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Have Gun and Gunsmoke Fans

post #1 of 15
1/12/10 at 12:10pm
Thread Starter 
I noticed today that Netflix has added Seasons 4 and 5 of HGWT and Seasons 7-11 of Gunsmoke to their online Streaming service. This Is Great News for those dissspointed by CBS's slow release schedule. HGWT is coming this spring and who knows when more gunsmoke is coming. Crossing my Fingers that Netflix grabs the rest of Rawhide. This in addition to Encore picking up some of the seasons is great news. And good for those that might not get Encore. I've been watching Season 7 of Gunsmoke that I recorded New Years Weekend and I'm enjoying these early hour long episodes, I've queued up Season 8 in my Netflix queue but not sure how I'll get along without Chester, not a bit Festus fan...
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post #2 of 15
1/12/10 at 12:51pm

Gunsmoke is all new to me except for a few memories from childhood. I like Chester and from a few recollections I have a feeling I'm not going to be a big Festus fan either. So I agree it will be a shame when Chester leaves part way into season 8 (from what I read). However, it does not appear like Festus comes in right away. We get Burt Reynolds for a couple of years (through season 10) before Festus becomes a regular. So I'm looking forward to seeing seasons 7 through 10 on Encore.

 

If you like Gunsmoke you might want to try the radio broadcast (if you haven't already). They are readily available for download. I've been listening to them for a few months now in my car on my way to work and they are very entertaining. There is some crossover episode wise since they use some of the same scripts but the casting is excellent.

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post #3 of 15
1/12/10 at 1:02pm
Thread Starter 
Chester, Quint and Festus and all together thru most of season 8 from what I can see in the guide although it looks like chester is slowly phased out thru out. I can't get an answer whether chester's dissapearance is ever explained, someone told me it was in a passing line of dialog.
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post #4 of 15
1/12/10 at 1:10pm
That I don't know (explanation for Chester departure in the show).

My references were extracted from the Gunsmoke Wiki, as stated below:

"In 1963, singer and character actor Ken Curtis did a guest role as a shady ladies' man. shortly thereafter, Weaver left the series to venture out as the lead in his own TV series, Kentucky Jones. Burt Reynolds was added to the show's lineup, as a "halfbreed" blacksmith Quint Asper. In 1965, Curtis returned and was cast to play the stubbornly illiterate hillbilly Festus Haggen. Initially existing on the fringes of Dodge society, Festus Haggen was slowly phased in as a reliable sidekick to Matt Dillon and was eventually made a deputy."

This is why I didn't think Festus really came in until season 11 (1965). But it is a wiki after all, so it may not be completely accurate.
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post #5 of 15
1/12/10 at 1:48pm
Festus made his first appearance in an 8th-season episode (from late-1962), and started making a few infrequent appearances after that.  It was a rather slow, gradual process in which he became a regular.  If I'm not mistaken, I think there was an episode that had Chester, Quint and Festus in it, all together.  It did not initially seem as though Festus was designed to be a replacement for Chester, although that's eventually what happened.  Anyway, that hour-long b&w period of "Gunsmoke" (1961-66) has some real gems.   
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post #6 of 15
1/12/10 at 7:34pm

Actually, Dennis Weaver tried to leave Gunsmoke during the seventh and eight seasons. There are quite a number of shows from both those years that he's not in because during the time they were produced, towards the end or beginning of a season, he had left the show. But he came back each time, as his pilots weren't picked up. Finally during season nine, NBC picked up Kentucky Jones and he left Gunsmoke for good, never to return.
 

The producers brought in Burt Reynolds as Quint Asper in the beginning of Season 8 to make the cast younger. Festus appeared for the first time in Season 8 too, in the episode "Us Haggens" (12/8/62), but wasn't seen again until Season 9's "Praire Wolfer" (1/18/64) and "Once a Hagen" (2/1/64). Weaver was definitely leaving by this time, and those were the only two episodes where Chester and Festus appeared together. Weaver last appeared in "Bentley" (4/11/64).

You never really knew what secondary character would show up for episodes from seasons 8-10. One show it would be just Quint, another Quint and Chester; another just Festus; another Festus & Quint. Shows weren't aired in the order that they were produced. A show where Chester was still in the cast would be followed by one where it was just Festus. When Chester stopped appearing, there was no explanation; same with Quint. His last episode was "Bank Baby" (3/20/65), filmed earlier that season but aired towards its latter half. It's was quite a merry-go-round in terms of cast changes. The cast stabilized with season 11; the regulars would now appear in almost every show.


Edited by jdee28 - 1/12/10 at 7:44pm
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post #7 of 15
1/12/10 at 7:43pm
I'm surprised by the low quality of the prints of Half Gun - Will Travel that are airing on the Western Channel. They look to be 16mm with hardly any clean-up at all.
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post #8 of 15
1/12/10 at 10:03pm
Thread Starter 
I checked out Netflix HGWT from Season 4. The prints have definately been remastered and are as good as CBS's Cleaned up Rawhide and Gunsmoke Prints. HGWT has far less Grain than Gunsmoke Has. My guess is that Encore is running the non remastered seasons 1-3 the same that appeared on DVD, and you'll notice the difference once they hit season 4. HGWT has the Starz logo in front of them so they are on the on Demand portion of Netflix in an agreement with the Encore channel and that's why they have the same run of Gunsmoke that Encore will be running, Seasons 7-11. No Virginian thou so they are'nt streaming all the series, maybe at a later date. Someone had mentioned that Encore will run Rawhide Next year so Maybe those will be added to Netflix at some point....
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post #9 of 15
1/13/10 at 12:34am
Re- Gunsmoke , Chester & Quint leaving. No explanation was given at the time but in a much later episode called I think 'The Fourth Victim' they were all mentioned by Matt as leaving Dodge for various reasons. 
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post #10 of 15
1/13/10 at 6:25am
I looked at netflix, and for Have Gun-Will Travel, it's not the complete seasons; they 're many missing episodes. They don't have any shows from Season 6. They only have two episodes from Season 5, both looking like 16mm.  Shows are missing from Seasons 1-4. The only season that has been remastered is Season 4. The rest of the seasons look like 16 mm that have been cleaned up.

For Gunsmoke Seasons 7-11, they look better, but they are missing a few episodes too, it's not the complete seasons, and some have been misidentified. I tried playing "Perce" from Season 7 and got "A Man A Day."
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post #11 of 15
1/11/11 at 4:39pm

In The Adventures Of Superman one of the fans fav. programs, The Stolen Costume suvives only in 16MM. As for HGWT, many of the openings and credits exsist only in 16MM. Shows were edited for syndication and sometimes these elements were lost!

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post #12 of 15
1/11/11 at 5:03pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBWtBz3iDwY&feature=related 

 

6:26

Matt's comments on Quint & Chester. Ounit went to CA 10 years ago.

Chester left after a trial. Used to work for Matt -before Newly's time.

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post #13 of 15
1/12/11 at 6:24am

Some of the best episodes from season 8 include: "Anybody Can Kill A Marshal", "The Way It Is", and "Abe Blocker".  "Hung High", "Ten Little Indians" and "One Killer on Ice" are very good episodes that are shown on the Best of Gunsmoke DVD 50th anniversary/Directors sets.

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post #14 of 15
1/12/11 at 6:28am

As for HGWT....I bought the season 4 sets on DVD which include "A Quiet Night in Town" Parts 1 and 2 and my absolute favorite HGWT episode, "El Paso Stage" with Buddy Ebsen's Marshal Elmo Crane being the all-time best Paladin villain/enemy.  I have no interest in season 5 because of the weak/repeat storylines but am very eager to get season 6, vol 1 which include great episodes "Genesis", "The Predators" and "Memories of Monica".

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post #15 of 15
1/12/11 at 11:22am

Encore Westerns showed the first 8 episodes of season 6 HGWT, then abruptly quit, only to pick up about the last 6 episodes of the season a month or two later.  Unless I somehow missed the episodes inbetween, they left out the middle of season 6.

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