Gunsmoke (TV Series) Love Thy Neighbor (1961) User Reviews

No winners - and all over a sack of potatoes.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 24 September 2013]

In a rather sad episode we are introduced to two families, the Galloway's and the Scooper's. By the time the episode ends both families will have a plateful of heartache that no one wishes on someone else.

It begins when Leroy Galloway and his son, Jep, catch a 12 year old boy named Peter Scooper with a sack of potatoes. The boy claims that an older man gave him the sack but the Galloway's believe he is lying.

During the brief struggle to get away Pete cut his leg on a barbed-wire fence which will later lead to blood poisoning and finally to the death of the 12 year old. Now an outright feud is going on between the father and son of the Galloway's and the father and last son of the Scooper's. When the credits roll, at the end of this episode, no one is a winner.

A unique type episode that was entertaining, even if unfortunate, from beginning to end. A nice set of actors brings the tragic story to life as we are placed right into a feud where sadness is the only emotion that will rise to the surface. Even with the melancholy story, it provided a nice watch for viewers and hopefully a lesson learned.

Not Completely Predictable.

[tomeads44 · 9/10 · 16 January 2021]

It's great to watch the character actors of old! My sole purpose of watching all the half hour episodes in order is to have a nice look back at the mostly dead and gone character actors from back in the day. Without giving away any spoilers this particular episode is one of my favorites because of the great cast. They're all good in this and you should enjoy it very much even if it is a little predictable, but then again there is a bit of a twist that I didn't see. Enjoy...

Directed by Chester

[joenic-29279 · 9/10 · 26 March 2022]

I love the half hour Gunsmoke episodes. The storylines tended to be a bit darker than they would be a few years later. This episode is not exception. It is an excellent episode, with a great cast of character actors like Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton. Interestingly, this is the first of 4 episodes directed by Dennis Weaver.

Zeroed

[darbski · 10/10 · 2 November 2017]

**SPOILERS** It's a 10. Not really pleasant to watch, but with acting from several of the very best Ken Lynch, Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Jack Elam, and Jeanette Nolan. That's what is known as an All Star Lineup. Plot was good, and it was also predictable; most feuds are. The end was a nice touch, though.

A Family Matter

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 11 March 2021]

(*Marshal Dillon quote*) - "Over a sack of potatoes!? You make me sick!"

The Scooper and Galloway families are feuding with each other and they really mean business. These folks are so furious with each other that they're willing to shoot each other down.

Marshal Dillon gets involved, trying to settle these angry people down, but they definitely have minds of their own.

Great Cast Wasted

[Johnny_West · 5/10 · 21 April 2020]

As 1950s TV shows go, this episode had a great cast. Jeanette Nolan, who was only in three scenes for a few seconds, was a guest eight times on Gunsmoke. Three of those times she played Dirty Sally, the crazy old lady. Believe it or not, that became a TV series in 1974. "Dirty Sally" lasted only one season, but it was the only spinoff TV series that came from Gunsmoke!

Jack Elam was the next heavy hitter. He was on Gunsmoke fifteen times. On this episode, he gets some good scenes with Doc Adams and with Warren Oates and Ken Lynch. Elam plays the father of the twelve year old boy that is wrongly accused of stealing potatoes. The boy dies thanks to blood poisoning due to getting cut up on the fence wire, when Ken Lynch and Warren Oates shot at his horse and the boy fell on the wire. That was made worse because the boy had to walk home, and his parents (Elam) neglected to take him to see Doc Adams.

Warren Oates is the next top dog on this episode. He was on Gunsmoke ten times. He was also Sgt. Hulka on Stripes, he was on 1941, Blue Thunder, The Border, and a lot of TV shows. He gets some prime time here, and is featured in a gun-fight with Jack Elam and James Arness. The action in this episode is pretty good.

Harry Dean Stanton, who had a long career appeared on Gunsmoke eight times. Stanton got killed off in Alien (1978) when he was looking for his cat, and was the crazy Brain in Escape from New York (1981). In this episode he bushwhacks Ken Lynch, and then gets into a gun-fight with Matt Dillon.

Ken Lynch was on Gunsmoke twelve times. Usually he played a villain, back-shooter, second-rate gunfighter, or just a plain old thug. Lynch later became Sgt. Grover on McCloud, with Dennis Weaver. Here he shoots a kid off a horse, and into barbed wire. Then he takes the kid's horse, so that the poor kid has to walk several miles with a mangled leg. The kid later dies of blood poisoning from the wire. That is a typical Ken Lynch performance.

Ancient Cyril Delevanti makes an appearance at the end of this episode as the nearby shack resident who confesses that he is the one who stole the bag of potatoes that got a boy and three adults killed. Delevanti was on Gunsmoke eight times. In keeping with the mean-spirited tone of this episode, I half-expected that either Marshal Dillon or Warren Oates would shoot Delevanti too, when he confessed. That would have made this a perfect "everyone dies" John Meston episode.

This episode is typical of the Gunsmoke screenplays by the always depressing, socio-pathic John Meston. As a kid, I read Grapes of Wrath, where all the poor farmers are mostly helping each other out, and have good hearts. Apparently Meston never read that book, or the Bible, and all his prairie Christians are evil, vindictive, conniving, adulterous, thieving, and vengeful souls who kill each other over potatoes.

Potatoes was the cheapest crop during the 1800s. So a bag of potatoes was probably worth less than ten cents. So four people died over ten cents, in the dark Western world of John Meston.