You can never watch too much Gunsmoke pardner.

That absolute ignorant nonsense was part of the comedy of the show especially when he argued with Doc. Festus was a popular character so I guess they thought that weird twang was alright.

I absolutely agree with you! I really enjoy early Festus before he became a regular and was turned into a silly caricature. Originally he lacked a formal education but had common sense and was trail smart. Unfortunately whoever it was decided to up the silly twang and turned him more into a fool. It seems after he became a regular his trail smarts and common sense became fewer and far between. I was also not a fan of that weird squint he started. To be honest I never could stand Festus at all (from the few re-runs I saw growing up) until I saw the early episodes MeTV played. I understand people enjoy silly Festus but I definitely like original Festus better. I’ve always wondered if the studio told Ken what changes were being made to the character or if Ken did it himself to try to make Festus stand out from other western characters.