‘Gunsmoke’s Marshal Matt Dillon’s Only Had One On-Screen Kiss — Do You Remember It?
It’s the mystery that has vexed Gunsmoke viewers for generations: Were Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) and beautiful barkeep Miss Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake) a couple? The debate will likely last into infinity, though there were plenty of hints it was so, from their flirtatious banter to their longing stares. In spite of the show’s writers not troubling Marshal Dillon with a longterm gal, the lawman finally got a single-episode romance in Season 19. “Matt’s Love Story” sees Matt finally kiss a lady for all the world to see — even if he doesn’t remember it in the end.
Various TV experts, and Arness himself, have weighed in on why Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty never confirmed their status onscreen. One was that, given the danger of his job, the marshal would be forever tasked with protecting his lady from bad guys. And if he up and got married, he’d have to do that and be a serviceable husband, too, which wouldn’t suit the show’s storylines at all. So Marshal Dillon stayed single for the duration of the show’s 20 seasons.
Still, in Season 19’s episode 3, actor Michael Learned — who also played The Waltons matriarch Olivia Walton — guest-starred as a widowed rancher named Mike Yardner who takes Marshall Dillon in after he’s conked in the head, shot and left for dead by a fugitive named Les Dean (Little House on the Prairie star Victor French).
The marshal’s horse finds its way to Mike’s ranch and Mike tracks down Matt, who, courtesy of his head wound, has no idea who is or why he’s there. As the rancher nurses her guest back to health, the two fall into a cozy routine — and then fall in love.
Alas, it’s not to be.
On the run, Dean comes upon another rancher named Hasty Starcourt (Keith Andes). Starcourt has his eye on Mike’s property and hires Dean to do away with his rival so he can make her land his own. But when Dean gets to Mike’s ranch to do the deed, he’s shocked to find Marshal Dillon alive and well … and with no recollection of Dean whatsoever.
Seems Dean has a dab of moral code after all — and witnessing the blissful domestic scene makes him realize he has to do the right thing for everyone’s sake. Instead of shooting Mike Yardner, he tells her who her new beau really is. Torn between telling Matt the truth or having another chance at true love, Mike opts for the former and hopes for the best. Now Matt has some deciding to do, too.
Learned’s final line of the episode, “It’s hard to find two good men and lose them both,” tells you how this story ends. Or does it?
Matt Dillon has a child!
Though Learned returned to Gunsmoke just a few episodes later, somewhat confusingly, as a sassy prostitute named May Lassiter, “Matt’s Love Story” wasn’t the last time we’d see Mike Yardner.
Nearly seventeen years after the episode aired, the lady rancher — and Learned — returned in the 1990 made-for-tv movie Gunsmoke: The Last Apache. In the film, Dillon gets a letter from his former love saying that her daughter, Beth (Amy Stoch), has been taken by an Apache war chief named Wolf (Joe Lara), and the scoundrel intends to make her his bride. Can the marshal come to save her?
Dillon rides to the rescue, and learns that he has a little extra skin in the game: Yardner reveals that Beth is his daughter, too, from that long-ago love affair cursed by reversed amnesia. Together, the two plot to take Geronimo’s two young grandsons hostage to exchange for the safe return of their girl, placing everyone in grave danger.
Two years later, in 1992, Stoch would return as Amy in the TV film Gunsmoke: To the Last Man. The movie suggests that Matt, Mike and Amy remained together after the events of Gunsmoke: The Last Apache, but To the Last Man begins with poor Mike’s funeral.
Though Mike wanted her daughter to get a proper education back East, seems the girl, like her parents, has adventure in her blood and will remain in the West. Stoch and Arness would appear in two more Gunsmoke telefilms, Gunsmoke: The Long Ride and Gunsmoke: One Man’s Justice.
What did Michael Learned say about playing Mike Gardner and May Lassiter on ‘Gunsmoke’?
Learned, now 86, told EmmyTVLegends.org that she loved playing the self-sufficient rancher because Mike was such a change from nurturing mom of seven, Olivia Walton. “That was fun to do, too, because it was meaty,” Learned added.
Not only that — the actress noted that after her and Arness’s onscreen smooch, Arness “called me at my agent and asked me out on a date, so I must’ve done a decent job.”
As for getting even further from Olivia with May Lassiter, Learned told the outlet that the character was such a 180 from the wholesome Waltons mom that Learned had to get permission from The Waltons creator Earl Hamner Jr. to do the role. And it was worth it. I thought ‘God, I was so pretty. I had no idea,” Learned said. “The costume was so great and it was such a fun scene!”
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TV Westerns of the 50's & 60's
September 2021
’50s and ’60s TV Westerns roundup, celebrating the shows and stars of their golden age.
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