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I finished Gunsmoke season 20 the other day. I can't believe I've watched all 635 episodes. What a great, great series and what memories it's made over this last decade-plus watching it on DVD. And season 20 closed out with some great episodes, including my favorite of the season: the two-part...

Season 20's two-part "The Guns of Cibola Blanca"--wow. That's got to be the toughest Gunsmoke action of the color era. Great villains (Harold Gould, Richard Anderson, James Luisi) and great lines by Matt (especially), Doc, Festus, and Newly. And what a finish! And a note on season 19: there's a...

I noticed something interesting in the penultimate season-19 episode, "To Ride a Yeller Horse." Louise Latham's character clearly said originally that her son's lover opened up a brothel in a nearby town, but they dubbed over the word "brothel" with "saloon."

Look closely at the wanted poster Festus is holding in "Like Old Times," and you might chuckle.

I watched a good season-19 episode, "A Family of Killers," with Anthony Caruso heading up a group of gutter-trash relatives (good gutter trash make for a good western, I say). Glenn Corbett plays a fellow marshal who joins Matt in pursuit of the killers. Zina Bethune is the woman passed from one...

I recently watched "Talbot" from season 18, a great showcase for Anthony Zerbe in the title role and a strong episode for Salome Jens. In act one, Zerbe shoots Jens' blowhard/drunken/back-shooting/bad-gambler husband Robert Totten (an occasional actor and director on Gunsmoke). In act two, Zerbe...

Just watched the outstanding "Whelan's Men" from season 18. The game of poker is worked into many a western, but perhaps few better than this episode. Great Amanda Blake episode, as Miss Kitty engages the bad guys in a game of poker for the highest stakes possible.

I watched season 18's "Sarah" last night and saw for the first time on Gunsmoke some Sam Peckinpah-style slow motion during a fight scene between Arness and one of Anthony Caruso's henchmen. Great episode for Anne Francis fans, as she is in the title role. In the previous episode, "The...

I'm still in season 17 but skipped ahead to watch "The River" two-parter in all its restored glory. Previously I had only seen it in the TV Land and MeTV versions. Slim Pickens is one of my favorite actors--in "The River," he's constantly shouting re Dillon, "Shoot him! Kill him! Don't let him...

Just watched season 17's "No Tomorrow, and James Nusser appears as Louie unbilled.

I just finished the great three-parter "The Bullet" (a.k.a. "Gold Train"). Wonderful juxtaposition of the main cast (with Doc Adams returning to the series), the main villain (Eric Braeden), his gutter trash (led by Robert Sorrells, Mills Watson, Sam Melville, Eddie Firestone, and Jonathan...

I just watched another great episode from S17, "Drago," with mountain man Buddy Ebsen (and his dog, "Hound") chasing down killer Ben Johnson.

Last night, after I posted the above about non-violence, I watched the season 17 episode "Trafton," which opens with Victor French killing a priest on camera after looting his church of the gold items on the altar. Later, French terrorizes saloon proprietress Marie Windsor and bartender Mike...

The violence in Gunsmoke really tails off by the end of the 1960s. By then the onscreen killings had dropped considerably, and the iconic gunman-in-the-streets opening was ditched in favor of a shot of Dillon riding his horse while Arness' credit is announced. Another long-running series at the...

Into season 17 now, and one thing that jumps out is faster, harder-to-read closing credits. The overall episode times are still in the 50-minutes-plus range (and that's what counts), but I think the producers trimmed a few seconds from the end-credit sequence while speeding up the credits at the...

I noticed a few interesting things about the two-part season-16 finale, "Dirty Sally." First, the original episode title was "Pike," as listed on the DVD set, and "Dirty Sally" was listed on the set as the "a.k.a." title, something that appears on many color episodes on the DVD sets. "Dirty...

Just watched a great season-16 episode, "Cleavus." Occasional Gunsmoke director and sometime bit-part actor Robert Totten has the title role and is featured throughout. Great Festus and Kitty episode too. Note to HTF'ers who haven't seen it: don't read the plot summary in the DVD set, as it...

Watched a pretty good season-15 Gunsmoke on the new set, "Albert," with Milton Selzer in the title role. Selzer is a wimpy bank clerk who manages to foil a robbery. With the safe open as the robbers make a frantic escape, Selzer pockets $5,000 for himself. The robbers, led by William Schallert...

In the season 15 episode "MacGraw," there's a shot of the stable-feed shop, which has a sign that says, "Hank Patterson-prop." Actor Patterson played stableman Hank for several years both before and after this episode.