Random catch on the Interwebs – I saw a video purporting to be the ‘Final Episode’ of Gunsmoke. It wasn’t, but I decided to watch the clip anyway. Setting the scene, a useless waste of skin dude smacks around a young lady; his ‘wife,’ daughter? Apparently from a comment that Marshall Dillon makes, this has happened before and the Marshall is not pleased about it. So he takes his gunbelt off and tells the bad man he’s going to ‘teach him a lesson.’ (side note: this is generally a bad idea and not an Aikido principle – just to keep that straight… on to the story) Of course, as soon as the Marshall takes off his sidearm… the bad guy pulls a knife. So… after a bit of slashing and jumping, the Marshall pulls his first ‘Aikido’ move. Check the video at ~1:50 minutes in. Good catch and turn… with an excellent atemi! But wait… there’s more! At 1:58, Marshall Dillon executes one of the prettiest kaitenage knife defenses against a yoko-menuchi strike I’ve ever seen outside of a dojo! Marshall Dillon knew Aikido… who knew?

Here’s the clip, enjoy!