Shark Bytes

Guess you never heard Ken Curtis sing.

I never could get into this show! There were a few good episodes, but what I couldn’t stand was that "Festus" with that whining voice that went on more than it should have. I swear I wish I could have reached thru the TV screen and strangle that annoying hick.

What I cant understand is why he wore the same exact clothes in every episode without exception just like Hoss did, Little Joe did, the Barclays did, Lucas did, etc. He always had that one odd colored shirt on. I also cant comprehend why Joe, Nick and Lucas wore gloves in every scene no matter how hot it was, no matter what they were doing. The thing about Gunsmoke, is that I realy hated the supporting cast. I couldnt stand Festus. Milburn Stone had the worst actors hitch of all time, constantly rubbing the left side of his face a dozen times per episode. Sam was fugly as sin and the sanctimoneous ,iss Kitty to me was just unlikeable. I did like Matt, but the odd thing was, unless it was a rare episode that featured Matt, he was absent 90% of most shows. Truth is, Festus was the star of the show. The ironic thing is, this series was about to be cancelled early on until an executives wife said she liked the show. So because of some unknown woman, these actors who were about to be unemployed, went on making the series for years more. The show that got axed in its place? Gilligans Island, which was about to be renewed until that woman changed so many peoples fate with one comment to her husband.

i too would like to see the black and white episodes of gunsmoke again on tv land or any other station that will run them

The original concept behind Gunsmoke was a kind of 'hard boiled crime show' in the West. Thats the way Norman McDonnell envisioned it.
It was never designed to be a western like Bonanza (melodramatic soap opera), it was designed to a hard-boiled anthology series with the main characters simply walking through, as opposed to being the main part of the story. This was more apparent as the show aged. Matt, Doc, Kitty, Festus, and Newly were reduced to cameos and walk-ons while the guest stars took center stage.
So it could not 'jump the shark' the way other shows could.

As many times as Matt has been shot throughout the series, his torso must be a mass of scar tissue.It would be interesting for some anorak to come up with the number of times Matt had been shot throughout the series. Lots of holes.

Monday nights have never been the same.

It jumped in the later seasons. Most of the episodes were either "Matt gets mortally wounded, but lives" or "Bad guy shows up to kill Matt, Kitty/Doc/Festus/Newly worry about it for most of the episode, Matt shows up in the last 5 min. and kills said bad guy with no real effort". That might have worked better in the 30-min episodes, but definitely not in the hour-long ones.

John Kridner, you are correct. John Wayne was never actually offered the role of Matt Dillon, although he was the one the shows execs wanted originally. Once they learned that Wayne despised the new medium of television, and would not have accepted the part anyway, they held an audition for the role, which both Raymond Burr and Richard Boone tried out for before going with Arness. It wasn't easy to get Arness to accept the role, however. Initially, he was disinterested in it and it was Wayne himself who had to talk him into auditioning for the part.

As much as he hated TV, though, Wayne still agreed to introduce the very first episode of Gunsmoke to the viewing audience.

Contrary to many stories about "Gunsmoke" there will always be a question if it was Willliam Conrad or Raymond Burr who stood up and the chair attempted to go with him during the tryouts for the Dillon role. Also Norman Mcdonald once said there was never an offer to John Wayne because he was to big a star for small picture screen.

Insider, I have noticed that too, you are right. I have never been sure in which season certain episodes were filmed, but there are several shows I have seen that were obviously in the latter seasons in which Matt was conspicuously missing for most of the ep. He seemed to always be either out of town or on his deathbed after being shot or bitten by a rattlesnake or something. I swear, the directors must have had a lot of footage of Dillon lying in bed with a bandage on his head and they used it several times toward the end.

Just the other day, Gunsmoke was on TV Land and right from the get-go, Matt got shot by some bank robbers and I thought, "Oh-oh. Here we go again! Matt Dillon on his deathbed. Gee... I wonder if he'll pull through at the end? The suspense will kill me" (tongue planted firmly in cheek there).

I would suspect that most of us who know anything about Gunsmoke are very aware that John Wayne was the producers' first choice to play Matt Dillon and Wayne, to his credit, recommended Arness (I believe Wayne even introduced the very first episode back in 1955), but after almost 20 years of portraying the Dodge City Marshall, Arness had to have been growing weary of the role. I read where he had decided to retire from the role several times only to be lured back by the promise of more money. I suppose, toward the end, his agent negotiated his contract to include more time off, thus the many episodes Matt being out of town or at death's door.

Peace.

If you look at the last three or four years of Gunsmoke you will notice that Matt seemed to be out-of-town during most of the action and return at the end to have a drink with Kitty or talk with Doc. During the last years James Arness would alone work about a month. He would film his five "starring episodes" then he would film all the fillers. These were episodes already shot with the other cast and they would film all his scenes in a week for the entire year.
Nice being about to work about a month out of the year.

This was a good show that I enjoy very much. I also wonder why TVLand doesn't air the black and white episodes of Gunsmoke. TVLand IMO, has pretty much run into the ground both the Bonanza and Gunsmoke reruns. I know their were many other westerns in the 50's, 60's and early 70's. I wonder why TVLand hasn't aired some of those other shows.

Do you happen to know what the cast members of Gunsmoke earned each episode or year? Thank you

Does anyone know why none of the old black and white episodes are ever shown anymore? I have seen Gunsmoke rerun on several different stations over the years, and every time it's the color version. never the black and white version with Dennis Weaver as Chester. Were these not packaged for syndication for some reason? There may have been some local stations in certain markets that carried the old reruns, but I certainly have never seen them.