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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 439501" data-attributes="member: 57984">I&#039;ve really kind of GUNSMOKEd-out over the last few months -- three episodes per weekday, eight more on Sunday from this WEST station. That&#039;s 23 episodes per week! (No, I haven&#039;t been watching all of them). But the endless blur of installments forces one to acknowledge the inevitable formulaic aspects of the show; well-produced and creatively viable as it is, it can get pretty exhausting at this pace. (And the abbreviated narrative of the earliest, half-hour episodes just gets silly).But my affection for the very best episodes remains undaunted. And there are quite a few of them.Today, they aired &quot;Waste&quot;(parts 1 &amp; 2). Filmed in Utah in 1971 and helmed by the incomparable one-two punch of director Vincent McEveety and writer Jim Byrnes (who always deliver the best on-location episodes from the color seasons), with a majestically ethereal score, and lovely, arid scenery, &quot;Waste&quot; tells the story of a little boy (Johnny Whitaker, late of FAMILY AFFAIR, who&#039;s really quite heart-tuggingly good) whose grandfather is murdered by a nasty gold pirate (Jeremy Slate) whose gang robs prospectors of their yield.. Far from Dodge and trailing the thugs, Matt picks up the boy to go find the villains and the boy&#039;s absentee mother he barely remembers... Along the way, the marshal and the kid run across a wagon of saloon girls and their madam, Maggie Blaisdel (Ruth Roman, the first actor I ever guessed had a Scorpio Rising), carrying a stash of gold dust hidden in the fake bottom of that wagon... Turns out the boy&#039;s mom is one of the painted ladies (Ellen Burstyn, also Scorpio Rising) who doesn&#039;t want him.Dillon, the boy, and the women wind up in an old fort with the bad guys on the way.<img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmQxY2Q5Y2QtZjgyYi00NzE2LTliOGMtZDZmMDEyOWUxZGM4XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX582_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 434px" /><img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDY3MzY4MGEtNmQyZS00YzE1LWFiZjAtNGUyOTQ2NWM0OWFmXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 436px" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 439501, member: 57984"] I've really kind of GUNSMOKEd-out over the last few months -- three episodes per weekday, eight more on Sunday from this WEST station. That's 23 episodes per week! (No, I haven't been watching all of them). But the endless blur of installments forces one to acknowledge the inevitable formulaic aspects of the show; well-produced and creatively viable as it is, it can get pretty exhausting at this pace. (And the abbreviated narrative of the earliest, half-hour episodes just gets silly). But my affection for the very best episodes remains undaunted. And there are quite a few of them. Today, they aired "Waste"(parts 1 & 2). Filmed in Utah in 1971 and helmed by the incomparable one-two punch of director Vincent McEveety and writer Jim Byrnes (who always deliver the best on-location episodes from the color seasons), with a majestically ethereal score, and lovely, arid scenery, "Waste" tells the story of a little boy (Johnny Whitaker, late of FAMILY AFFAIR, who's really quite heart-tuggingly good) whose grandfather is murdered by a nasty gold pirate (Jeremy Slate) whose gang robs prospectors of their yield.. Far from Dodge and trailing the thugs, Matt picks up the boy to go find the villains and the boy's absentee mother he barely remembers... Along the way, the marshal and the kid run across a wagon of saloon girls and their madam, Maggie Blaisdel (Ruth Roman, the first actor I ever guessed had a [B]Scorpio Rising[/B]), carrying a stash of gold dust hidden in the fake bottom of that wagon... Turns out the boy's mom is one of the painted ladies (Ellen Burstyn, also [B]Scorpio Rising[/B]) who doesn't want him. Dillon, the boy, and the women wind up in an old fort with the bad guys on the way. [IMG width="434px"]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMmQxY2Q5Y2QtZjgyYi00NzE2LTliOGMtZDZmMDEyOWUxZGM4XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX582_.jpg[/IMG][IMG width="436px"]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDY3MzY4MGEtNmQyZS00YzE1LWFiZjAtNGUyOTQ2NWM0OWFmXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg[/IMG] [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?