Considering Height

It is difficult not to think of Mary Kathleen Hite 
as the best writer Gunsmoke ever had, 
after reading and watching and listening to her works. 
This in spite of John Meston's gargantuan output 
and consistent excellence thoughout nine seasons 
of radio and ten of television, and the significant 
presence of Les Crutchfield and Marian Clark. 
Ironically, Meston's numbers and unrelenting dark tone 
drown out his greatness. 
Hite, on the other hand, wasn't reined in 
by the western, and ranged freely in a way 
that put her talent in better view. 
Like the best student who betters a mentor 
(and Marian Clark was to follow her on this path), 
Hite equalled and often excelled Meston 
in the handling of themes that he had pioneered 
in Gunsmoke. But she had a versatility that allowed her 
to go farther and explore what lay beyond the West. 
It is testimony to the creative realm of Macdonnell 
and Meston, that wise women as well as men gathered 
as to Alfred and Charlemagne, to further 
fabricate their vision of a harsh and dark cowboy Camelot. 
Meston and Crutchfield were to prove time 
and time again that they understood the place and plight 
of women in the frontier, but not enough 
to secure bragging rights at the corral. 
Hite and Clark, however, put to dust any doubts 
that they could write as well as any man 
about the male, the macho, and the miles of a drive, 
and of the horse, the hat, and the homestead. 
But as widely and as far and as deeply, 
they amassed a body of stories that told 
of the nerves and innards and sinew of women West. 
This Marian Clark did all inside Gunsmoke, 
and Hite within and without its confines. 



Copyright © 2006-2014 E. A. Villafranca, Jr. 
All Rights Reserved