criminal activities. Cornpone later became a Christian (courtesy of Gospel Bill) and thereafter played a morally upstanding character (though Bedlow would attempt to recruit him back to villainy). Wichita Slim (Kenneth Copeland) – a tough as nails, but gentlemanly U.S. Marshall who comes through town and helps with the most difficult problems they occasionally face. Miss Trudi Lou (Trudi Blount) – a minor character to whom Nicodemus often refers as the woman he hopes to woo someday. (Trudi Blount is Ken Blount's real life wife.) Ferman Farnsworth (also played by Willie George; but often credited as "himself") – a minor character (though often referenced) who owns the ranch where Nicodemus works. Barkamaeus (Keith Holey) – an anthropomorphic human-sized talking dog who wore a cowboy hat and vest. He only appeared in early episodes of the show. Before the Elmer Barnes character was introduced, Jeff Merrill appeared on early episodes of the show as a geological surveyor, who advised Luther Bedlow of gold deposits to be found underneath Dry Gulch. John Witty and Rodney Lynch also appeared as the town doctor in several episodes. Premise The Gospel Bill Show was set in the fictional town of Dry Gulch, portrayed as being in the Old West. However, there were many anachronistic references to the present day, such as television and answering machine, which did not exist back when the show was supposed to be set. Dry Gulch was so named because the citizens voted it as a "dry" city (i.e., one which prohibited alcohol sales). Format The show would center around a topic, where Gospel Bill would be heavily involved in providing moral guidance to one of the citizens (usually Nicodemus or Elmer Barnes) and/or preventing catastrophe (mainly stopping Luther Bedlow's criminal activities). Oogene and Jeannie Mae segments A typical episode would be interrupted several times by puppet segments depicting Biblical stories as well as the adventures of Oogene, a young boy who squabbles with his sister Jeannie Mae (but the fights are always resolved by a moral lesson) and narrates "Oogene at the Zoo", in which Oogene studies an animal and relates its role to a lesson from the Bible ("Oogene at the Farm" replaced the "Oogene at the Zoo" segment in some later episodes). Segments with Oogene and Jeannie tend to be unique, but the zoo and farm field pieces are repeated frequently throughout the series as filler for the