I’m also a big Gunsmoke fan and it’s hard to find the original, 30 ninute black-and-white episodes on cable, since most prorammers believe anything that isn’t in color drives away viewers. Nice to know the earliest episodes are airing somewhere.
A few tidbits about those episodes. Most of the early segments were heavily based on radio scripts that had already been produced. That practice continued until the series became one hour in length. By the time the TV series debuted, Gunsmoke had been a successful radio series for five years, with close to 200 episodes “in the can.”. So, the producers had plenty of material to work with.
Also, legend has it that John Wayne was the first choice to play Matt Dillon. However, there’s no real evidence to support that theory. But James Arness was under contract to Wayne’s production company when the series was cast, so it was easy for him to make the recommendation.
Gunsmoke was also one of the most realistic westerns on TV, in more ways than one. If you watch some of the BW episodes, you’ll see bar girls in the Long Branch go up the stairs with cowboys, and return a few minutes later—an obvious reference to the saloon’s secondary business (and Miss Kitty’s real profession). Amazingly, the CBS censors never caught on, and the scenes remained in the series.
Finally, if you watch the closing credits, you’ll see the later BW episodes were filmed by the Arness Production Company. When Gunsmoke became a hit, CBS was anxious to keep their star happy and gave him a chance to cash in as a producer. When the series expanded to 60 minutes in length, CBS bought him out and Arness became an even wealthier man.
***.... it’s hard to find the original, 30 ninute black-and-white episodes on cable,***
You need to get STARZ Western channel. It’s got lots of old black and white shows from the 1950s and ‘60s. Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Wagon Train, RAWHIDE.
MARSHALL DILLON is just the name given to the GUNSMOKE series when they began to show the older shows in the daytime.
GUNSMOKE was the first to deal with adult situations until 1968 when all shows downgraded to kiddie shows due to the blame placed on them for Bobby Kennedy being shot. The MSM blamed comic books, Tv shows, movies for the Killing.
It got so bad with childish scripts that even Millburn Stone (Doc) complained about it in an interview.
Only movies escaped the downgrade by claiming they would police themselves. So the fox then began to guard the henhouse and movies went for blood and guts and BOOBS and BUTTS! Show em if you got em!