Gunsmoke (TV series)

Gunsmoke is an American Western television series that ran from September 10, 1955, to March 31, 1975, on CBS, with 635 total episodes. The first 12 seasons aired Saturdays at 10 pm (EST), seasons 13 through 16 aired Mondays at 7:30 pm, and the last four seasons aired Mondays at 8 pm.

During its second season in 1956, the program joined the list of the top-10 television programs broadcast in the United States. It quickly moved to number one and stayed there until 1961. It remained among the top-20 programs until 1964. From 1967 through 1973, it regained its top 10 rating status, dropping to 15 in the 1973–1974 season and finally to 26 in its final season. In all, it was number one for four seasons, and in the top 10 for 13 of its 20 seasons.

It is the second adult Western series to premier, four days after The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. Airing for 20 seasons, it was television's longest running series until it was surpassed by The Simpsons.

Set in Dodge City, Kansas during the years following the American Civil War, the series follows the lives of US Marshal Matt Dillon and the citizens he is sworn to protect. Among them are his deputies, Chester Goode, and later Festus Haggen, town physician Galen "Doc" Adams, and saloon owner, Miss Kitty Russell. Most episodes involve disruptions caused by those arriving from outside Dodge City. Since Dillon's authority extends beyond town, some episodes focus on his travels, while other plots revolve around mishaps occurring while Dillon is gone. Both deputies are shown to be loyal, but often inept or indecisive at handling problems when Dillon is not around. Although Dillon and Miss Kitty are never portrayed in a romantic relationship, it is apparent they care deeply for each other. Doc Adams is portrayed as a very competent and caring physician, but his conservative treatment methods often frustrate his patients who expect a quick recovery. Doc and both deputies are often used as comic relief over the course of the series.

As the series progressed, much less is seen of Matt Dillon. The series began to resemble an anthology with Dodge City as a backdrop for storylines around the show's guest stars.^[1]

• James Arness as US Marshal Matt Dillon (1955–1975), the U.S. Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, who works to preserve law and order in the western frontier of the 1870s.
• Milburn Stone as Galen "Doc" Adams (1955–1975)
• Amanda Blake as Kathleen "Kitty" Russell (1955–1974), owner of the Long Branch Saloon. Kitty's character type suggests a seductress by implication, but Blake's portrayal of the role gave it additional depth to avoid what might have otherwise been a stereotype. She played the role of an affectionate wife to Matt, and sister or mother to guest casts as necessary. Blake's Kitty remained her own person, echoing the culture's awareness of the liberated woman.^[2]
• Dennis Weaver as Chester B. Goode (1955–1964), Marshal Dillon's initial sidekick.
• Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen (1964–1975), Festus replaced Chester as Dillon's sidekick.

Quint Asper (Burt Reynolds) (1962–65), Thad Greenwood (Roger Ewing) (1965–67), and Newly O'Brien (Buck Taylor) (1967–75), who served as both back-up deputy and doctor-in-training, having some studies in medicine through his uncle, which then continued under Doc Adams. Initially on the fringes of Dodge society, Festus Haggen was slowly phased in as a reliable sidekick and part-time deputy to Matt Dillon when Reynolds left in 1965. When Milburn Stone temporarily left for heart bypass surgery in 1971, Pat Hingle played Dr. John Chapman for several episodes.

• Wilbur Jonas (storekeeper, 1955–1963): Dabbs Greer
• Howie Uzzell (hotel clerk, 1955–1975): Howard Culver
• Moss Grimmick (stableman; 1955–1963): George Selk
• Bill Pence (Long Branch owner/co-owner 1955?–56–?): Judson Pratt
• Bill Pence, (1958–1961): Barney Phillips
• Louie Pheeters (town drunk; 1961–1970): James Nusser
• Ma Smalley (boardinghouse owner; 1961–1972): Sarah Selby
• Hank Miller (stableman; 1963–1975): Hank Patterson
• Mr. Bodkin (banker; 1963–1970): Roy Roberts
• Barney Danches (telegraph agent; 1965–1974): Charles Seel
• Roy (townsperson; 1965–1969): Roy Barcroft
• Halligan (rancher; 1966–1975): Charles Wagenheim
• Mr. Lathrop (storekeeper; 1966–1975): Woody Chambliss
• Nathan Burke (freight agent; 1966–1975): Ted Jordan
• Percy Crump (undertaker; 1966–1972): Kelton Garwood (also credited as Jonathan Harper)
• Ed O'Connor (rancher; 1968–1972): Tom Brown
• Judge Brooker (1970–1975): Herb Vigran
• John Chapman (1971): Pat Hingle
• Miss Hannah (saloon owner; 1974–75): Fran Ryan

During its twenty year run, Gunsmoke's guest stars included several Academy Award winners.^[3]

Several guest stars were Academy Award nominees.^[4]

Guest stars on the series also included Emmy Award winners.^[5]

Tony Award winning guest stars included:^[6][7]

Several guest stars on Gunsmoke went on later to star in their own Westerns.^[8]

Gunsmoke began in 1952 as a radio series. In 1955, producer Norman Macdonnell, along with John Meston and Charles Marquis Warren decided to bring the series to television.^[29] The series launched with Warren as producer-director and Robert Stabler as executive producer.

The series was originally created by Filmaster at Columbia Studios. It would later be filmed at Paramount and James Arness would become producer and owner of the company.^[2]

John Wayne was originally offered the role of Matt Dillon, but he turned it down. Instead, Wayne recommended James Arness for the role. Arness had already appeared in several films, including The Thing.^[29] Arness's six-foot-six stature and rugged appearance personified the traditional image of the Western hero.^[2]

Amanda Blake, Dennis Weaver, and Milburn Stone were hired to fill out the cast.^[29] By the 1973-1974 season, Arness, Blake, and Stone were the only remaining original cast. Some characters came and went, others were replaced with similar characters.^[30]

The television series was filmed at the present site of California Lutheran University (CLU) and nearby Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks, California.^[31][32][33]

The Gunsmoke radio theme song and later television theme is titled "Old Trails" and was composed by Glenn Spenser and Rex Koury.^[34] The theme followed the pattern of early television Westerns which relied on a set of predictable, unchanging clichés to create the distinctive "Western" sound. It features a slow, diatonic melody carried by strings and then guitar, laid over a steady "clip-clop" rhythm and timbre that mimics the sound of a horse's hooves.^[35]

The television version was thought to have been first conducted by CBS west coast music director Lud Gluskin. The lyrics of the theme, never aired on the radio or television show, were recorded and released by Tex Ritter in 1955. Ritter was backed on that Capitol record by Rex Koury and the radio Gunsmoke orchestra.^[36]

Other notable composers included:

• Elmer Bernstein
• Jerry Goldsmith
• Bernard Herrmann
• Jerome Moross
• Franz Waxman

From 1955 to 1961, Gunsmoke was a half-hour show, retitled Marshal Dillon in syndication. It then went to an hour-long format. The series was retitled Gun Law in the UK. The Marshal Dillon syndicated reruns of half-hour episodes lasted from 1961 until 1964 on CBS, originally on Tuesday nights within its time in reruns.

In 1975, CBS made the decision not to renew Gunsmoke for a 21st season, without making any public announcement or informing the producers or cast members ahead of time. The entire cast was stunned by the cancellation, as they were unaware that CBS was considering it. The cast and crew read the news in the trade papers.^[37]

Airing March 1 and March 8, 1971, the two-part episode "Pike" starring Jeanette Nolan became the pilot for a spinoff series, Dirty Sally. The series centered around Sally Fergus who was a wandering junk collector, and Cyrus Pike (Dack Rambo), an outlaw Sally teamed up with.^[38]

The release of Gunsmoke in 1955, along with The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, is what most television historians consider to be the beginning of the "adult Western".^{[39][note 1]} Previous television versions of the genre had been focused on the youth demographic. Gunsmoke producer Charles Marquis Warren indicated that Gunsmoke offered an adult approach to the Western genre.^[41] The hero iconography of the Western myth is evident in Gunsmoke's characterization Matt Dillon, representing the fictional Masterson-Earp-Hickok persona. Dillon as the embodiment of the Western hero possesses "the skill of the gunman, the moral rectitude of the Victorian hero, and the approachability of the common man".^[42]

The story-telling uses the family group format in a unique way. The characters are not exclusively family units, yet they are tied together in familial characteristics. The ranch or town represent the home as physical and social core; the characters represent family roles of parent and child; and the family values of loyalty, mutual affection, and trust are often a primary focus of character motivation.^[43] "The Gunsmoke 'family' contains within it all the familiar roles from father figure Matt and mother-mistress Kitty to scapegrace child Festus and stolid elder brother Doc."^[44] Dillon as the father figure is who the characters turn to when in need. He additionally fills the role of guardian and defender of the extended family of the town.^[45] In its setting, Gunsmoke retained the visual iconography that is characteristic to the Western, although altered from traditional forms because of what hero has become. The series moves away from the majestic panoramas of a Zane Grey; instead, we see little of the wilderness. The town is the home with the security of father figure Matt Dillon watching over it. When the viewer is greeted with wilderness views, it is usually to travel from one family setting to another. The series generally stayed away from the iconographic staple of the journey tale.^[45]

Gunsmoke premiered September 10, 1955, and until March 31, 1975, on CBS. Initially airing as 30-minute, black-and-white episodes, it aired Saturday nights, from 10:00-10:30 ET. Beginning with the 1961–1962 season, the show expanded to a 1-hour episode format. It remained in the Saturday night-time slot, from 10:00-11:00 ET. At the start of the 1967–1968 season, it moved to Monday nights, from 7:30-8:30 ET. Its final four seasons remained on Monday nights, from 8:00-9:00 ET.^[34]

When first-run, prime-time episodes of Gunsmoke expanded to a one-hour format in September 1961, CBS-TV reran the half-hour episodes under the title Marshal Dillon on Tuesday nights from 1961 through 1964 in the 7:30-8:00 time slot.^[34]

1950–1975 is considered the golden age of television Westerns, during which 119 Westerns appeared in prime time.^[46] Only two lasted more than 10 years, Bonanza and Gunsmoke.^[47] Gunsmoke ran for a total of 20 seasons, making it television's longest running series until it was surpassed by The Simpsons.^[48] It continues to be one of the most popular streaming titles on subscription platforms Peacock and Paramount+, on ad-supported supported services like Pluto and Tubi, and on FAST channels.^[48]

In 2006, as part of Gunsmoke's 50th anniversary on television, selected episodes were released on DVD in three different box sets. Twelve episodes, from 1955 to 1964, were selected for the Gunsmoke: Volume I box set, and another twelve episodes, from 1964 to 1975, were selected for the Gunsmoke: Volume II box set. Both sets are also available as a combined single "Gift Box Set". A third unique DVD box set, known as Gunsmoke: The Directors Collection, was also released with 10 selected episodes from certain seasons throughout the series' 20-year history. All of these box sets are available on Region 1 DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment and CBS DVD.

Additionally, Paramount Home Entertainment and CBS DVD have released the series in its entirety on DVD for 13 years between 2007 and 2020 in Region 1 (all of the seasons except for season one and seasons sixteen through twenty were split into two volumes). A complete series box set was released on May 5, 2020. All DVDs have been released with English audio and close captioning from season 1 to 5 and starting season 6 English SDH.

Gunsmoke was not an immediate television success. In 1955, it premiered on CBS in a Saturday night time slot against the popular The George Gobel Show and failed to make the top 15 its first season.^[1] The George Gobel Show, however, did not maintain its ratings for long, giving up ground to Gunsmoke, which had jumped to #8 in its second season. With Gunsmoke rising in the ratings, NBC moved The George Gobel Show to Tuesday nights, and Gunsmoke rose to dominate not only the Saturday night time slot, but was the #1 show on television for the next four years.^[49]

The expansion of the show to a one hour format brought a decline in ratings.

The switch to color had not produced a ratings turnaround, and on February 23, 1967, The New York Times announced that CBS planned to cancel the series, even though the show was still producing an overall rating in the top 30 with 35% audience share. CBS president William Paley, who had greenlit Gunsmoke as a radio show for CBS in 1951, lobbied the network to keep the series on the air. In order to keep Gunsmoke on the air, CBS needed to clear an hour's worth of programming, and they cancelled Gilligan's Island and a new comedy, Doc, to make room for it.^[50]

A major change following the near-cancellation was to move the show to a new time slot. The show continued in its new time slot at 8pm on Mondays, which led to a spike in ratings. It remained in the top 15 for the next seven seasons. In the 1974-1975 season, the show's ratings dipped again, and although the ratings picked up in the second half of the season, CBS executive Fred Silverman cancelled Gunsmoke after 20 seasons on the air. Silverman cited ratings attrition as the reason for cancellation. Filling the slot were Mary Tyler Moore spin-offs Rhoda and Phyllis.^[51]

Dozens of television Westerns came and went during Gunsmoke's 20-year tenure, and Gunsmoke was the sole survivor.

The series was nominate for a total of 15 Emmy awards and won a total of five.^[52]

• In TV Guide′s April 17, 1993, issue celebrating 40 years of television, the all-time-best-TV programs were chosen. "No contest, this [Gunsmoke] was the TV Western."^[53]
• Entertainment Weekly (February 19, 1999, issue) ranked the premiere of Gunsmoke as No. 47 in the "100 Greatest Moments in Television".^[54]
• Entertainment Weekly, in 1998, ranked Gunsmoke as No. 16 in The 100 Greatest TV Shows of all time.^[55]
• In a 1998 TV Guide poll of 50,000, Gunsmoke was ranked as CBS's best Western and James Arness was ranked as CBS's best "Gunslinger".^[56]
• In 1997, the episode "The Jailer" was ranked No. 28 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.^[57]
• In 2002, TV Guide ranked Gunsmoke as No. 40 in the 50 greatest television shows of all time.^[58]
• In 2013, TV Guide ranked it as #27 on their list of the 60 Best Series.^[59]
• In 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked Gunsmoke as #84 on their list of the 101 Best Written TV Series.^[60]

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• Maulhardt, Jeffrey Wayne (2010). Conejo Valley. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0738580395.
• Parks, Rita (1982). The Western Hero in Film and Television: Mass Media Mythology. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press. ISBN 978-0-8357-1287-3.
• Schuster, Hal (1989). The Gunsmoke Years. Las Vegas, Nevada: Pioneer Books. ISBN 1-55698-221-6.
• Shubilla, Thom (2022). Primetime 1966-1967: The Full Spectrum of Television's First All-Color Season. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-8344-7.
• Stone, Robert (2011). Day Hikes Around Ventura County. Day Hike Books. ISBN 978-1573420624.
• Thomas, Bob (2002-07-04). "Arness still loves 'Gunsmoke'". Deseret News. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
• West, Richard (1987). Television Westerns: Major and Minor Series, 1946-1978. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0579-1.
• Yoggy, Gary A. (1995). Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-0021-8.

• Gunsmoke at IMDb