James Arness hated ''Gun-Shy'', the spoof episode from Maverick

Arness wasn't very flattered.

CBS Television Distribution

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," or so goes the often miscredited quote. The words are most attributed to Oscar Wilde but appeared in a book of aphorisms published thirty years before Wilde was born. However, there is some evidence that he agreed with the adage. He's quoted in an 1882 lecture in New York City expressing a very similar sentiment: "Satire, always as sterile as it is shameful and as impotent as it is insolent, paid them that usual homage which mediocrity pays to genius"

James Arness didn't use such floral language. He did, however, see eye-to-eye with Oscar Wilde regarding parody. Specifically, Arness sincerely disliked the Maverick episode "Gun-Shy", a knowing take-off of his long-running series Gunsmoke

With their lampoon of the more successful show, Maverick went further than a "winking acknowledgment" of the competition, truly hammering home that they were making fun of Gunsmoke. "Gun-Shy", like the best of parodies, keeps it so close to the real thing. Arness' Matt Dillon is, here, Mort Dooley, played Ben Gage, who would later go on to be Arness' double on Gunsmoke. So, they shared more than a passing resemblance. 

The episode satirizes Marshall Dillon's relationship with Milburn Stone's Doc, as their Maverick counterparts ramble pointlessly about topics that have nothing to do with the plot. Mort Dooley goes off on a tangent, remembering a series of strange characters who passed through town. The clearest of these recollections is a gunslinger with a business card— an obvious reference to Have Gun - Will Travel. The episode reduces Gunsmoke to caricatures and nonsequiters.  

Maverick wasn't the only— or even the first— to present a Gunsmoke pastiche. The George Garbedian Players beat Maverick to the punch by a whole year with their record, "Mr. Grillon". The single featured Walker Edmiston playing a character named Fester, a parody of Gunsmoke's Chester. Edminston would again do his Chester impression a year later in "Gun-Shy."

Arness, though, wasn't impressed, according to John Peele's 1989 book Gunsmoke Years.

"It's poor taste and poor business for one show to rap another," said Arness. 

 Perhaps Arness would've identified with that old quote's supposed second half.  "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... that mediocrity can pay to greatness." While Maverick was surely more famous than The George Garbedian Players, neither can claim to have the cultural impact of Gunsoke.

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11 Comments

deltadart 3 months ago
The Bonanza parody was funnier than Gun-Shy.
cperrynaples 4 months ago
Boy I bet Arness hated Get Smart & Batman! He proably wouldn't like The Simpsons either...LOL!
KJExpress 4 months ago
I caught the tail end of it once. Wish I had seen the whole thing. I wonder what the other Gunsmoke cast members thought about it? 🤔
MrsPhilHarris 4 months ago
Sounds like a fun episode to me.
Yep, the parodies were the best episodes! Bonus Question: Which show was parodied in "Three Queens Full"?
I’m guessing Maverick because they parodied Bonanza. Very funny.
Well, I was refering to Maverick in the question, but yes that's the one where Jim Baccus parodies Lorne Greene! And the 3 sons were dead on! Bart had to find wives for the boys!
Runeshaper 4 months ago
I can see how Arness would not be happy with this. I’d probably feel the same way.
justjeff 4 months ago
Twice they misspelled record producer George Garabedian's name as "Garbedian"...
cperrynaples justjeff 4 months ago
Yep, did they think he was an alien from a Svengoolie movie...LOL!
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