THE FIVE MOST OBSCURE TV WESTERNS – # 4 - Dirty Sally
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 9:37PM Tweet By Bennett Owen
Frankly I was about half scared what would pop up as I typed ‘Dirty Sally’ into the old search engine.
Dirty Sally has the distinction of being the only Gunsmoke spin-off, but it also had a (mercifully) short run of just 15 episodes. Perhaps somebody tried to destroy the evidence because I couldn’t find a single video fragment from the series. It features a junk-collecting female hermit with a mule named ‘Worthless’ who (Sally, not the mule) nurses back to life a young outlaw (Pike) with a heart of gold. As the unlikely trio sets out for California, the adventures begin in earnest, including:
- Sally helps out a pig farmer
- Sally gets kicked out of a men-only Saloon
- Sally turns a boisterous farm girl into a demure princess
- Pike decides to become an actor (good luck with that!)
- Sally poses as Billy the Kid’s mother
What do you think, was I making the last one up or not?
The Dirty Sally character appeared in several episodes of Gunsmoke and here’s the segment that eventually sparked the spin-off (sorry, we can't embed this video).
And though we didn’t find any clips of the series, you CAN download the Dirty Sally theme song for your cell phone. Here it is, if you just want to listen:
Dirty Sally Theme Song by My-West.com
Dirty Sally was played by the late Jeanette Nolan, a Shakespearean actress who enjoyed a multitude of supporting roles in film and TV and over the course of her career garnered four Emmy nominations.
Her last role was as Robert Redford’s mother, Ellen Booker, in The Horse Whisperer:
Photo courtesy of Aveleyman.com
15 episodes. Now that’s pretty obscure. Where do we go from here, you ask? Well, join us next week and find out.
Reader Comments (3)
Anybody remember "Three Guns for Texas?"
Hey Mark! You came pretty darned close! Wait for Number two on the list!
Bennett
I thought the show was great. Jeanette Nolan was a scream. Pity it didn't catch on.