"Gunsmoke" (1955) - Review & Commentary

[Mister Obvious]

S1 E20 - "Reunion '78"

So this epic 20th episode Boot Hill intro has prompted me to look up "Gunsmoke Boot Hill intros" on a Google search and see if anything was ever said about these legendary openers. I found this...

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0047736/trivia

The beginning sequence with Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) walking around through the graves on Boot Hill and giving the opening narration was taken directly from the radio series.

Well that makes sense. It's an homage to the radio show.

I also came across a really interesting page of quotes by James Arness...

https://www.celebheights.com/s/James-Arness-2320.html

In the 1970s he said "I'm 6'6" and weigh 225 pounds", although he also said in 2005, "I was 6 feet 7 when I started and I've shrunk up a little bit. I'm probably 6'5" or so now. But up here at 82 I feel pretty good."

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0047736/trivia

In the radio series, Miss Kitty Russell was a madam for prostitutes. In the first couple of seasons, there were some hints at that on the television series. James Arness explained on the DVD commentary that after the first couple of seasons, they decided to drop those references to make the show more family friendly, and so Miss Kitty became just a lady saloon owner.

LOL, aha!

James Arness received his draft notice in 1943, and trained at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, before shipping out for North Africa. He was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division in time for the invasion of Anzio. Ten days after the invasion, he was severely wounded in the leg and foot by machine gun fire. He lost part of his foot, and received a medical discharge from the Army. When shooting movies or television shows, any scenes that required extensive walking would be shot early in the morning, before his feet and knees started giving out.

Woooowwww... *heart eyes*

In the show's twenty-year run, James Arness was the only actor who appeared in every episode.

Thank God he's in every single episode, that's all I know.

In Spanish-speaking countries, the series is known as La Ley Del Revólver ("The Law of the Revolver").

Whoooaaa!!!

In the series' 20 seasons, Matt Dillon kissed only one lady: Michael Learned of The Waltons (1972) fame, in Gunsmoke: Matt's Love Story (1973).

Well that's a bit of a spoiler... lol. But I guess it answers my question about whether Marshal Dillon was always faithful to Kitty. Seems that he was. How interesting. This is what Amanda Blake meant when she said that James Arness never wanted to make a mistake with his character and never wanted to let anyone down.

The series was set in the 1870s. Kansas entered the Union in 1861. The U.S. Marshal's Service provided local law enforcement in territories, not in states. The duties Matt Dillon performed would have been handled by a town marshal or county sheriff (in this case, Ford County). Each state (or federal court district) had one U.S. marshal, who was in charge of all of the deputy U.S. marshals in that particular jurisdiction; Matt Dillon would have been a deputy U.S. marshal.

More interesting info about the differences between marshals, sheriffs, etc.

During the show's twenty season run, anytime between seasons when the writing crew was 'washed-up' with ideas/stories and kept repeating/recycling, they would entirely be replaced with a new writing crew.

Lmao, wow! I actually agree with this approach. They clearly knew what they wanted with Gunsmoke and they weren't gonna put up with any naysaying motherfuckers. I will be the judge of whether the show got washed up or not.

The cast of the radio version was completely different than the television version. Playing the main roles were William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Georgia Ellis as Miss Kitty Russell, Howard McNear as Doc Adams, and Parley Baer as Chester. In fact, with the exception of Conrad, many felt that the radio cast were going to reprise their roles on the televised version.

Ladies and gentlemen... before there was TV, there was radio. Let's never forget that, and what it means for the format of entertainment that we enjoy today... what'll it be replaced with? Holograms?

Unfortunately, according to Arness, the cancellation at the end of the 20th season got them by surprise. The cast and crew were all expecting another season, three at most, at least until the series had seven hundred episodes.

Tsk. They should have let 'em have that 700... they were done wrong by the cancellation, but again, I'll share my thoughts on that as I continue to progress through the series. I'll be honest.

Alright, back to the episode...

1:00 my favorite of all the Boot Hill intros yet, absolutely beautiful, check it out... https://imgur.com/a/eaEXZOX

Those captions though. Not perfect. Should have been done better. Not sure what the limitations were which caused them to settle for lack. Regardless, still better than nothing. Maybe they'll get it right on the 75th anniversary release ;)

2:52 uh oh, this may be the finest saloon broad I've ever seen, she's SURE to be trouble.

3:00 Miss Belle!? Oh she's trouble for sure... https://imgur.com/a/G1muANr

3:46 uh oh, lol, I guess Chester's gettin' some for free tonight!!!

4:00 her appearance, makeup etc. is a clear tip of the hat to Marilyn Monroe. The actress who portrays her just died this year... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Brash

7:50 lol the marshal's body language while this whole bar fight is heating up just speaks volumes... he's so chill and just exudes pure and total manliness.

8:17 he's got a Queen of Diamonds tattoo... what does that mean?

15:50 re: the tattoo, WTF is a Quantrill? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Quantrill I dunno, maybe some kinda gang. I guess that's what the Q stood for.

16:20 carried off his ma, huh?! No wonder he's mad!!!

17:00 that dance hall hussy saw what happened, is she gonna talk!?

19:20 somebody needs to hold her down and tickle it out of her!!!

That was a great story.