An injured man named Piney Biggs arrives in Dodge. He claims to be the sole survivor of an Indian attack. But when some shady bounty hunters bring scavenging renegades into town the situatio... Read allAn injured man named Piney Biggs arrives in Dodge. He claims to be the sole survivor of an Indian attack. But when some shady bounty hunters bring scavenging renegades into town the situation gets complicated.An injured man named Piney Biggs arrives in Dodge. He claims to be the sole survivor of an Indian attack. But when some shady bounty hunters bring scavenging renegades into town the situation gets complicated.
Photos
Jere Fields
- Merilee Biggs
- (as Jerelyn Fields)
- Director
- Writers
- Jim Byrnes
- Norman MacDonnell(uncredited)
- John Meston(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis episode won the Black Image Award.
Featured review
Strong Performances Highlight a Unique Story
Piney Biggs is an exhausted, desperate Black man looking for sustenance when he staggers upon an encampment of people that have been massacred. He manages to find some bread and water. He is wearing no shoes, and he tries to take a pair of boots from one of the dead men, but they are too small for his large feet. He notices the man has a pocket watch and takes it.
When Piney hears some voices, he notices a small group of American Indians approaching. He picks up a stray arrow, stabs himself, and pretends to be dead. When the men ride into the site of the massacre, they begin scavenging whatever they can find. One of the men notices the watch in Piney's pocket and takes it.
The men soon ride on with whatever loot they managed to find. Piney tries to remove the arrow from his side, but it breaks. With the arrow still in his body, Piney leaves the scene of the massacre. Someone driving a freight wagon finds Piney and takes him into Dodge City where Doc Adams treats his wound. Sam Noonan brings Piney an old pair of boots, and Piney discovers some money Sam had managed to collect inside one of the boots.
Matt Dillon and Festus Haggen visit Piney in Doc's office. The Marshal questions Piney about the massacre. Piney lies and tells Matt he had been taken in by the campers after his mule was stolen. He also falsely tells Marshal Dillon the band of scavengers were responsible for the massacre, and they stole a watch his father had given him. Matt tells Piney he is extremely lucky because there had been other similar incidents recently, and Piney is the only survivor of any of the massacres.
Doc tells Piney to rest and leaves him in the office. With his wound treated, a pair of boots, and some money, Piney chooses to make his way back to the shack where he lives with his pregnant wife, Rachel, and his young daughter, Merilee.
Matt and Festus organize a posse to go after the renegades. The government places a $2,000 bounty on any renegade American Indians that can be captured. Some bounty hunters led by a man named Colley find the scavengers camped and drinking liquor they found at the massacre sight. One of the scavengers is killed, but the others are taken to Dodge for the bounty. The pocket watch serves as the circumstantial evidence the captured men are responsible for the massacre.
This situation presents a dilemma for Piney. He knows the men being held for the massacre are not guilty. If he continues with his assertion that he saw the men commit the massacre, they face execution. Piney is torn between doing what he knows is right and taking the safer route of keeping his mouth shut.
A key scene in the drama occurs when Piney tries to justify his actions to Rachel. Piney tells his wife it does not matter if the wrong group of Indians is being punished, because it is said that all Indians are the same. Rachel points out that people say the same thing about Black people. Rachel is the true strength of the family. Piney is convinced to go to the Marshal's office and tell the truth about what happened.
The bounty hunters are due to be paid $2,000 for turning in the scavengers. When they learn Piney has been lying and plans to tell Newly O'Brien the truth, they hold Piney hostage until the time the scavengers are scheduled to be hanged at Fort Dodge.
The role of Piney Biggs is played by Yaphet Kotto. When this episode was filmed, Kotto was still primarily doing television work, although he had done a small amount of film work. Of course, he would go on to appear in several films, as well as continuing to work in television. Playing Piney Biggs was Kotto's only involvement in Gunsmoke. The roles he turned down are as notable as those he accepted. He was offered the part of the character Lando Calrissian in Star Wars. After he refused the part, it went to Billy Dee Williams. He was also strongly considered for the part of Jean Luc Piccard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he removed his name from consideration out of fear of being typecast.
The fabulous Cicely Tyson appears in this story as Rachel Biggs in what is her only Gunsmoke appearance. Throughout her career, Tyson refused to play roles that did not depict Black women as positive characters. Shortly after her appearance in this episode, she would star in the film Sounder, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Slim Pickens returns to Gunsmoke after a long break. (His last appearance was as the Pony Beal character in Season 11's "Sweet Billy, Singer of Songs.") In this story, Pickens plays the bounty hunter Colley, who will go to great lengths to get the bounty money. Pickens was one of those rare actors that worked in both television and films simultaneously. Around the same time he did this episode, he also appeared in Sam Peckinpah's film The Ballad of Cable Hogue. He and Peckinpah had a long working relationship that went back to Peckinpah's short-lived, brilliant television series The Westerner in 1960. In addition to Cable Hogue, Pickens also had parts in the Peckinpah films Major Dundee, The Getaway, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Other notable actors that take appear in the episode include Roy Jensen as one of the bounty hunters named Rath, Eddie Little Sky as the American Indian with the scar on his face, and Jere Fields in her first credited role as Merilee Biggs.
The episode is worth viewing for the performances by Kotto and Tyson alone. The presence of Slim Pickens is a bonus. This is a different kind of story that uses a straightforward premise of a man who invents a seemingly harmless lie that quickly becomes uncontrollable and three bounty hunters that are willing to do whatever is necessary to get what they want. However, there is more simmering underneath the surface.
This is one of the earlier episodes written by Jim Byrnes, who was responsible for several excellent Gunsmoke scripts. The episode is directed by Robert Totten who directed 25 episodes of the show and played a character in eight different episodes.
Anyone closely watching this episode through most current (2021) broadcasts (MeTV and TVLand) may notice there are two times in this episode where ethnic slurs are silenced. It occurs first when Piney makes the assertion to Rachel that all Indians are the same, and Rachel replies, "They say the same thing about (silenced)." The second time is late in the episode when Colley uses a different slur while giving Newly a false account of what happened with Piney. It is noteworthy words deemed acceptable for television in 1970 are censored today. (Incidentally, the streaming service Pluto TV does not censor the dialog.)
When Piney hears some voices, he notices a small group of American Indians approaching. He picks up a stray arrow, stabs himself, and pretends to be dead. When the men ride into the site of the massacre, they begin scavenging whatever they can find. One of the men notices the watch in Piney's pocket and takes it.
The men soon ride on with whatever loot they managed to find. Piney tries to remove the arrow from his side, but it breaks. With the arrow still in his body, Piney leaves the scene of the massacre. Someone driving a freight wagon finds Piney and takes him into Dodge City where Doc Adams treats his wound. Sam Noonan brings Piney an old pair of boots, and Piney discovers some money Sam had managed to collect inside one of the boots.
Matt Dillon and Festus Haggen visit Piney in Doc's office. The Marshal questions Piney about the massacre. Piney lies and tells Matt he had been taken in by the campers after his mule was stolen. He also falsely tells Marshal Dillon the band of scavengers were responsible for the massacre, and they stole a watch his father had given him. Matt tells Piney he is extremely lucky because there had been other similar incidents recently, and Piney is the only survivor of any of the massacres.
Doc tells Piney to rest and leaves him in the office. With his wound treated, a pair of boots, and some money, Piney chooses to make his way back to the shack where he lives with his pregnant wife, Rachel, and his young daughter, Merilee.
Matt and Festus organize a posse to go after the renegades. The government places a $2,000 bounty on any renegade American Indians that can be captured. Some bounty hunters led by a man named Colley find the scavengers camped and drinking liquor they found at the massacre sight. One of the scavengers is killed, but the others are taken to Dodge for the bounty. The pocket watch serves as the circumstantial evidence the captured men are responsible for the massacre.
This situation presents a dilemma for Piney. He knows the men being held for the massacre are not guilty. If he continues with his assertion that he saw the men commit the massacre, they face execution. Piney is torn between doing what he knows is right and taking the safer route of keeping his mouth shut.
A key scene in the drama occurs when Piney tries to justify his actions to Rachel. Piney tells his wife it does not matter if the wrong group of Indians is being punished, because it is said that all Indians are the same. Rachel points out that people say the same thing about Black people. Rachel is the true strength of the family. Piney is convinced to go to the Marshal's office and tell the truth about what happened.
The bounty hunters are due to be paid $2,000 for turning in the scavengers. When they learn Piney has been lying and plans to tell Newly O'Brien the truth, they hold Piney hostage until the time the scavengers are scheduled to be hanged at Fort Dodge.
The role of Piney Biggs is played by Yaphet Kotto. When this episode was filmed, Kotto was still primarily doing television work, although he had done a small amount of film work. Of course, he would go on to appear in several films, as well as continuing to work in television. Playing Piney Biggs was Kotto's only involvement in Gunsmoke. The roles he turned down are as notable as those he accepted. He was offered the part of the character Lando Calrissian in Star Wars. After he refused the part, it went to Billy Dee Williams. He was also strongly considered for the part of Jean Luc Piccard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, but he removed his name from consideration out of fear of being typecast.
The fabulous Cicely Tyson appears in this story as Rachel Biggs in what is her only Gunsmoke appearance. Throughout her career, Tyson refused to play roles that did not depict Black women as positive characters. Shortly after her appearance in this episode, she would star in the film Sounder, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Slim Pickens returns to Gunsmoke after a long break. (His last appearance was as the Pony Beal character in Season 11's "Sweet Billy, Singer of Songs.") In this story, Pickens plays the bounty hunter Colley, who will go to great lengths to get the bounty money. Pickens was one of those rare actors that worked in both television and films simultaneously. Around the same time he did this episode, he also appeared in Sam Peckinpah's film The Ballad of Cable Hogue. He and Peckinpah had a long working relationship that went back to Peckinpah's short-lived, brilliant television series The Westerner in 1960. In addition to Cable Hogue, Pickens also had parts in the Peckinpah films Major Dundee, The Getaway, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Other notable actors that take appear in the episode include Roy Jensen as one of the bounty hunters named Rath, Eddie Little Sky as the American Indian with the scar on his face, and Jere Fields in her first credited role as Merilee Biggs.
The episode is worth viewing for the performances by Kotto and Tyson alone. The presence of Slim Pickens is a bonus. This is a different kind of story that uses a straightforward premise of a man who invents a seemingly harmless lie that quickly becomes uncontrollable and three bounty hunters that are willing to do whatever is necessary to get what they want. However, there is more simmering underneath the surface.
This is one of the earlier episodes written by Jim Byrnes, who was responsible for several excellent Gunsmoke scripts. The episode is directed by Robert Totten who directed 25 episodes of the show and played a character in eight different episodes.
Anyone closely watching this episode through most current (2021) broadcasts (MeTV and TVLand) may notice there are two times in this episode where ethnic slurs are silenced. It occurs first when Piney makes the assertion to Rachel that all Indians are the same, and Rachel replies, "They say the same thing about (silenced)." The second time is late in the episode when Colley uses a different slur while giving Newly a false account of what happened with Piney. It is noteworthy words deemed acceptable for television in 1970 are censored today. (Incidentally, the streaming service Pluto TV does not censor the dialog.)
helpful•90
- wdavidreynolds
- Jul 15, 2021
Details
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content