The Gunsmoke Spin-Off That’s Almost Impossible To Watch Today

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Sally Fergus, looking smug in a shot from the TV series Gunsmoke

CBS Television Distribution

It’s curious how few people talk about “Gunsmoke” in the 2020s, seeing as it was the biggest show of all time for decades. Indeed, until 2019, “Gunsmoke” held a record for being the longest-running scripted primetime American TV series ever. (It’s since been beaten by “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”) The “Gunsmoke” TV series debuted in 1955 and ran strong for 635 episodes over the course of 20 full seasons. It finally drew to a close in 1975, but even then, the franchise wasn’t done. Five additional “Gunsmoke” TV movies were produced from 1987 to 1994, with James Arness playing the stalwart Marshal Matt Dillon pretty much throughout the property’s televised run.

And that’s nothing to say of the nine seasons of “Gunsmoke” that ran as a radio serial. The radio show aired from 1952 to 1961 and starred William Conrad as Dillon. The show’s creators Norman Macdonnell and John Meston couldn’t have possibly predicted the success of their Western, much less that it would become a media empire for over 25 years.

Westerns were already out of vogue when the “Gunsmoke” TV series finally left the airwaves in 1975, though, so when it ended, it exited the public consciousness almost immediately. It seems that the comings and goings of Dodge City (with Paramount Ranch being one of the real-life filming locations) could only be sustained for so long.

Indeed, the writing may have been on the wall when the show’s producers tried to make a “Gunsmoke” spinoff during its 19th season. The series, titled “Dirty Sally,” starred Jeanette Nolan as “Dirty Sally” Fergus, reprising her role from two notable “Gunsmoke” episodes. The show was a bomb, lasting only 13 episodes from January to April 1974. It has not been preserved in any notable way and could possibly be considered lost media.

What the heck was Dirty Sally?

CBS Television Distribution

Dirty Sally appeared in a two-part 1971 “Gunsmoke” episode called “Pike,” which capped off the show’s 16th season. In the episode, a criminal named Cyrus Pike (Dack Rambo) staggered into Sally’s home after being shot. Sally made a living salvaging and selling discarded bottles and other trash. When Cyrus came into her care, she expressed nothing but compassion, nursing him back to health and protecting him from the cops that would apprehend him. According to the 1974 TV Guide review of the premiere of “Dirty Sally,” that was one of the more popular episodes in “Gunsmoke” history, inspiring the return of the character in the season 17 episode “One for the Road” in 1972.

Dirty Sally was seemingly popular enough to warrant her own series. The spinoff followed Cyrus Pike, still in Sally’s care, as he tried to travel from Kansas to California, seeking to flee the law. Cyrus would be comedically waylaid frequently, however, as Sally was talkative and eccentric and had a penchant for protecting the persecuted. In the first episode, she defended a pig farmer from a land-hungry train magnate. In the second, she stuck up for some orphans and their pet mule (named Worthless). She even dallied with romance, all the while putting up with Cyrus’ schemes.

The TV Guide review of “Dirty Sally”, written by Cleveland Amory, was quite unkind. He asserted the show was “so thin, you can lose weight just watching it,” and that the only redeeming qualities that came from the series were due to Nolan’s comedic talents. He even argued that the mule Worthless was the only worthwhile part of the show, mockingly writing, “Let’s pick one episode where she has a big part, and start writing letters.”

A short-lived show for Gunsmoke fans

Dirty Sally pointing to her mouth and smiling in an episode of Gunsmoke

CBS Television Distribution

In 1974, it was considered the height of absurdity that a TV series should be created out of mere fan demand. What, after all, would the fans know? They only want insipid re-warmings of something they’d already gotten. Of course, one can fast-forward to the 2020s and find that fan-service has been raking in gobs of cash for decades. It seems that attitudes have changed.

“Dirty Sally” may have failed because of its tone. The new half-hour program was more of a comedy, whereas “Gunsmoke” was far more stern and po-faced. Indeed, early episodes of the “Gunsmoke” TV series were downright somber. Making the show “funny” wasn’t what fans wanted, so they roundly rejected it. Sally was a fine comic relief character for a serious show, but no one wanted to see a whole series about her. (See also: “The Lone Gunmen.”)

Old ads for “Dirty Sally” exist and reveal another factor that contributed to the show’s downfall: It was scheduled at 8 p.m. on Friday nights, perhaps one of the worst times to schedule a TV show in the pre-streaming era. No one was home on Friday nights back then. No wonder no one watched it.

Curiously, “Dirty Sally” pretty much vanished after 1974. It has never been released on any form of home media and is certainly not on any streaming services. It predates widespread VHS use, so no one has old bootleg cassettes of it either. “Dirty Sally” really is nowhere to be found. The only hard evidence of the show is an audio recording that a “Gunsmoke” fan posted on YouTube. One can get a sense of the tone of the series from the audio, at any rate, and judge if it’s the kind of show worth watching.

“Dirty Sally” may have been great or it may have been awful. But anyone born after 1974 will never know for sure. We’d only have “Gunsmoke” TV movies to keep us interested. Solana Token Creator

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