The highlight of this episode is that Doc Adams is the star.
Kathleen Hite, John Meston, and Norman McDonald ruled the Gunsmoke writer's room during the first ten years, and their concept of an "adult Western" was that often all the good characters died, and nobody was happy. While the villains were usually killed off too, Matt Dillon avoided gunplay if possible, so a fair amount made it to jail.
Here we get a really dumb and depressing story that could have had a positive and happy ending. Mary (Jan Clayton) and her son Sully (Peter Brooks) are friends of Festus. He realizes they are very ill when he visits them, and calls on Doc.
Doc realizes that they have scurvy, and he gets Matt and Festus to help him round up vegetables and other foods with vitamin C, to help Mary and her son. So far it was a great story.
Unfortunately, because the "adult Western" crew was involved, they wrote Mary into not eating all the healthy foods that Doc brought over, because she wanted only her son to get healthy. This was really dumb, because Doc visited her several times and explained that the food was very important for their health.
As Mary refuses to eat the good foods, her health continues to decline, with predictable and unnecessary results. This should have been a triumph of medicine by Doc Adams, but Kathleen Hite, the writer, robbed Doc of his victory.
Into the mix comes Adrew Duggan, as some old friend of Doc Adams. He used to be a doctor too, but went looking for gold and got rich. Now he feels sorry for himself, because he wishes he had faith in himself and continued to be a doctor. So sad. The violins are out for sad little rich man.
It turns out his partner was Mary's husband, so he goes out to meet her just in time to witness her death. Unhappy trails thanks to the "adult Western" writing crew. Fortunately, their reign on Gunsmoke was about to end, and happier times were coming to Dodge City.
Kathleen Hite, John Meston, and Norman McDonald ruled the Gunsmoke writer's room during the first ten years, and their concept of an "adult Western" was that often all the good characters died, and nobody was happy. While the villains were usually killed off too, Matt Dillon avoided gunplay if possible, so a fair amount made it to jail.
Here we get a really dumb and depressing story that could have had a positive and happy ending. Mary (Jan Clayton) and her son Sully (Peter Brooks) are friends of Festus. He realizes they are very ill when he visits them, and calls on Doc.
Doc realizes that they have scurvy, and he gets Matt and Festus to help him round up vegetables and other foods with vitamin C, to help Mary and her son. So far it was a great story.
Unfortunately, because the "adult Western" crew was involved, they wrote Mary into not eating all the healthy foods that Doc brought over, because she wanted only her son to get healthy. This was really dumb, because Doc visited her several times and explained that the food was very important for their health.
As Mary refuses to eat the good foods, her health continues to decline, with predictable and unnecessary results. This should have been a triumph of medicine by Doc Adams, but Kathleen Hite, the writer, robbed Doc of his victory.
Into the mix comes Adrew Duggan, as some old friend of Doc Adams. He used to be a doctor too, but went looking for gold and got rich. Now he feels sorry for himself, because he wishes he had faith in himself and continued to be a doctor. So sad. The violins are out for sad little rich man.
It turns out his partner was Mary's husband, so he goes out to meet her just in time to witness her death. Unhappy trails thanks to the "adult Western" writing crew. Fortunately, their reign on Gunsmoke was about to end, and happier times were coming to Dodge City.