Wasn’t Gunsmoke an hour long?................
Some were others were but 30 minutes. I never understood why the time needed to be doubled anyway. Anything worth doing could be gotten out in 30 minutes. OK, enough of this...back to the question of ‘Who is Marshall Law?’. My bet is on a remake of Gunsmoke. Barry Soetoro will be the ‘new’ Matt Dillion and MIss Kitty will be played by a man. The series will air on CBS during prime time.
Gunsmoke began as a 30 minute program; it didn’t “expand” to the hour-long format until 1962, and remained at that length until it left the airwaves in 1975.
Many of the early black-and-white episodes were simply remakes of the radio series, with identical plots and dialogue. If you watch the credits from some of the 30 minute shows, you’ll see they were filmed by the “Arness Production Company.” When Gunsmoke became a hit, CBS gave Jim Arness a production deal, which he retained until the show expanded to one hour. At that point, CBS bought Arness out as a producer and he became an instant millionaire.
Both the TV and radio versions are among my all-time favorites. It’s an eternal debate among fans of both series, but I think the radio series was even better than the TV program. Bill Conrad was absolutely superb, and so were Parley Baer, Howard McNear and Georgia Ellis. Of course, I don’t think Conrad would have worked as Matt Dillon on TV, and when they decided to go in a different direction, the rest of the radio cast lost their opportunity to join the television version as well.