Posted on 08/12/2013 1:27:59 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKxnN9YBaw
Piece of genius casting, that. BTT
The writing and the acting just got better, instead of going down hill.
Ken Curtis was fantastic! Replaced D Weaver IIRC. But Curtis was already huge. Singer...was supposed to replace Sinatra at one point, accomplished actor, well respected. One of the best castings ever!
“Aw... I aint’ gonna shoot off his whole ear...jus’ the little hangy down part.”
You can find Curtis in many classic westerns including the greatest of all, The Searchers.
Actually I think it went downhill pretty quickly when it went to color and the Matt Dillon character had fewer lines and was in fewer and fewer scenes. I had a huge crush on Amamda Blake. What a doll.
Also The Alamo. The real one with John Wayne, not the stupid remake.
He was in a ton of stuff not all westerns.
Almost everyday Gunsmoke and Bonanza are on in my home.
He was John Ford’s son-in-law for a while. Seeing him in “Gunsmoke,” or in “The Searchers” where Ford made him use a silly accent, you don’t get the whole impression of how Wheee-doggies! gorgeous he was.
Directed one of the worse monster movies I ever saw, KILLER SHREWS.
It was so bad it was good, kind of like Sharknado.
He played the accordion in the Quiet Man.
I loved those Matt-less episodes, especially the one with Festus and the old prospector with the pet snake, or that backwoods family that kidnapped some show girls/prostitutes, and its sequel where they try to marry them all off but it turns into a brawl.
Weaver was no slouch, either. He had a gentleness that was hard to portray in a series about a rough-n-tough lawman. But Curtis was absolutely immortal, though.
That was just one of countless great lines he got.
***Actually I think it went downhill pretty quickly when it went to color and the Matt Dillon character had fewer lines and was in fewer and fewer scenes.***
It went downhill in 1968 after the murder of Bobby Kennedy and there began an anti-violence backlash against western TV shows.
Before 1968, Gunsmoke was for adults, with adult themes, being broadcast at Saturday 9PM Central time when the kiddies were in bed.
After 1968, it was moved to an early time period, extended to an hour and as Milburn Stone(Doc) said, there were then more kids on the show than he could ever remember. The scripts were so dumbed down it was pitiful. I could never watch it after that.
But then, everything went to hell after the murder of Bobby Kennedy. Only movies at the theaters escaped by starting up a joke called a “rating system.” They then began to make the most vile movies ever to come out of Hollywood.
didn’t know he sang:
That sounds hysterical.
good job on Have Gun Will Travel:
He should have been introduced earlier if you ask me but they changed his character a bit too much later if you ask me, he started acting like an old man.
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