Apprentice Doc

I think this is one of the better episodes of Gunsmoke. Excellent story, well executed and really engaging. Milburn has a straightforwardness that causes you to forget that he is acting. Ben Cooper carries his role in the story perfectly. There is something about him that seems so genuine. I won't tell you the story, just watch it and enjoy.

Doc Adams is torn about saying anything about his abduction. I agree with a few others this episode would have made a few more shows very interesting to watch. Just to see how Pitt would do in learning to be a Dr. You see a side of Doc Adams that that is different in some ways. This episode has him as the main character for most of the show. I did not like the ending, should have extended the story line with Pitt in other episodes.

This was a very good story, except that in typical Gunsmoke tradition, just about everyone dies. Kathleen Hite wrote this episode, and unlike Gunsmoke creators John Meston and Les Crutchfield, she occasionally wrote happy endings. This was not one of them.

While most of the story focuses on Doc Adams, there is a lot more going on here. Crahan Denton, who appeared on Gunsmoke twice, plays Clint, the main villain. Clint is a psychopathic killer. Denton's performance is chilling. Denton has a deadpan personality. He matter-of-fact tells people that he just killed someone, or that he is going to kill them.

In some ways Denton reminds me of the hired killer, Anton Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men." Javier Bardem was younger in that role, and he gave it a European flair, but he just killed people like he was eating a bag of peanuts. Crahan Denton has that same cold-blooded, evil style.

Denton kills one guy because he broke his leg and could not help Denton rob a bank. He kills three people when he is robbing a bank. He kills some more before Marshal Dillon finally catches up to him. He even manages a happy laugh or two when he watches one guy dying. Brutally scary performance by Denton, who died in 1966 of a heart attack at the age of 52.

Believe it or not, there is a real killer in this cast. Many years later, one of the Gunsmoke villains would be convicted of a real murder and attempted murder, and sentenced to 32 years in prison. He died in prison, June 2019. Robert Sorrells played the dim-witted Augie in this episode. Sorrells appeared on Gunsmoke fourteen times. He usually played a third-string thug, or one of the guys that got killed off early in an episode. In "Apprentice Doc" he is the ultra-creepy sidekick to Crahan Denton, who is constantly abusing Augie, both verbally and physically. Sorrells' performance reminds me of Renfield (Dwight Frye), who was the original henchman to Dracula (1931).

Ben Cooper, who passed away in 2020, plays Pitt Campbell. Pitt and the guy with the broken leg are supposed to help Crahan Denton and Augie (convicted killer Robert Sorrells) rob a bank. Pitt decides to get a doctor for the unconscious guy with the broken leg, and to stay behind to tend to his friend. That totally drives Crahan Denton off the edge, and he vows to Augie that he will get revenge on both of them.

Denton later kills off that mutual friend, and then goes to Dodge City to kill off Pitt. A couple of points did not make much sense. Why did they kidnap Doc Adams to tend to a broken leg? Why did Denton want to kill Doc Adams too? Adams was unconscious when he was kidnapped.

The rest of the episode is heart-breaking to watch. Pitt and Doc Adams (Milburn Stone) strike up a great friendship as Pitt becomes an apprentice to Doc Adams. They get really close, and then Crahan Denton and Augie come to town to kill Pitt.

The finale is really sad and hard to watch. It is also pointless and unnecessary. We have seen Marshal Dillon get shot all over the body numerous times and survive, so it could have been written that Pitt survived a gunshot, and Doc Adams could have had his own medical assistant for a while. Sadly, Doc Adams gets his heart broken again, and suffers the loss of another friend. Milburn Stone was awesome in this episode, and so was Ben Cooper. They both dialed it up a notch with great performances.

Some actors are deemed to be "great" due to their public stature and popularity. But some unsung actors can be considered truly great by the simple, honest, natural, consistent excellence of their craft-- and Mr. Stone was certainly in this latter group.

"Apprentice Doc" is Milburn Stone's finest hour and, arguably the highpoint in Gunsmoke's 20-year run. Kathleen Hite's script is absolutely flawless. No need to go into detail, but the pacing and progression of each scene are perfectly gauged to carry the viewer along in preparation for the emotional crush of the final scenes. And once again, Harry Harris responds to the superb script, as his direction reveals unexpected depth and insight into the characters and their relationships; within a few minutes, you feel totally engrossed in the drama.

The dialog scenes between Ben Cooper and Milburn Stone unfold in a totally natural, unaffected and compelling way. Stone positively radiates emotion, but in the simplest, most understated way imaginable. A brilliant, Emmy-quality performance.

PITT: "Doctor Adams, I don't know what to say." DOC: "Well, that's good--then you don't have to say it"

A wise but humorous reply from Doc, which will take on an entirely new meaning in the show's final minutes. And the operating scene in Doc's office, with Pitt observing his very first surgery, is marvelous to behold. With the camera positioned in front of and slightly below the two actors, Stone and Cooper pull off this intense scene in a SINGLE shot, with absolutely no musical underscore. It is a stunning--- but, once again, totally natural and understated--- textbook lesson in the art of acting for the camera. You'd SWEAR Milburn was actually cutting bullets out of the guy lying on the table.

One more observation: Milburn Stone seems to physically age 20 years in his final on-screen moments, beginning with his pulling himself up from the kneeling position alongside Ben Cooper. And he barely says a word.

"APPRENTICE DOC" has to be rated as one of the all-time most powerful 50 minutes in TV history. Brilliant in every respect, and near-miraculous considering the grind of turning out a weekly hour-long show every week.

A note about Van Cleave's original score for this episode, composed in the rather gray, dense, "modernist" mode that I usually associate with CBS's Rene Garriguenc. Listen for the one truly outstanding moment in the music; as Doc walks to his office at night and finds Pitt sleeping under the stairs, we hear an ominous, slow moving pattern in the cellos and basses, over which drifts the distant sound of a saloon piano, echoing in the darkness from afar, but subtly coordinated with the bass figure. It's almost surreal.

ALSO-- watch for Miss Kitty's "spit take"--almost. She and Chester are chatting, and as she starts to take a swig of beer, Chester says that he's "the LAST person to be meddling" in anybody else's affairs, at which point Amanda Blake chokes and coughs her beer back into her glass, then continues to sputter until the scene ends.

I tell ya, this episode's got something for everybody-- especially lovers of great, emotional drama.

FIRST-RATE.

LR