It is often said that all good things must end, and that sentiment certainly applies to one of the greatest television series in history, Gunsmoke. "The Sharecroppers" represents the final installment of the great series, but it did not have to be so.
The cancellation of Gunsmoke had nothing to do with the so-called Rural Purge when CBS summarily canceled several popular shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Mayberry R. F. D., Hee Haw, and others because the network powers thought the shows did not appeal to a younger demographic. The shows were still popular, but the audience for those shows was older and not what CBS wanted. The shows were replaced with more contemporary series targeted at younger audiences, including All In the Family, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H, and several detectives shows like Cannon, Kojak, and Barnaby Jones.
Fred Silverman had orchestrated the Rural Purge, and he originally intended Gunsmoke -- a show he personally disliked -- to be part of the massive cancellations, but Gunsmoke finished in the top five ratings for the 1971-72 season. It did not hurt that CBS Chief Executive William Paley also wanted to keep the show.
Gunsmoke had survived an announced cancellation after the twelfth season. It also managed to continue after the 1972 season. By 1975, Gunsmoke had endured. It still drew decent viewership, but in Season 20 the show had declined from its past place at the top or near the top of the ratings. There had been speculation the series might not return for a twenty-first season, but according to many people involved, CBS had approved planning for another season. There was even talk of Amanda Blake returning as Kitty Russell. Silverman was about to leave CBS for ABC, but one of his last acts at CBS was to cancel Gunsmoke and end its twenty-season run.
Unfortunately, no one associated with the series knew when they were producing episodes for Season 20 it would be the end of the show. Perhaps that is why the show ends rather unceremoniously with this particular episode.
An extremely lazy, shiftless man with one of those great Gunsmoke names Dibble Pugh lives on a farm in Crow Tree Valley with his son Abel and daughters Av Marie and Lailee. Pugh is the consummate procrastinator. He is the type of person always planning something, but he usually intends to start working the next day, or he lacks what he needs to get started.
The Pughs are sharecroppers. Linder Hogue owns the farm. He allows the Pughs to live there with the understanding they will improve the farm and raise crops. So far, Dibble has not lived up to his part of the arrangement.
In a moment straight out of Jack and the Beanstalk, Dibble sends Abel to Dodge City to buy a mule with money Av Marie had earned. (If he only had a good mule, Dibble could finally get started planting crops, or so he contends.) In Dodge, Abel encounters a con man named Rupert who "sells" Abel a mule. Unfortunately for everyone but Rupert, it is not just any mule; it is Ruth, Festus Haggen's mule. When Festus sees Abel slowly riding away on Ruth, he intervenes. Abel is acting under the understandable impression he is the rightful owner of the mule. In the ensuing tussle, Festus's gun is fired, and the shot hits Abel in the leg.
Abel is not seriously injured, but now he has no mule and cannot walk all the way back to Crow Tree Valley. Festus feels responsible for the accidental shooting and volunteers to take Abel home.
Once Festus and Abel arrive at the farm, Festus quickly finds himself in a dilemma, as Dibble plays on Festus's guilty conscience to convince him to stick around and do some plowing. Further complications arise when Av Marie uses Festus in a scheme to make her boyfriend Toby Hogue (Linder's son) jealous.
It should be no surprise this final episode features the usual strong cast that was a hallmark of the series. Victor French was an important part of the series during Season 20, as he starred in two episodes and directed five. French first appeared in Season 11's "Wishbone" episode and went on to guest star in another seventeen, including this one. He plays the slothful, mildly humorous Dibble Pugh in this story.
Canadian Actress Susanne Benton makes her only Gunsmoke appearance in this series finale as Av Marie Pugh. Benton's acting career was relatively short with only twenty-one appearances in various films and television shows.
Lisa Eilbacher portrays Lailee Pugh. This is her second Gunsmoke appearance. She had also appeared in Season 18's "Kimbro." Her most famous roles were as the character Casey Seeger in the film An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger and as the character Jenny Summers in Beverly Hills Cop with Eddie Murphy. She left the acting business in the mid-1990s.
Terry Williams plays the guitar-playing Abel Pugh. Williams was better known as a musician than an actor. He was a founding member of the band The First Edition, which included future superstar Kenny Rogers. In this story, the Abel Pugh character performs a song known as "The Riddle Song," an English folk song. Actress Ann-Margaret performs the same song in the 1961 Frank Capra film Pocketful of Miracles. It has been recorded by several artists.
Actor Jacques Aubuchon portrays Linder Hogue in this episode. Aubuchon appeared in a total of four Gunsmoke episodes, but prior to this role, his other appearances had been well back in the black-and-white era of the series. In fact, Aubuchon's first Gunsmoke participation was during Season 1's "The Guitar" which is one of the most memorable episodes of the series.
This is one of the earliest performances by actor Bruce Boxleitner. He plays the Toby Hogue character here. Boxleitner would go on to star alongside James Arness in the series How the West Was Won, and he played a key role in the made-for-television movie Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice.
Graham Jarvis makes his only Gunsmoke appearance as the conman known only as Rupert. Jarvis appeared in well over one hundred television shows and films during his prolific acting career.
It is fitting the final episode of the series primarily features Ken Curtis, because Curtis was not involved in any of the subsequent movie sequels because Curtis and the producers of the movies could never come to terms on a contract. This episode amounts to Curtis's (and Festus's) swan song with Gunsmoke. However, it is disappointing the series ends with such a weak story that gives the impression it was included more to fulfill the obligation for episodes than to actually entertain or provide meaningful content.
Throughout the history of the series, there are several plots where Festus tries to do something to help someone or feels obligated to aid someone and finds himself involved in a frustrating situation. This story mines the same vein as episodes like Season 16's "The Tycoon." There is nothing wrong with the premise, but this script meanders between a love story, a comedy, and throws in some drama in an attempt to provide meaning. One minute everyone is Festus's friend, and the next minute they are his enemy. Every time I see it, I keep wondering why Festus does not simply return to Dodge and leave this convoluted mess behind. (Of course, there would be no story if he did.)
I have been watching Gunsmoke my entire life. I have childhood memories of watching some of the later episodes when they first aired. For many years, a local television station in the area where I lived showed the color episodes after the late news every Saturday night. I can recall stations and networks that ran the thirty-minute episodes from 1955 to 1961 under the name "Marshal Dillon" at various points. (Note: I have seen online sources state the show originally aired under the name "Marshal Dillon" until 1961, but this is not accurate. The first-run episodes aired as "Gunsmoke," but CBS re-ran the thirty-minute episodes during prime time under the name "Marshal Dillon" from 1961 to 1964, and those episodes were later syndicated under the name "Marshal Dillon.")
I am grateful that many of the "classic television" networks have continued to broadcast the show. As of 2021, the TV Land network shows the color episodes. The INSP network runs both the thirty-minute and one-hour black-and-white episodes. The MeTV network airs the entire series from start to finish Monday through Saturday in one hour time slots with two thirty-minute episodes shown together during the broadcast of the shows from 1955 through 1961. Unfortunately, some of the episodes broadcast today have short segments removed by the networks to allow more commercials to be aired.
For many years, the one-hour black-and-white episodes were not shown anywhere. Many of my favorite episodes are included in those seasons. It is nice to see some of the networks airing episodes from those earlier one-hour seasons.
Based on the stories related in the movies that followed the end of the series, we know Matt Dillon eventually left Dodge City and his job as U. S. Marshal, but, as we often observed over the course of the series, it is often difficult for someone with a well-known reputation to escape that reputation.
In my opinion, none of the Gunsmoke movies were able to capture the excellence of the television series when it was at its best. There are episodes of the series that are as good as anything that has been broadcast on television. It would have been interesting to see what a twenty-first season would have included.
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