On Encore Western Channel

[moira finnie]

"Cooter," from season one, based on a Sam Peckinpah script, directed by Robert Stevenson (of all people, he would go on to do "Mary Poppins") with Strother Martin as a simple minded guy is a real heartbreaker of an episode.

Here is the episode you mentioned, Mike, beginning below. I agree that a very youthful Strother gives the episode a poignant edge.

[youtube][/youtube]

Of the episodes shown over the weekend during the Marshall Dillon marathon, one called "Skid Row" caught my attention. Begun below, this show was directed by Ted Post and written by Gil Doud from a story by James Meston. The primary characters in the story are a lecherous, bestial bully named Groat (played by Gwinn "Big Boy" Williams) who is first seen in a remarkably intense street fight with Kitty and Chester (Amanda Blake was so feisty when she showed her righteous anger!).

The main part of the tale concerns a drunken farmer named Shomer whose failure as a homesteader has broken his spirit. He was played with realistic despair by Joseph Sargent, who is better known as one of Hollywood's most respected directors in the last four decades of the 20th century. His Eastern fiancee, the naive, sweet-natured Ann (Susan Morrow) arrives in town after Shomer completely stops writing to her. Not aware of his present sorry state, she is still concerned by his silence, and feels that she must come to him to help him build a life together, even though she has no idea where to find him. Doc, Matt, Chester and Kitty all pitch in to try to sober the man up before he sees Ann again, delaying their reunion by telling her that Shomer is a horse trader at present, away on business. The intersection of good intentions, shame, an inability to face life head-on, and an almost inevitable fate play out in several brief scenes with the regular characters realizing that they can only do so much to help those around them. As Matt says in the final scene, "it just wasn't there..."

[youtube][/youtube]

[MissGoddess]

Red, I'd love to hear what you have to say about your show.

I think I've seen the Strother episode but I'm not sure. I do know the "Skid Row" one well...it's very good. I love Kitty, she's such an incredible character and Blake is wonderful (I hope Encore corrects its misspelling of her name on its promo banners...they have it as "Blacke")

I enjoyed the "Marshal Dillon" epi that introduced a man from Kitty's past...her first love! Wow! I loved Matt's reactions. He was way more expressive in these early episodes.

[moira finnie]

I am simply DYING to comment on a show that's not a western. An inappropriate use of this thread, but a temptation nonetheless. May I?

Why not?! We all digress all over the place here, don't we? I'd love to see what you are longing to say, Red.

[RedRiver]

Thank you all for indulging me. MASH is a great favorite of mine. At its best, it represents some of TV's finest efforts. But the show cleared the shark in a single bound when all the bad guys left. Frank was replaced by pompous Charles Winchester. But Charles was no supporter of regular army ways. In many respects, he was "one of the guys."

Hot Lips Houlihan became simply Margaret, no longer a foil for boyish pranks and anti-establishment rhetoric. As her character changed, a nemesis was lost. From that point on, the conflict was between the people and THE WAR. War is a terrible thing, as the writers told us in increasingly less subtle terms. But it has no personality. It can't talk back. If Hawkeye has the first word AND the last, where's the wit?

This long running comedy survived the death of Col. Henry Blake, the off-season discharge of Trapper John McIntyre. If you want to see a great show go off track, tune in just after Frank leaves and Margaret grows up. Of course, the Korean War didn't last twelve years. That may have been the problem!

[moira finnie]

Those are good points, Red. I really couldn't say why, but seeing the show now is not much fun, so perhaps the lack of flesh and blood antagonists was part of the problem, as well as the length of the series. I have tried watching M*A*S*H in reruns and find that Hawkeye really grated on my nerves, along with several other characters. The casting of Harry Morgan and the antics of guest stars like Gwen Verdon and semi-regulars Alan Arbus as the psychiatrist and Edward Winter as Col. Flagg were much more enjoyable than the regular characters in later episodes for me. One particular show is among the most enjoyable--and one that holds up pretty well--is the episode when Col. Potter (Morgan) tries to run My Darling Clementine (1945), which he describes as his favorite Western. See, we did make this relevant to this thread!

Did you like the Robert Altman movie of M*A*S*H? I always felt sorry for Hot Lips (Sally Kellerman) in that one and was irked by the self-satisfied air of the leading men. Maybe I shouldn't have seen this movie as a kid on a double bill with Patton, huh?

[RedRiver]

I like Altman's film. But the TV show, for the first five seasons, appealed to me more. Less edgy perhaps. But wittier. I like the almost Marxian (Groucho, not Karl) repartee. The "Clementine" episode was a good one!