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<blockquote data-quote="Snarky Oracle!" data-source="post: 444471" data-attributes="member: 57984">I just saw a Season 1 episode with future super-producer Aaron Spelling (who started out as an actor) playing a mentally-challenged guitar-strumming fellow, Weed Pendle, who keeps getting roughed-up, his instrument smashed and his mule disrespected with paint, some of the menacing thugs trying to hang him for a murder in which he wasn&#039;t involved.I guess for a late-&#039;50s western, topics like mental retardation and the white man&#039;s decimation of &quot;Indians&quot; and recurrent treaty breaking -- were progressive in nature. Today, all that doesn&#039;t quite read... The early, half-hour GUNSMOKEs, the series at its ratings peak, just tend to come off as self-conscious and posing, almost like unfinished rough-cuts, the endings forced and arbitrary. Made more obvious by the scripts&#039; attempts to make Marshal Dillon self-aware and introspective, Matt&#039;s brief, contemplative monologues something Jim Arness seemed to have some discomfort in playing.In the &#039;90s, the TVLAND cable network recurrently ran promos for GUNSMOKE referring to it as &quot;the classic Aaron Spelling western&quot; for years, although Spelling had nothing to do with the show other than his one episode appearance. And, apparently, no one ever told TVLAND of their error. Maybe I should have called somebody.<img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDJlYmJkMTAtYzZkOS00MjEzLWE3ZmUtZDFhMDQyNGVmMTA5XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,26,500,281_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 767px" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Snarky Oracle!, post: 444471, member: 57984"] I just saw a Season 1 episode with future super-producer Aaron Spelling (who started out as an actor) playing a mentally-challenged guitar-strumming fellow, Weed Pendle, who keeps getting roughed-up, his instrument smashed and his mule disrespected with paint, some of the menacing thugs trying to hang him for a murder in which he wasn't involved. I guess for a late-'50s western, topics like mental retardation and the white man's decimation of "Indians" and recurrent treaty breaking -- were progressive in nature. Today, all that doesn't quite read... The early, half-hour GUNSMOKEs, the series at its ratings peak, just tend to come off as self-conscious and posing, almost like unfinished rough-cuts, the endings forced and arbitrary. Made more obvious by the scripts' attempts to make Marshal Dillon self-aware and introspective, Matt's brief, contemplative monologues something Jim Arness seemed to have some discomfort in playing. In the '90s, the TVLAND cable network recurrently ran promos for GUNSMOKE referring to it as "the classic Aaron Spelling western" for years, although Spelling had nothing to do with the show other than his one episode appearance. And, apparently, no one ever told TVLAND of their error. Maybe I should have called somebody. [IMG width="767px"]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDJlYmJkMTAtYzZkOS00MjEzLWE3ZmUtZDFhMDQyNGVmMTA5XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,26,500,281_.jpg[/IMG] [/QUOTE]

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