I guess that's the first thing I should say. Robert Hinkel was born in 1930. He was a real cowboy. He started his career in rodeo, and he worked steadily as a stunt man and actor into the mid-60s. And he he just passed away on March 3rd of this year. So this is a this is a tough old guy. Well into his 90s. Bert Ramsey was born in 1892. He worked constantly in TV and did 76 Gunsmoke episodes before passing away in 1968. Fred Carson was another real cowboy who started in rodeo. His first film was a Monte Hale Western for Republic called Under Colorado Skies, and he worked steadily as a stuntman and actor up to 1980. He passed away in 2001.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Again, we have Charles King as man sitting in chair. He lived from January 1895 to January 1957. He was active from the silent era through the 1950s, known for Western roles in stagecoach, 1939, the Oxbow Incident, 1943, and High Noon, 1952.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Charlie actually had a parallel career as one of the most famous B Western and serial heavies in movie history. He, for the lower budget companies like Monogram and PRC, he worked in Columbia. He worked constantly uh as a heavy. And um, by 1956, the B Westerns and the serials were long gone, but the folks at Gunsmoke kept Charlie working. And as I've said before, legend has it, he literally died in the saddle, dying on the set of Gunsmoke.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Screenplay by Gil Dowd, story by John Meston, directed by Andrew V. McLachlan, produced by Charles Marky Warren, and associate producer Norman McDonnell. A little behind the scenes trivia, Pharaoh, um it's usually spelled F-A-R-O, sometimes called Pharaon with a pH, is a fast-paced gambling card game that was especially popular from the 18th through the 20th centuries, particularly in European casinos and American frontier saloons. It is played with a standard 52 card deck and revolves around betting on which ranks will appear as the dealer turns over cards from a dealing box. Unlike poker style comparisons between players, Pharaoh is a banker versus players game. Participants place wagers on a layout showing of all 13 card ranks, typically represented by a single suit. Each round reveals two cards. One is designated the losing card for that turn, and the other the winning card. Players win or lose based on whether their chosen rank matches the outcome with payouts, usually even money. One unique feature is the ability to copper a bet, reversing its meaning so it wins when it would normally lose. The game proceeds quickly through the deck in repeated turns, making it highly dynamic and easy to follow. Pharaoh was widely played in the American West, especially in gambling halls and saloons where it became a staple of frontier culture. It was popular not only because of its speed and simplicity, but also because it offered relatively favorable odds and compared to many other gambling games of the era. Over time, concerns about cheating and rigged dealing boxes contributed to its decline, and it was eventually overtaken in popularity by poker. Anyone listening knows more about it or plays it, send us a message.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Another quick look at the locations for this episode. They use the uh Melody Ranch Dodge Street for day exteriors. They also use the Melody Ranch, I call it Woods Trail. It's a it there's a field and there's woods and hills, and it's on the Melody Ranch property, and that's that's what they use for this episode. And then they also use their interior green stage, which was a stage set that had uh fake plants on it, and they use that for the nighttime scenes in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

And now let's take a break from the long branch for a moment and take a short ride into something special.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

The Lone Pine Film Festival is coming up this October 8th and 11th. Our festival is set in the iconic Alabama hills beneath Mount Whitney, and we bring classic westerns and other films uh back to the very landscapes where they were filmed. There's screenings, we have special celebrity guests. We take people on location tours where the movies were actually filmed, and you get to hear all kinds of cinematic war stories about how the movies were made. Uh again, that's October 8th through the 11th this year, and you can learn more about it at the Museum of Western Film History and Lone Pine Film Festival websites this year. Our theme is Mixing the Herd, a corral of movie genres. And what that means is we're sort of mashing up westerns with other genres. Some of the films we've got Roadhouse, which is a modern-day Western that replaces horses with monster trucks. Kelly Lynch starred in that movie with Patrick Swayze, and she will be joining us as our guest at the festival. We're running Sunset, which has James Garner as Wyatt Earp and Bruce Willis' Tom Mix. That one's a Western, a comedy, a mystery, and a Hollywood biopic. And the female lead that in that movie is Mary Elle Hemingway, and she'll be joining us as well. We're also going to be screening Shanghai New with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson, which mixes westerns and martial arts. Seven Faces of Dr. Lau with Tony Randall, which mixes westerns and fantasy, and Valley of the Guanji, which is cowboys and dinosaurs. So check it out, the Lone Pine Film Festival, October 8th through the 11th.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

If your get up and go has wandered off, Josh Serious Coffee's Dark Roast Mushroom Blend will bring it riding back fast. Fold taste, clean energy, none of that sluggish feeling later. Just a good, honest cup that keeps you going. Brew it hot in the morning, ice what's left for the afternoon. Find it at joshseriouscoffee.com before the pot runs dry. Chester approved. And back to the long branch we go. Our next episode, Greater Love, aired December 1st, 1956. In this episode of Gunsmoke, Matt Dillon is at Boot Hill reflecting on loneliness in life and death, and how some men are fortunate enough to have real friendship, which what it is worth and what it sometimes costs. Back in Dodge, Matt is dozing in his chair while Chester brings coffee out to Front Street. They joke about how quiet things are when everyone behaves, just as Doc arrives and teases them about earning money for doing nothing. Beneath the humor, Doc admits he is restless and considering leaving Dodge. Matt tries to keep him from going, even joking about calling a town meeting to raise money to keep him there. Their conversation is interrupted when a stagecoach arrives with news of robbery, of a robbery gone wrong, one man dead and two others shot. Matt, Doc, and Chester go to investigate, traveling to the Brandt farm. There they meet Mrs. Brandt, and Doc tends to her dying husband, Howard, who identifies Jed Butler and Rod Blake as connected to the holdup. Mrs. Brandt confirms the desperation of their situation, and it becomes clear there is no money for proper arrangements. Soon after, Matt learns Mrs. Brandt has brought her husband's body into town, but Doc has gone missing. Matt follows leads provided by Tobiel, who directs him to a remote cabin. There Doc is being held by Jed Butler while caring for a wounded man. A tense standoff develops as Matt and Tobiel position themselves while Jed struggles with whether to trust Matt's intentions. When the wounded man dies, the confrontation shifts. Instead of violence, Doc's presence and loyalty become the turning point. He quotes, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Which is John 15, 13, grounding the moment in moral conviction. Jed, shaken by the idea of such loyalty between Matt and Doc, lowers his weapon, realizing he has never known anything like it. Matt reflects simply that maybe they are all a little crazy, and the tension dissolves into uneasy understanding. My general afterthoughts for this episode is the scenario is kind of familiar, but it's still gripping. The face-off between Matt and Jed is still pretty intense, but did you notice the dolly-in on that sequence? We have a reuse of the name Mrs. Brandt, used recently but only stands out to to, you know, we frequent viewers. I love the accurate use of the Bible verse quoted, and the depth of their friendship between Matt and Doc is explored. Doc needs Matt, and Matt needs Doc.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yes, I did see the Dolly shot on that, and we can thank Ted Post for that, who directed this episode. And again, Ted was really the go-to guy if he wanted to do pilots. You wanted to have a good pilot to start off your series. A fabulous director. Uh first of all, I I couldn't stop laughing at the opening bit with uh Doc, Matt, and Chester. Very tense ending with Claude Aikens, and it shows you what a great actor he is that he took this tiny little part. As we say in the business, he made a meal out of it. So the Dodge moment this episode for me it has to be that that opening with you know, Matt on the porch, Chester on the porch, and then Dogs in a in a having a tizzy fit, and he shows up and goes on a rant. And the three of them are just trading off lines back and forth. It's like a beautifully written and timed comedy routine. And these actors were familiar with themselves at this point. They obviously it's well rehearsed, and they're all firing on on A-cylinders, and it's just so funny, and just the the interplay between the three of them is just priceless. This is a classic. If I was gonna show anybody, based on first and second season, if I was gonna show anybody uh a a great riff on Dodge moments, this would be the scene. So, themes in this episode. Key themes in this episode include greater love and sacrifice. The episode centers on the idea that true friendship is proven through self-risk, not words. And that's framed explicitly through through John 15, 13. Also, moral force of loyalty. Loyalty becomes a stabilizing force that overrides violence, fear, and self-interest in the finale.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

We also see undercurrents of value of human connection. Doc's possible departure highlights how deeply the town depends on personal bonds, even when they are rarely spoken aloud. We also have redemption through witness. Even a hardened outlaw figure is momentarily opened to change when confronted with genuine selfless loyalty. For the character arcs, Matt moves from everyday authority figure to emotional participant, revealing how deeply Doc's presence matters beyond professional duty. And for Doc Adams, transitions from restlessness and desire to leave Dodge to reaffirmed purpose through direct confrontation with sacrifice and friendship.

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Jedler shifts from control and suspicion. To reluctant self-awareness, and he's ultimately disarmed not by force, but by witnessing loyalty he himself has never experienced. Chester functions as a grounding presence in the opening, reinforcing normalcy and community before the story escalates into crisis and moral testing.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

For our guest cast, we have Frank De Kova as Tobillo. He lived from March 1910 to October 1981, an American film and television actor, active from the 50s to the 80s, known for supporting roles in the Manchurian Candidate in 62, F-Troop TV series, the Wild West TV series, and Gunsmoke. He often played ethnic character roles and authority figures in Westerns and adventure series.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yeah, I think Frank was one of the regulars on F-Troop, and he kind of became the standard bearer for the somewhat absurdity of non-Native Americans playing Native Americans in 60s TV. You'll saw that a lot on shows like F-Troop and certainly Daniel Boone. He also specialized in playing mafia guys on screen. He did that a lot as well. His movies included Follow That Dream with Elvis, Day of the Outlaw, a really terrific brutal western with Robert Ryan, Roger Corman's Teenage Caveman. That actually is a real movie. Robert Vaughn plays the Teenage Caveman. The Ten Commandments he was in, Shack Out on 101 with Lee Marvin, and he was also in The Man from Laramie, which is my personal favorite Jimmy Stewart Western.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

We again have Amsey Strickland as Mrs. Brandt. She lived from January 1919 to July 2006. She was active from the 1950s to the 1990s, known for roles in the fugitive TV series, Little House on the Prairie, in the Heat of the Night TV series, and Gunsmoke. She frequently played warm, grounded supporting characters in a dramatic series.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

She worked constantly. Some of her later TV series work included E. R., Seventh Heaven, Dr. Quinn, Roseanne, Wings, and St. Elsewhere. And later movies she appeared in included Doc Hollywood and Pretty Woman.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Again, we have Claude Aikens as Jed Butler. He lived from May 1926 to January 1994. He was active from the 50s to the 90s, known for Rio Bravo, 1959, The Killers, 1964, Night Stalker TV, and Moving On TV shows. He was widely recognized for tough, authoritative, or antagonistic roles in Westerns and crime drama.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Yeah, Akins was another character actor who also had serious star presence, star power. He fought in World War II in Burma and the Philippines, and he later appeared in three episodes of the World War II series, TV series Combat. And he was so popular on that show that the last two episodes he did were two different episodes, playing two different characters in the same season. And that never happened on TV. He later also starred in the TV series BJ and the Bear, which was later renamed The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo, after his characters. So he he he worked a lot.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

See, I didn't realize that BJ and the Bear was renamed. We also have Ray Bennett as Hank. He lived from October 1895 to May 1961. He was a British-born American film and TV actor. He worked from the 20s to the 60s. He was known for supporting roles in Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Lone Ranger, and numerous Western films. He often portrayed townsmen, ranchers, or minor authority figures in frontier settings.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Yeah, uh Ray had a very tough life. He started acting in stock theater and managed to sneak his way into movies as a stunt man. He specialized frequently in his early career as hard-bitten desperados or a assordid, sneaky henchman. And he occasionally would get to play the lead villain in a Western for Republic or Monogram. But those were the low budget companies, and the paychecks were not big for contract players like Ray. As an example, in 1939, he only worked six weeks the entire year and earned a paltry twelve hundred and fifty dollars for the entire year, which was not good money even in those days. He never married, and sadly he died from a long-standing heart affliction in December of 1957, at the age of 62, not too far after um after this episode was uh was filmed, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

We also have Ray Bennett as Hank. He lived from October 1895 to December 1957. We have a story by John Meston, screenplay by Winston Miller, directed by Ted Post, produced by Charles Markey Warren, and associate producer Norman McDonnell. A little behind the scenes, I think the episode uh is really about medical ethics under pressure, so frontier medicine versus Doc Adams. The figure of the traveling doctor or frontier physician is a long-standing Western trope rooted in real 19th century conditions. In many frontier towns, medical care was inconsistent, so doctors often functioned as itinerant professionals or semi-permanent residents, working without hospitals, formal backup, or even reliable supplies. This created a narrative space where medicine and morality often collided. Doctors weren't just healers, but witnesses to violence, poverty, and lawlessness in real time. In Western storytelling, the doctor frequently becomes a moral anchor character. Unlike lawmen who respond with force, the doctor responds with care. Even when that care is extended to criminals or morally ambiguous figures. That tension is central in this episode. Doc Adams treating a wounded man while being held under threat. So the frontier doctor under pressure idea appears across westerns and frontier dramas. We have Shane, the wounded gunfighter, and the homestead doctor figure both reinforce the idea of care existing inside the violent frontier systems. The movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, the features civic order versus frontier violence, with professionals, including medical and legal figures, trying to stabilize an unstable world. In Stagecoach, this includes Doc Boone, a drunk but competent frontier doctor who still becomes essential under crisis conditions. And then in high noon, while not centered on a doctor, it reinforces the isolated town under pressure structure where civic roles, martial, doctor, and civilians, are morally tested. For Gunsmoke, the show consistently used Doc Adams as more than a medical figure. He's a bridge between law, morality, and vulnerability. And in this episode, that trope is pushed further because he is literally placed inside the conflict, not just responding to it.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

And you know, and you you you mentioned uh stagecoach and the the Doc Boone character, you know, a drunk a drunk that has to sober up to to deliver a baby. And that ended up getting used in so many westerns, uh, where you'd have the drunken doctor that kind of gets his gets his stuff together to to save the day. And and it's uh that became a that was a great series of scenes in stagecoach that became a very well known uh uh Western trope. And um there were there've been a there was an entire T V series about Frontier Doctors uh called Frontier Doctor with Rex Allen, but it's very good. It's it's he in every episode it's always a medical issue, but it turns into something else. But uh this whole thing spawned spawned at. So I want to talk a little bit about Outlaw Psychology and and Claude Aikens. Um Claude has one scene in this film as j as Jed Butler, and it's at the end. Now the other characters have been talking about him for the entire episode. And I I wrote a a f a couple of films for uh an actor named Michael Dudakoff, and I was I was warned early on, and then I when I met with Michael, we had this conversation, and Michael said, Here's what I like. I like I I don't like to talk about myself. I like I like the other characters to talk about me before I show up in the movie and kind of set up my character, and then I arrive. And based on that, I wrote it, and this is what they did here. You get a great preview of Claude because um they talk about him the entire episode, and you learn early on that he's had a he's a very persuasive figure, that he's a very frightening figure, uh, he frightened the the husband that that is the coward that dies. And so he's set up so that you you know you're gonna see something special when he finally does show up at the end. But this is difficult, and I'm speaking from a filmmaking standpoint, this is difficult for a director to pull off, it's difficult for an actor to pull off because the pressure's on. You know, they spent the first two-thirds of the episode building up this character, and then you, Claude Aikens, have to show up on set. You have literally one scene in this episode, and you've got to live up to those expectations. That's difficult enough. But let's take it a step further. In a typical Western movie or TV show, this confrontation between Matt and Doc and Jed would have eventually ended in in gunplay. In other words, you know, the the villain gets matter and matter, there's a tenth standoff, and then somebody's gonna get killed. That's how it's gonna end. I mean, it just it cannot end any way else. But this does. This is uh a scene where where deep down, Jed is so moved and overwhelmed by the fact that both Doc and Matt are willing to sacrifice themselves to save the other one that it stops him in his tracks. And once I realized watching this that that's what they were doing, I thought, wow, what a difficult choice. What a challenge this must have been for the actor and also for the director, because you read this on paper and you're thinking, nobody's gonna buy this, nobody's gonna in the audience is gonna buy the fact that they were basically able to talk him down from this. Because he comes in, you first see him, he's at a such a high level, and yet they do. And the actors on on the set, particularly Aikens, they pull it off and you absolutely believe that it happened. And I was really impressed and surprised with this.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

You know, I wonder if the um both of us have like a filmmaking background, even though you did it. I just studied it, but I did. I worked on other people's projects. I have my thesis film, but it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:29

That's how we all start working on other I'll have a funny story to tell you about that off camera.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

You know, we both have elements of both that we bring to our discussion.

SPEAKER_00 33:40

Absolutely, absolutely. I'm working with a peer. Well, thank you. So, some very interesting location work about this and a a place that anybody who's in Los Angeles can go and see an actual standing set from this episode of Gunsmoke. We we we uh we saw um the exterior Dodge Street on this on and also the the Dodge Street on the soundstage, and we they use the Melody Ranch Woods and uh Ranch House, but at the end of the episode, the cabin where they find Jed Butler, that is the Walker Ranch Cabin. And it still exists. It looks just like it did in this episode. The same stone fireplace, the same wood, the same porch. And on the inside, on days that it's open, there's a mini museum that has artifacts from all the filming that was done in Walker Ranch because Walker Ranch was heavily used in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Johnny Mac Brown did a lot of films there. Monogram did a lot of films back there. The TV series Justified did an episode at the Walker Ranch cabin. But the cabin is still standing. You can get to it, you go, you take Placerita Canyon, and then there's a turn-off, and you go down and it's it's right there. And it looks the same. As soon as I saw them riding the horses down behind the cabin, though that's the trail that you can walk down now, the trail down from Placerita Canyon Road. And they they ride around to the back, and I was astounded to see it. So this is an actual gunsmoke location that's about 25 miles outside of town that you can go to, and it's it's a park now. So it's very neat.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

It's nice to know something's still standing in this town. Well, thanks for joining us for this double feature Breakdown Guns Month. If you like this podcast, please subscribe and tell a friend right now. Word mouth keeps show us like this crowd.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

If you have memories and questions, your favorite gunsmoke, please send them our way we might feature them in a future episode.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

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SPEAKER_00 36:34

So until next time, keep your boots on the ground and your stick shooter at your side.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

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