Thanks to imdb.com, I know that my favorite episode of "Gunsmoke" aired on October 25, 1971. I was fourteen that year. "Gunsmoke" was regular viewing in our home, and this particular episode featured Victor French as the title character "Trafton." Within the first two minutes, Trafton robs a church and shoots a priest, who immediately before dying forgives him. This unnerves and changes Trafton, slowly at first and more so as the show progresses, until the final moments. A central story is Trafton's visit to a woman he had raped some years before. I always thought the story wonderfully depicted the power, cost, and difficulty of forgiveness---by no means a simple decision on our part just to forgive "because we're supposed to." It also illustrates the way divine power can unexpectedly enter our lives but we struggle to describe what has happened.
I was happy to discover the entire episode on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN1gEuWuEh4 The show, written by Ron Bishop, also features the fine actors Sharon Acker and Paul Stevens.
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ReplyDeleteI saw an episode of Gunsmoke where Matt and Kitty were kissing in one of those upstairs rooms ..at that point they cut to a commercial ..when the show came back on, Matt was sitting on the side of the bed putting his boots on and Kitty was brushing her hair in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteNow if that's not an 'implied scene' ..what is?
Does anyone know the name or number of that episode?
The "Trafton" episode was removed from YouTube for a while but now is back. I edited this post with the new link.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite an "implied scene" referred to by "anonymous"! I wonder what episode that was?