Comanches Is Soft

I have always been a big Gunsmoke fan. My least favorite episodes were those that featured children and some of the "comedic" episodes.

I feel this is an exception. The duo of Burt Reynolds and Ken Curtis provide plenty of entertainment in this episode. Burt really shows his comedic abilities.

I hope everyone can enjoy this for what it is -- silly but fun.

It's a lovely religious/patriotic song recorded in 1950 by Ken Curtis (during his Sons of the Pioneers days), and...... well, lets just say that if you don't know Ken's legit, lyrical singing, you will be STUNNED; truly one of America's greatest popular singers of all time. (Try it on your friends: "Guess the singer"--- they won't believe it).

I was glad to hear Festus do some singing in this episode, a very charming "framing device", in which he's actually accompanied by Wilbur Hatch's wonderfully witty, bracing score (specially composed for this episode).

This episode is odd....there's TONS of fun dialogue exchanges, comic bits, inventive physical stuff, etc...but they seems to unfold at a SLOW-ish pace that makes the show feel like it's draggy and padded, when in fact it's really not. Scriptwriter Kathleen Hite never really seemed to get back in the groove of a couple of her great scripts from the 7th season, which are classics.

Luckily, there's SO MUCH good stuff between the very charming Ken Curtis and Burt Reynolds, that I'll watch this show again just to see them work together (Reynolds did a later interview in which he reveals just how much he respected and enjoyed Ken as an actor AND a person).

Lots of fun in the saloon, especially the dance/brawl scene; it's good to see big ol' Richard Reeves (and later Don Megowan) display their comic talents; both of them are very good.

There's SO MUCH packed into the plot of this 50-minute show, a real ROAD-TRIP romp for the 2 guys, along with Kathleen Nolan, whose role is cleverly written. When big Don Megowan shows up and our two heroes try to defend her honor, we find ourselves witnessing another wild and crazy episode that ALMOST becomes excessive in its goofiness (and there's also a pillow fight between Festus and Quint, plus the rough encounter with the 2 miscreant brothers, played by Dean Stanton and Rex Holman).

Then there's the final scene in Quint's blacksmith shop; I really didn't expect what happens in these final scenes, and I was left wondering if, in the long run, Hite's script and all of it's silly, 3-Stooges-like horseplay hadn't gone just a little too far. But, what the heck, it's a great change of pace and a wonderful showcase for 2 of TV's all-time greatest characters from TV's all-time greatest western. LR

PS-- If you want to hear Ken Curtis at his "legitimate" best as a singer, try the Have Gun Will Travel season 3 episode "Love's Young Dream", a really over-the-top, crude slapstick job until Ken charms the hell out of us near the end.

Not giving away any of the details about the show, I'll say this is a great episode!

It's nice to have a break from the serious episodes every now and then and this one most definitely stomps the romance/soap operaish episodes by a mile! There are some great episodes of gunsmoke that pull away from the regular expectations of a western, such as the episodes "Caleb" and "Abe Blocker" which are dramatic episodes but are the kind of drama a man can enjoy. The occasional comedy here and there is very welcome as far as I'm concerned.

Too bad some folks pulled down the overall rating to an "8". It absolutely deserves better than an eight. I think some sourpuss folks need to lighten up a bit. It would be good for them.

I gave it a 10. Perhaps it deserves more of a nine, but I want ahead and upped it to a ten.

The character of Festus changed a bit from this, one of his early appearances. He is more obnoxious here and I prefer what he became, more courageous, a bit less obnoxious, yet still a pain in the gluteus maximus to Doc. The humor is pretty broad here but Quint opens up a bit more than usual and the interplay with Festus works. If this had been real life, Festus would either be dead or in the hospital, but it says a lot about both actors that they succeeds here as a mild comedy duo. There are a few things said in fun near the end of the episode that could be offensive to women's groups, especially what a woman herself says regarding physical abuse. Some native Americans might be offended at times throughout, but it was still the era of the traditional Western and pretty much traditional everything, so wisecracks should be laughed off, given the relationship of the characters involved. Kathleen Nolan is here as the object of both men's affections, playing a more outgoing version of her character Kate McCoy from ABC's The Real McCoys show, which Nolan had left in 1962 after a contract dispute with Desilu Productions. Loved her on the McCoys and I like her here. Overall, a good episode that leans on the humorous side and shows some of Burt's flair for comedy.

This comedy episode came out just after Dennis Weaver (as the long-running, highly successful Chester character) was phased out of the series, and the show gave the character of Festus (Ken Curtis) a fulsome "introduction" with all the trimmings including a silly song he made up about himself and continued through this episode as a narrative. In contrast to Dennis Weaver's multi-shaded interpretation of the recently departed Chester, this is pure slapstick -- and Burt Reynolds is better at it here. Burt, with Kathy Nolan (recently of the highly successful "The Real McCoys" and on the way to "Broadside", the producers' fem answer to "McHale's Navy") and hilarious James Nusser as town-drunk-with-dignity Louie Pheeters, are the highlights of this one. To improve Festus's appeal the producers would soon have to make him a lot more like Chester, dropping the slapstick approach entirely and instead featuring the constant bantering relationship with Doc Adams (Milburn Stone) -- though, again, without the previous subtlety. With everything said, it was still about 300% better than the hopeless slapstick "comedies" the "Bonanza" series was putting out through the Sixties.