Doctor's Wife

An excellent, detailed review by Irrap that I won't repeat. One of the best episodes I've watched. Try to watch it if you can. Doc at his absolute best.

Another great review from kfo9494 i see! Awesome bc i feel no responsibility to write another review, there's already a wonderful one here! Now i get to simply comment! So i watch this episode bc it's soo FUN to ABHOR Jennifer May aka Phyllis Love irl. So i figure she must be a really terrific actress to make me HATE HER soo MUCH!! lol if her job was to make my skin crawl and blood boil, then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Anyway this is an annoyingly fun story. i loved hating every minute!

... but if you are a doctor's wife that may not be wise, especially if it is done at some other doctor's expense.

Doc invites a new doctor and his wife over for dinner and encourages them to consider settling in a small frontier town like Dodge rather than going to a larger place in Colorado. They decide to set up practice in Dodge itself, as it is a growing place and can probably accommodate two doctors. But the new doctor's wife is impatient, and she begins to rustle up customers by spreading rumors about Doc, saying that his hands are unsteady to people who are considering having surgery so that they won't go to Doc Adams.

But then a life and death case occurs and the doctor's wife tells a dreadful lie that just may cost her as well. To see what I mean by all this, watch and find out.

Doc Adams was probably the most centered character of the regular cast of Gunsmoke. Year after year, he has the patience of a saint. And he would need it in this particular episode. A standout episode that puts Milburn Stone's character Doc front and center for a welcome change.

To this point in the series there simply hasn't been a better episode than this one. It features the first classic argument between Doc and Festus, it exhibits Milburn Stone marvelously, and when Stone gets the spotlight he never fails to deliver the goods. It has tragedy, suspense and deliverance. And on top of that it's a tear-jerker in an uplifting way.

What can one say about the eponymous title character? She's a mighty hard lass to bowl out. The way she smiles after taking a bite of Doc's catfish stew makes you think she's an angel. In fact, I almost got the the impression she was sweet on Doc early on. Quite the contrary, alas. Turns out she's a ruthless striver who will happily destroy a good man and hasten another's death all so her hubby's medical practice will flourish post haste. But, just when you think she's Satan's handmaiden, she learns her lesson, expresses shame and becomes a better woman.

And the happy ending is welcome. In the hands of John Meston the young doctor would have died of his gunshot wound and his destitute, desolated wife would have wandered out of Dodge with a fractured psyche. There is absolutely a place for those sorts of tragic endings, but Gunsmoke fans also need to have a song in their heart on occasion. And this episode puts it there.

And here I thought this was going to be the standard sort of plot: New Doc and wife arrive in town, start nasty rumors about Doc Adams, stirring up the townsfolk about Doc's outdated methods, Doc's about to "pack it in" until he comes through at the end to show that HIS way is best, and all is forgiven. WRONG!! George Eckstein's teleplay is a multi-layered, insightful study of human nature, in all its good and bad traits.

There are MANY unexpected but welcome elements to the story:

1.) Doc Adams APPRECIATES the competition from the new Doc.

2.) Doc does everything he can to help make the new doc feel welcome.

3.) The new doctor (James Broderick) genuinely likes Doc and appreciates his assistance.

4.) It's the doc's wife Jenny (Phyllis Love) who---sorry, ladies---is an ambitious, dishonest, shrewish and petulant woman who initiates the problems, the last of which BACKFIRES on her.

5.) Except for this last incident, the problems created by Jenny really never amount to much. But Doc Adams rises above it all, and disabuses Jenny of her hope that there's money to be made as a doctor in Dodge City...then actually invites her to accompany him on his local calls so she can see for herself the squalor and poverty in which most of his patients live.

6.) Doc's relationship to his patients in Dodge is very realistic..they are difficult to please, opinionated, and stubborn; it's not all the rosy sort of attitude you'd expect from a standard TV show.

7.) The entire sequence of events at the Boake home (and its aftermath in town) is gritty, intense, and entirely believable. Very dramatic and imaginative writing.

Milburn Stone shines in every one of his big scenes...of which there are many. The TOTAL ACTOR....truthful and convincing in every word, gesture, and expression.

Even the "comic relief" scenes with Festus are expertly integrated into the script...they are hilarious, but TRUTHFUL..like real people would speak to one another. Eg: during a Long Branch discussion on: Why the Haggens All Live So Long.... DOC: "It's because they're too DUMB to know they're dead, that's why."

I watched the episode twice in a row just to see Milburn Stone do his thing. He was the best. LR.