Gunsmoke was great; easily the best western that ever aired on TV. And some believe the radio version was even better; in fact, many of the early TV episodes were simply adaptations of scripts originally written for radio.
Of course, the radio series had a completely different cast: William Conrad as Matt; Parley Baer as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc and Georgia Engel as Kitty. You can even find publicity shots of the cast, in costume as their characters. All were given auditions for the TV series, and CBS decided to go in a different direction with casting. William Conrad actually directed two episodes of the TV series, one in 1963, the other in 1971. McNear made six appearances on the show, playing parts other than Doc Adams.
Thanks. I was not aware of the radio version. I liked Conrad as an actor.
Gunsmoke was one of my favorite tv shows, and my Dad’s. My mother and sister couldn’t get into it. They loved Bonanza!
I never got into radio except while driving until Rush came on his show and I was hooked. There was one exception.
My roommate in college and my best friend from high school to now, listened to the Rest of the Story at noon everyday. He got the other room mate and I addicted to that show. We would fix lunch, eat it and listen to the Rest of the Story with Paul Harvey.
The other roommate’s dad owned a Chevy dealership, and he had a big Chevy Convertible. Sometimes on nice days, we would go to the local fast food drive in, order and then listen to Paul with the top down on the convertible.
We often had small coveys of other listeners. They would bring their lunch sacs over and listen. None of us ate in the car. We lunched while sitting/leaning on the fenders or a curb.
A 50 cent lunch, a new Chevy convertible and listening to Paul Harvey with good friends was a great break in our study routines.
Often we had some great discussions on that lesson of the day.