Robert F. Simon was on Gunsmoke seven times, playing the same role of the crabby, nasty, bigoted,vile old man. He seemed to have that role trademarked as it was his bread and butter role and mostly why he was ever on any episode of any TV series.
Here he plays some lowlife that just got out of prison after 30 years because he was the mastermind of what amounted to a massacre of nesters. During that time, his only surviving son (the other four were killed in the massacre) has sold various parcels of land to the nesters.
Simon immediately degrades his only living son in front of his grandsons, and commandeers his three grandsons as his personal slaves so he can ride around bullying people. This character is totally detestable, especially since he shows no love for his own grandchildren.
The son is played by Richard Anderson, who often played gunslingers. I thought Anderson would beat up his creepy Dad (Simon) when he was disrespected by him, but that would have been the end of the episode. Instead, Anderson, the townspeople, and the nester neighbors take lots of verbal abuse and threats from the vicious ex-convict grandfather.
At the finale, Simon has set up to ambush his neighbors with the help of his three grandchildren. It just seemed like this episode kept diving lower and lower. Robert Simon was not destined to win any "Grandfather of the Year" awards. Fortunately Richard Anderson finally intervenes to straighten out his children, and Matt Dillon does the rest.
No matter how bad this episode was (thanks to Robert Simon), it is always a good day when a nasty guy gets a bullet in the guts. Sometimes there really is a light at the end of the tunnel.
