Year:  1959
Genre:  Western, TV series
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  James Arness, Milburn Stone, Amanda Blake, Dennis Weaver, Ken Curtis
Creators:  John Meston, Norman MacDonnell
Run time:  8 hours 43 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I have figured out the morality that exists in Gunsmoke.  It took me a while to get a handle on it – five seasons, in point of fact.  Paramount Home Entertainment releases Season Five Volume One on DVD October 11^th, and it’s full of morality plays, all contained neatly in one episode at a time.  James Arness, as always, is the arbiter of that morality, never questioning a decision and apparently never making a wrong one.

     Here’s how it works (I think).  If you’re greedy, you die.  That is, if you murder for money or personal gain.  If you murder for a passionate reason, on the other hand, like the love of a woman, you get arrested and go to jail for a (presumably) long time.  If you rustle cattle, you die.  If, on the other hand, you steal horses, you usually just get beaten up and go to jail. 

     If you’re a woman, (see video above) you are protected at all times no matter how unpleasant you are.  If, on the other hand, you are a murderous woman, you are treated gently on your way to jail.  That applies even to the ugly serial killer sniper woman who murders her husband and tries to murder another man just so people might think men are fighting over her.  Marshall Matt Dillon handles her gently, because he knows she’s just a weak-hearted woman who doesn’t know any better.

     Season Five Volume Two is on the way before Christmas, and I’m sure it will feature more of the same.  Cattle rustlers will be shot, horse thieves will be caught, and more justice will come from the marshal’s pistol than from the hangman’s rope.  The jail in Dodge City will remain empty.  There’s never anyone in the jail, you’ll notice – they’re either shot and dead, or they didn’t do anything bad enough to warrant being locked up.  That’s the morality of Gunsmoke.

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