Gunsmoke (TV Series) Sunday Supplement (1958) User Reviews

Impossible

[darbski · 6/10 · 15 August 2017]

The acting was okay in this show, but it was unsatisfying, pointless, and untruthful. Were there writers who wanted to see the west before it was gone? Yes. could they get out there? Probably. If they were willing to work at it. There were several major and minor personalities who went to the frontier and the plains to see for themselves what was there. Most of them either had writers or scribes who would take down observations or thoughts, and some of it is documented. If you have the time, look it up. Just invest some of your own time in the quest, then imagine what it was like to travel in that time to see "The West".

The idea of stirring up a peaceful tribe of Native people for a cheap story is repugnant and I bet it was tried. It would have very difficult to upset the Pawnee in Kansas, because most of them were in Nebraska, or later(not much later) in Oklahoma. If any fools tried with Kiowa, Comanche, or Cheyenne, well imagine the worst thin possible and amplify it by four, at least. And they would have had it coming to them.

Now, the question was asked about Indian burials, upraised scaffolds, burials in trees, etc... The reasons varied a little from tribal group to group, but the common theme and belief was mostly to let the honored person's spirit be closer to the heavens, the stars, to their spirit animal, and to their spiritual ancestors. It is impossible for White people (like me) to understand what these ceremonial communications were blessed with and carried to their loved ones; sometimes whole villages would mourn an important person. It had nothing to do with earthly property. Sometimes, the most important person had very few possessions, because the truly most valued member would happily give away everything they had to those who were in need. The opposite of the greedy, avaricious beliefs we follow. Pawnee were among those who held these beliefs; so were Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, and other plains natives.

A Bit of Miscasting

[dougdoepke · 16 June 2011]

Two rather effete eastern writers (Weston & Klemperer) arrive in Dodge looking for story material and not much caring how they get it. When Pawnee burial ground is defiled, Little Hawk's band jumps reservation to get revenge. Now the marshal's mixed up with cavalry, Indians, and New York writers.

Good plot, but its effectiveness is undercut by Weston, in particular, whose buffoonish character is both too obvious and unconvincing for an adventurous writer. Nonetheless, there's good attention to detail, especially the burned out homestead; plus, a strong performance from Newton as the angry major. The ending again confirms a series staple—namely, that character counts. Arness was so good at putting that point across in subtle fashion.

(In passing—I wish the script had explained why the Pawnee mount their dead on raised platforms, exposed to the elements. I expect it would be an interesting explanation.)

Seen This Plot Before

[jamdifo · 5/10 · 5 March 2013]

This episode reminded me of the episode where it was about how far a photographer would go to get the perfect photo. He went too far by going on an Indian burial ground and got scalped. This episode is similar, but it deals with 2 writers and how far will they go to get a good story to bring back to New York. Again, they steal an item from an Indian burial ground, which in turn caused unnecessary bloodshed as it provoked the Indians to leave the reservation and fight. But instead of the writers getting killed, Dillon forces them to leave Dodge, basically saving their life. His reasoning was because they didn't know better. I think common sense tells you not to mess with burial grounds. I think the writers knew what they were doing as they were trying to cause a situation that would give a great story to write about, as evidenced earlier in this episode. They didn't care who died, they just wanted a story.

The photographer episode is so much better than this one. Dillon should have whooped the writer's behind.

An uneventful show

[kfo9494 · 4/10 · 29 June 2013]

In this little uneventful episode two dandy eastern writers come to Dodge to write some stories about the wild west. The only problem is that nothing is going on in Dodge. Everything is just too peaceful. They even try to to pay a cowboy to start trouble but nothing they do can make Dodge look like the wild west that their readers want to hear about in their Sunday papers.

One afternoon the writers come to a Indian burial ground and take a sacred statue from the grounds. The statue belongs to the dead son of Chief Little Hawk which could begin an Indian uprising resulting in many deaths.

This episode just did not have the interest others episodes possess. Nothing really captured the imagination or made for good viewing. With little action and a tired script, this was not the most entertaining episode.

A Case of Cultural Misappropriation

[wdavidreynolds · 5/10 · 27 January 2022]

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.