GUNSMOKE - DIRTY SALLY

HISTORICAL DATA
Orginally season 16, episodes 23 and 24
First broadcast: 1971

This was originally a two part story from the long running TV series, Gunsmoke and upon first broadcast it was entitled, Pike. I viewed it as an edited together TV movie that went by the title Gunsmoke: Dirty Sally.

The character of Dirty Sally, played wonderfully by veteran actress Jeanette Nolan dominates every scene she's in - indeed the character would get her own short lived spin-off series. In fact so endearing a character is she that these episodes are fan favourites even if Matt Dillion's part is basically reduced to several cameos in his own show. But who cares - it's Dirty Sally we want to see. And Gunsmoke would often excel with episodes based on its subsidiary characters.

Dirty Sally is a captivating creation - basically a female version of all those crotchety old timers the likes of Walter Brennan and Gabby Hayes often portrayed.

The story sees Dirty Sally finding a wounded outlaw whilst out scouring for old bottles, which she then sells to the owner of the general store in Dodge. Sally lives in a run-down shack ten miles outside of Dodge and she takes the injured outlaw there and nurses him back to health. The injured man's ex-partners who he double crossed are out looking for him and they are a bloodthirsty bunch.

The suspense builds up as the story progresses but the main emphasis is on Dirty Sally and Pike, the classic good bad guy. Mary comes to look upon him as the son she never had and Pike, grateful to the old woman for saving his life, comes to realise that the old woman gives him a sense of family; something he has never known.

An excellent story that shows why Gunsmoke was, until recently when beaten by The Simpsons, the longest running American TV series in history. Minor roles for most of the regular cast but the outlaw and the outcast carry things on nicely.

Well worth looking around for.