User Reviews

From the slow start in part one, this part step up the pace and made the story much more interesting than the previous episode indicated.

From part one we know that George McClaney was involved in a dangerous job of getting nitroglycerin from boiling dynamite. He was paid well and upon wanting to quit, he was threatened with harm coming to his girlfriend Ann.

In this part George learns that the nitro was being used to rob banks and break into safes across Kansas. Now George is desperate to get out of the dangerous job even to the point of getting Louie to take the job. But he then feels so bad about putting Louie in the job that he rescues him. Louie tells Matt about George's job and even points out the three men that have been making the bank heists.

With Matt riding like the wind to the shack where George is making his last batch- we can only hope Matt arrives in time to tell him that they have the bank robbers.

This second part saved both parts from a dismal story. Part two was alive with emotion and feeling (unlike part one) which made the viewer want to watch to the very end.

Note- When Marshal Dillon is riding his horse fast as he could to the shack to tell George they have the men, that riding clip would be used for the rest of the series opening up the show instead of the face off in the street scene.

I have never been sure why this was a two-part episode. Most of Part 1 is plodding and overly talky. There is a LOT of filler throughout these two hours. As others have noted, the pace picks up as Part 2 progresses, and it definitely is tense by the end. It seems it would have been better as a one-hour episode.

The fascinating thing about this episode is that when it was filmed, everyone involved thought it was the series finale. In 1967, CBS President Michael Dann decided Gunsmoke had run its course. Before the last episode of Season 12 had been shot, Dann announced that Gunsmoke was being cancelled at the end of the season. Everyone involved with the show was aware Nitro! would be the last episode.

There was even a series wrap party held on the set after filming was complete. In his book Gunsmoke: An American Institution: Celebrating 50 Years of Television's Best Western, Ben Costello writes about the wrap party. Many of the actors that had guested in various episodes over the years attended that party, which was held inside the Long Branch set.

Unlike Gunsmoke, Gilligan's Island had been renewed for another season after the 1967 season was complete. Costello relates the story, as told by Story Consultant Paul Savage, that Alan Hale, Jr.--perhaps best known as Skipper on Gilligan's Island, but also a former Gunsmoke guest--visited Savage and offered his condolences over Gunsmoke's cancellation. Reportedly, Hale said, "If any show should've been cancelled it's that turkey we're doing," referring, of course, to Gilligan's Island.

There was a significant public outcry at the news of Gunsmoke's cancellation. William S. Paley, the CBS Chairman of the Board, and arguably the most powerful person in television, was out of the country when the announcement of Gunsmoke's cancellation was made. Paley happened to be a huge fan of the show. Once he was made aware the show had been cancelled, he ordered Gunsmoke to be reinstated to the lineup for the upcoming season.

Of course, Gunsmoke's reinstatement meant something else had to go. Gilligan's Island and a new comedy titled Doc were cancelled to make room for Gunsmoke in the lineup.