From: BARTRAM116@aol.com Date: Sun, 14 Feb 1999 10:28:42 EST To: r.marks@ieee.org Subject: Mantley and the CBS Censors First, kudos on a very nice website. Like many, I have been waltzing down memory lane via TVLand, and, I, too, have been astonished not only by how good Gunsmoke was but also by how very "adult" it was in terms of its themes and its characters. I read the Mantley article, and I found myself immensely curious about the "8 lines" he had to cut in order to get those two "controversial" episodes from 1970 on air. It strikes me strange that a show that seems to have had carte blanche to get away with so much (amazed at some of the stuff--even in the famous Bette Davis ep) should have run afoul of the CBS brass over two episodes that seem rather innocuous to my 90's sensibilities. Granted, I haven't done a whole lot of Gunsmoke "research," so I don't know whether this is common knowledge, but as one who is interested both in TV history and the changing mores of what was and was not "acceptable" for prime time TV, I am more than a bit curious as to exactly what CBS made Mantley cut. IOW what could have seemed so controversial to them in 1970? My knee-jerk guess would tend to think something of a sexual nature, but that seems something of a stretch for a show that seemed painstakingly to skirt issues of sexuality where its core characters were concerned, but that was certainly an issue with which CBS seemed to have a bit of a problem. And I think in 1970 political implications were also problematic, but, again, I have trouble tying such concepts to episodes of Gunsmoke. So I guess it's a mundane matter of inquiring minds wanting to know if there is a way to find out what had to be cut, if only to gain a better understanding of the way CBS thought we were. Once and Current Gunsmoke Fan, Michele