Gunsmoke (1 Viewer)

After hearing about this show for most of my life, and I'm now just months away from the half-century mark, I finally sat down and watched an episode. Then I came here to look for the Gunsmoke discussion thread. Probably I'm blind, but I couldn't find one. And so here's a thread, provided the moderators don't shut it down or delete it, dedicated to the longest-running Western in television history. It's still amazing to me that any show could last for a full twenty years, with an astonishing episode count that reaches past 600. What are your thoughts for how it was able to last so long? Which era of the show is your favorite? I've seen from some on another thread that there are hopes that this might make it to blu-ray at some point. It seems unlikely, but that's what fans of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, etc. said before they appeared in sparkling high def. Any and all thoughts on this series are welcome.

Anyway, at the recent Amazon Gunsmoke sale, I picked up the second half of the 7th season on DVD for $11, which is still less than a buck an episode. This was when the show had hour-long episodes in black and white. I'll post a mini review of the only episode that I've watched so far soon....

Here's a good book on the show that I recently picked up too:

How it was able to last so long -

I read (though not, if I recall, in the book you pictured) that in its last several seasons, the main cast barely appeared in most episodes. That may be an exaggeration, but the writer was contending (truthfully, I think) that the episodes were vehicles-for and largely carried-by the various guest stars. So the main cast were essentially just supporting players to the guest stars.

The episode I watched was Old Dan, guest starring veteran character actor Edgar Buchanan as a drunk dragged out of a ditch by Doc. The Doc, well played by Milburn Stone, extends to him an amazing level of compassion and help. Doc's funny little twitch-blink-squint was endearing, even if somewhat affected. I couldn't quiet believe, however, that the local shop owner could be so easily prevailed upon to hire Dan. And then to allow Dan to lock up, after only seemingly a week on the job, knowing what was locked in the cabinet? That seemed like sloppy writing to me. At least they should have come up with an emergency to plausibly pull away the shop owner from what clearly was a disaster in the making.

There was, for me, at least one more similar flaw in the writing at the end. A no-good son of a local rancher, played by William Campbell of "Trelane" fame on Star Trek, seemingly for no good reason starts brutally beating his father. Imho, he should have been drunk and/or have had more of a provocation for doing this. It just didn't quite make sense to me, even for someone who was shown to be mean-spirited.

And yet, in spite of what seemed like some flaws, I liked the episode and was touched by it. James Arness as Matt Dillion was a gentle giant of a man, but with a reserve of steel that you could sense. Dennis Weaver's Chester was funny without being too over-the-top. Doc was endearing. And Dan was somehow touching, even if tragically flawed. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Amanda Blake's Kitty! I liked her a lot, and could see right away how generations of men dreamed of sharing a cup of coffee and conversation with that woman.

And the ending, which was surprisingly grim and unsentimental, struck me as being unusual for television. There weren't any happy answers for anybody.

The PQ for this episode on this DVD seemed very good.

As some know, my favorite TV Western is The Virginian, and compared to that Gunsmoke did seem fairly low budget. But it's clearly a very well made show, and overall I liked my first episode well enough to write this review as I look forward to the next episode in a day or so....

I've had the opportunity over the years to watch a sampling of the three different eras. At one point I would've told you the color years were my favorite but after seeing the b&w episodes on Encore Western, well, I don't know. It seems the b&w episodes were written better. In retrospect, perhaps the color ones were too formulaic but I do prefer Festus whom most people don't seem to.

If you get Encore Western, keep an eye out because they'll show the made for TV movies now and then from after the show's run. They're not as good as the original series but not bad. I think I have three of them on DVD-R where I recorded them from Encore.

If you visit Gunsmoke threads...they almost always agree that the "GOLD" for Gunsmoke are the first 6 seasons...the half hour years...because in the hourly format several episodes were accused of possessing "filler" and repeating itself. At any rate..the writing was top notch under John Meston's direction.Personally the show was never quite the same when writers Meston and Kathleen Hite left the show. Many quality hourly episodes were written by Meston and Hite as the black and white years hit the down side of the hill. Paul Savage became story consultant and had some good writers under his wings like Paul Edwards, Ron Bishop and Clyde Ware during the end of the b/w era into the color years. The production changed hands from Charles Marquis Warren/Norman MacDonnell to John Mantley/Phillip Leacock/Joseph Dackow/Leonard Katzman.While I'm here...I'll list some of my favorite hourlies1) Mannon - Gunsmoke's ultimate bad guy comes to town when Matt is away and smacks Miss Kitty around.(2) The Gallows - Grim episode where Matt catches a killer and wrestles with his conscience when he realizes the convicted killer killed by accident with absolutely no proof.(3) Anybody Can Kill A Marshal - It's hunting season in Dodge City and can you guess who it's hunting season for???(4) The Way It Is - A story penned by Hite from a woman's point of view. Don't laugh...she penned "Anybody Can Kill A Marshal". Great story. Claude Akins was never better.(5) Seven Hours To Dawn - A bad day in Dodge when the bad guys and their behavior run rampant over Dodge City and Matt IS in town.Best Ever Episode (from season 1): The Guitar - A drifter (played by Aaron Spelling) and his guitar are roughed up by a pair of thugs...before the duo promise to kill him when he leaves Dodge.

I can't really comment on specific episodes or seasons yet, but I took full advantage of the recent Amazon sale (plus some copious redeemed bonus points earned on my credit card) and ordered Seasons 1-9. They haven't arrived at my door quite yet (and a few sets were back-ordered), but I'm looking forward to diving into the black & white years.

Given my enjoyment of Charles Marquis Warren's RAWHIDE episodes, and THE RIFLEMAN (Sam Peckinpah's contributions, among many other things), I think I'll really like these, especially the half-hour episodes. I saw some chunks (though not full episodes) of some of the hour-long shows (Burt Reynolds' 'Quint' era) when Encore-Westerns was running them several years ago, and they seemed pretty interesting. Whether or not I eventually continue into seasons 10 and 11 remains to be seen, but that's a long way off. I suspect my ownership cut-off point with GUNSMOKE will be when Reynolds leaves the series, unless the quality of the writing seriously dips, prior to that point.

Impressive that you managed to go your whole life avoiding Gunsmoke, as it has played in syndication almost as much as Lucy. The middle of the 7th Season is an odd place to start, but okay.

My favorite era of Gunsmoke is Seasons 2-6.

Season 1 isn't as strong as what followed, perhaps because the people who created it and were behind the radio show, John Meston and Norman MacDonnell, weren't in full control. After they got full control in Season 2, the show took off.

Those half-hour episodes are great. Most of them are pure character studies; what would a character do in a morally dubious situation. So much of the show was about morality, fairness. I loved how the show wouldn't shy away from having the worst possible thing happen to the guest characters, from them dying, to having their lives ruined; it was realistic. Some of the episodes are really, really dark, and others are just plain weird and quirky.

Examples from Season 2: "Cholera," where a woman deliberately gives another boy cholera as revenge; or "Skid Row," where the love of a drunk's life comes to town; he never sobers up and she gets killed meaninglessly. The show was very brave, even with the character of Matt himself. In "The Mistake," he actually pursues the wrong man and people die because of it; in "No Indians," he ambushes and kills all the bad guys before they get a chance to defend themselves!

My second favorite era is season 7-10. While some of the episodes felt padded, they still had some of the feel of seasons 2-6. When Meston and MacDonnell left the show after season 10, it changed. By the color era, run by different producers, it was like a different show entirely. It was still good, but it lost the fairly dark, quirky character stories that made it so great under Meston. It was a little more like your standard law-and-order Western with your typical Western characters, stories, and happy endings. Matt became like a god who could do no wrong, for the few minutes he was in many of the color episodes.

Peter M Fitzgerald said:

I took full advantage of the recent Amazon sale (plus some copious redeemed bonus points earned on my credit card) and ordered Seasons 1-9.

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You did good.

All this talk of Gunsmoke made me take out one of the season sets I reviewed - Season 3, Volume 1 - and rewatch half a dozen episodes yesterday. They were all so enjoyable. This was its Best Drama Series Emmy-winning season, so I guess it's no surprise the episodes were really well written and performed.

jdee28 said:

My second favorite era is season 7-10.

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I think Kathleen's writing contributions help this era tremendously.

jdee28 said:

My favorite era of Gunsmoke is Seasons 2-6. I loved how the show wouldn't shy away from having the worst possible thing happen to the guest characters, from them dying, to having their lives ruined; it was realistic. Some of the episodes are really, really dark, and others are just plain weird and quirky.

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You hit a grand slam with this commentary.

For me the best Gunsmoke was pre-Festus. After that character became established there was to much comedy in the series.

Loved Gunsmoke and am on season 3 now

I somehow managed to avoid Gunsmoke over the years until I started buying the DVD releases. I love the 1/2 hour episodes. The chemistry between the main cast is especially enjoyable. The hour-long B&W episodes are almost as good, although there is some padding. I'm about half-way through Season 8 and I'll really miss Dennis Weaver when he leaves, although Burt Reynolds has been doing a fine job helping Matt when called upon.

I've always avoided this show as I am not a big fan of television westerns. And the fact that it ran so long has put me off from buying it, because I don't see much replay value in twenty years of shows. However, I caught an episode on tv yesterday and it was really good. So now I'm considering it. I own 80 television series on dvd and blu ray and my collection feels incomplete without this classic.

When switching from the 1/2 hour shows to the hour long ones, I'm guessing they still had a number of 1/2 hour scripts so they had to stretch them out to fill an hours worth. Just a guess on my part. I noticed in the later hour long seasons (b/w), this wasn't the case. Even though the 1/2 hour ones are my favorites, there are many pretty darn good hour ones as well. Watch the color ones on ME tv from time to time and they just aren't as good.


I like both Chester and Fetus but I get so irritated with Chester. He never has a gun when he needs one and he always seems to be a hindrance to Matt. Whenever Matt puts him in charge of a prisoner, poor Chester gets tricked or held up while the prisoner escapes. He's kind of like Robin in the 66 tv series. At least Festus had a gun on him, could shoot and wrassle.

moviebuff75 said:

I own 80 television series on dvd and blu ray and my collection feels incomplete without this classic.

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U mean your a member of this forum and only 80 shows owned???? U'd think we were living back in the Depressed 30s.

Well, yeah. I own about 35 mini-series and over 200 holiday specials, in addition to regular series. So, 80 is a lot for me.