"Gunsmoke" season sets- LONG OVERDUE! (1 Viewer)

Why has Paramount dragged its heels regarding its longest-running drama? Aside from the release of the later TV movies, nothing has happened on the retail front. And then there's Columbia House, which has released the first two seasons, but in volumes and at a snail's pace.

Paramount Home Video should adopt the approach that Universal has had with Law & Order: release different season sets that aren't sequential. For instance, L&O has released its first 3 seasons along with the 2003-2004 season. Where does Gunsmoke fit in? I'll demonstrate:

Gunsmoke ran for 20 seasons, but there were three distinct versions in which it was shown:

1) 1955-61 (1/2 hour B/W shows)
2) 1961-66 (hourlong B/W shows)
3) 1966-75 (hourlong color shows).

Paramount could have a simultaneous 3-way release approach by releasing season sets for years One, Seven, and Twelve (respectively, the first half-hour, hour, and color seasons). A few months later, Seasons Two, Eight, and Thirteen could be released, and so on. That way, people can get a look at the Dodge City folk in three separate versions. As Columbia House has not been releasing complete season sets, this idea could make up for it, pleasing those of us who spent Saturdays (and in my case as a later viewer, Mondays) seeing the adventures of Marshal Dillon.

It is a crime when TV's most legendary Western is not given the DVD treatment it deserves. This is only my suggestion on how that problem can be solved. I can only hope someone from Paramount Home Video is reading this post!

Charles, I completely agree! I almost wonder if Paramount plans to never release this series. There are only a handful of shows that I plan on buying every season of and Gunsmoke is one of them.

I've been so disgusted with Paramount over their handling of the Star Trek francise that this doesn't surprise me in the least. They stick it up Star Trek fans keisters by charging over $100.00 per season because they know die hard fans will pay it(except me). I've lost complete faith in them and unless there is major management change I don't see anything changing any time soon. :frowning: It's almost like they don't WANT to make money.

Charles
I love your idea too. I really want this show in season sets too but unfortunately TVSHOWSONDVD reported about 2 months ago that work had begun on a Gunsmoke Best of set for release this fall. I hope this is not true because I would not purchase this. Although I still have money in my hand waiting for Paramount to take it for all 20 season sets.

I can tell you that the 7th through 11th seasons of GUNSMOKE (which are also my favorite) would never sell in complete sets. Here's why:

If you want the hour-long black & white episodes (a.k.a. "the middle years") of GUNSMOKE uncut and uninterrupted, I suggest you did what I did: Record them off-air from The Westerns Channel! I have 120 of those on 30 DVD-R discs, 4 to a disc. I'm only missing some from the 7th season and all from the 10th, and eventually I will get those too. Those film prints are in excellent condition.

Your cost other than paying a few dollars a more each month for a cable and / or satellite channel upgrade package? $5 for every 5 TDK discs at Best Buy. Can't beat that!

I don't think you'd say that if you saw remastered prints on DVD. Western channel has alot of great programming but most of their prints are faded and anything but excellent. The Gunsmoke episodes don't even look as good as the VHS tapes released by Columbia House several years ago. So I will wait. The quality distracts me everytime I try to watch one on TV. Too spoiled by DVD and Laserdisc before that I guess.

I bought 15 of the GUNSMOKE VHS tapes several years ago, and the film print quality and video are equally pristine for both them and The Westerns Channel episodes.

The only reason for anyone to not collect from Westerns Channel, is you have their logo in the bottom right corner of the screen. That doesn't bother me, however.

Check out the following Link:http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=4151 This is the best news that I've heard in a long time. While some will complain about not getting season sets, I don't necessarily think that it is the best way to go on series that have a many seasons under their belt as Gunsmoke did. At least these two samplers with all those incredible special features will give people who have never watched the show an understanding of why it was one of the best TV shows ever to air.

I don't know Doug. I had all the Columbia House VHS releases and they started with 20 tapes one from each season and I felt it was a poor representation of the series because the show went through many different character eras and a couple episodes from each era just doesn't do it. This is a lose-lose situation for fans because we will probably never see season sets now because Paramount will judge sales on these to decide if season sets are worth it but probably only 60% of the potential customers will buy these and that will convince Paramount that there is not enough interest even though there is. These sets are worthless to me, they are no different than just sampling some episodes off TV. There is no colectibilty to these or any reason to do anything more than just rent them.

Randy - I understand your point, but lets look at this from a practical standpoint. Gunsmoke was on the air for what - 20 years give or take with maybe an average of 25 episodes per year. That is approximately 500 episodes. If they put out two season sets per year, it would take 10 years to get them all. Most casual fans would lose interest. Then there are the fans who only liked the Festus era; they would have to wait along time to get to that point. I have to disagree with your point about there being no conductibility to these sets. It sounds like James Arness is going to do some introductions to several of these episodes. That alone seems pretty collectible to me and some of the other special features seem pretty neat as well.

I think they are going to handle these Gunsmoke sets the way the Mr. Ed sets were handled. The studio will continue to issue "best of" sets as sales and time warrant. I don't necessarily think that it is such a bad thing, because there is not a strong continuity thread among these episodes. Each one pretty much stands on its own.

Don't be so defeatist, Randy- have some hope. The fact that Paramount is going thru with this collection is a hopeful sign. The idea here is for everyone to buy this collection and tell Paramount that we want season sets. I hope you're aware of the Gunsmoke Yahoo! Group and other fan sites. We must begin online petitions to make TPTB at Paramount see our viewpoint. Instead of bellyaching do something active and positive- let Paramount hear from you!!

"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" with Hugh O'Brian is scheduled for release next Tuesday from Rhino and is also a "Best of" release, similar in concept to the "Gunsmoke" releases. At least with these releases, you'll be getting considerably more episodes then you would with Warner's comparatively paltry 3-episode releases of "Maverick" and "Cheyenne," also scheduled for release next Tuesday. Incidentally, Maverick's spoof of "Gunsmoke," an episode titled "Gun Shy" is included on the DVD.

Columbia's approach to satisfying all tastes in Gunsmoke eras was to offer tapes out of chronological sequence. Like many long time fans of the show, I would prefer season sets. But Paramount at this stage is offering less than Columbia House. Yet they are apparently going to release Have Gun-Will Travel in its entirety. Gunsmoke, although containing more than twice as many episodes as HGWT, is probably more well known to today's fans than HGWT. In that respect, I wish they would have made a stronger commitment to Gunsmoke. Some of the extras have already surfaced. John Wayne's intro to the pilot has been on TVLand. James Arness has done some commentary for the Western Channel, although these may be new.

I'm not holding my breath for season sets of Mr. Ed. Gunsmoke would be less likely in view its sheer volume. I hope I'm wrong.

I know Paramount originally had a Best Of set scheduled for this month, but it has vanished off the schedule for now (at last until December or later).

Best of sets = No Sale for me.

If Paramount can release 4 Seasons of Brady Bunch a year, 5 Seasons of I Love Lucy a year and 7 seasons of several Star Trek shows a year than they can certainly rlease 4 seasons of Gunsmoke a year, the most popular western TV show of all time. It doesn't have to take 10 years and as suggested earlier in this thread they could alternate releases between old and later seasons to satisfy both fans. This seems to be what they are doing with the two Best of sets.

I will just have to stick to TV re-runs for Gunsmoke and hopefully HD DVD/Blu-Ray will later bring complete Season sets of Gunsmoke.

I have look a few places but I haven't seen anywhere that lists what "Gunsmoke" episodes they are releasing on these sets. Has anyone seen a list?

Peggy, I have been searching too. I guess the best bet is to wait for Gord Lacey as he (TVShowsonDVD.com) generally is the first to break this kind of news.