Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centered on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
The radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that, among radio drama enthusiasts, "Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time." It ran unsponsored for its first few years, with CBS funding its production.
In 1955, the series was adapted for television and ran for 20 seasons. It ran for half-hour episodes from 1955 to 1961, and one-hour episodes from 1961 to 1975. A total of 635 episodes were aired over its 20 year run, making it the longest-running scripted American primetime television series until being surpassed in episodes by The Simpsons. At the end of its run in 1975, Los Angeles Times columnist Cecil Smith wrote: "Gunsmoke was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the west. Our own Iliad and Odyssey, created from standard elements of the dime novel and the pulp Western as romanticized by Buntline, Harte, and Twain. It was ever the stuff of legend."
Five made-for-TV movies were produced after its 20-year run. The show won 15 Primetime Emmy Awards as well as other accolades. It was frequently well received, holding a top-10 spot in the Nielsen ratings for several seasons.
In the United Kingdom, the series was initially titled Gun Law.
Radio series (1952–1961)
In the late 1940s, CBS chairman William S. Paley, a fan of the Philip Marlowe radio series, asked his programming chief, Hubell Robinson, to develop a hardcore Western series, about a "Philip Marlowe of the Old West". Robinson delegated this to his West Coast CBS vice president, Harry Ackerman, who had developed the Philip Marlowe series.Ackerman and his scriptwriters, Mort Fine and David Friedkin, created an audition script called "Mark Dillon Goes to Gouge Eye" based on one of their Michael Shayne radio scripts, "The Case of the Crooked Wheel", from mid-1948. Two versions were recorded. The first, recorded in June 1949, was very much like a hardcore detective series and starred Michael Rye as Dillon; the second, recorded in July 1949, starred Straight Arrow actor Howard Culver in a more Western, lighter version of the same script. CBS liked the Culver version better, and Ackerman was told to proceed.
A complication arose when Culver's contract as the star of Straight Arrow would not allow him to do another Western series. The project was suspended for three years, when producer Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston discovered it while creating an adult Western series of their own.
Macdonnell and Meston wanted to create a radio Western for adults, in contrast to the prevailing juvenile fare such as The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid. They wanted to call the show "Jeff Spain" after a character they had created and used in several of their anthology shows, but Ackerman had already coined the title Gunsmoke which CBS wanted to use. Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas, during the thriving cattle days of the 1870s. Dunning notes, "The show drew critical acclaim for unprecedented realism."
Episodes
Cast
The radio series first aired on CBS on April 26, 1952, with the episode "Billy the Kid", written by Walter Newman, and ended on June 18, 1961. The show stars William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Dillon's assistant, Chester Wesley Proudfoot.Matt Dillon
was played on radio by William Conrad and on television by James Arness. Two versions of the same pilot episode titled "Mark Dillon Goes to Gouge Eye" were produced with Rye Billsbury and Howard Culver playing Marshal Mark Dillon as the lead, not yet played by Conrad. Mcadonnell and Meston both knew when they took over the project that they wanted Conrad as their lead, but CBS objected, likely due to his already heavy presence in film and radio productions. Conrad later recounted "I think when they started casting for it, somebody said, 'Good Christ, lets not get Bill Conrad, we're up to you-know where with Bill Conrad.' So they auditioned everybody, and as a last resort they called me. And I went in and read about two lines...and the next day they called me and said, 'Okay you have the job.'"Dillon, as portrayed by Conrad, was a lonely, isolated man, toughened by a hard life. Macdonnell later claimed, "Much of Matt Dillon's character grew out of Bill Conrad." He continued, "he became a rugged Western marshal. There are times, in fact, that you can't tell where Matt Dillon begins and Bill Conrad ends off."
Dunning writes that Meston was especially disgusted by the archetypal Western hero and set out "to destroy character he loathed". In Meston's view, "Dillon was almost as scarred as the homicidal psychopaths who drifted into Dodge from all directions." Macdonnell shared similar sentiments about the Marshal, calling him “a lonely, sad, tragic man... a quiet, unhappy, confused marshal; these days we’d send him to an analyst.”
Doc Adams
starred as Dr. Charles Adams in the radio series, and Milburn Stone portrayed Dr. Galen Adams in the television version. In the radio series, "Doc" Adams was initially a self-interested and somewhat dark character with a predilection for constantly attempting to increase his revenue through the procurement of autopsy fees. In the opening episode he was delighted when he found out that Dillon had killed someone in a gunfight meaning more business for him, which was enough for the Marshal to threaten to knock him down. He was acerbic, somewhat mercenary, and borderline alcoholic, in the program's early years.His real name was Dr. Calvin Moore. He came west and changed his name to escape a charge of murder. However, McNear's performances steadily became more warm-hearted and sympathetic. Doc wandered throughout the territories until he settled in Dodge City 17 years later under the name of Charles Adams. Conrad suggested the Doc borrow his name from cartoonist Charles Addams as a testament to Doc's initially ghoulish comportment. Milburn Stone was given free rein to choose the character's first name, and chose that of the ancient Greek physician and medical researcher Galen.
Miss Kitty
Kitty was played by actress Georgia Ellis on radio. Ellis first appeared in the radio episode "Billy the Kid" as "Francie Richards" – a former girlfriend of Matt Dillon's and the widow of a criminal, but the character of "Miss Kitty" did not appear until the May 10, 1952, episode "Jaliscoe". Sometime in 1959, Ellis was billed as Georgia Hawkins instead of Georgia Ellis.In the radio series, Kitty's profession was hinted at, but never explicit; in a 1953 interview with Time, Macdonnell declared, "Kitty is just someone Matt has to visit every once in a while," explicitly sharing her secret, "We never say it, but Kitty is a prostitute, plain and simple." The magazine later observed that she is "obviously not selling chocolate bars".
Dillon and Kitty clearly have a close personal relationship. In a 1976 radio documentary on the program, Ellis shared, "Yes they were lovers, the best kind, because they really, truly understood one another. So there wasn't need for too much talk." She further posited on what Kitty really wanted out of the relationship, saying that "undoubtedly she had wild dreams from time to time that she realized were completely unrealistic, of Matt and Kitty... she was resigned to serving booze and saying 'Be careful Matt!
Chester
Chester was played by actor Parley Baer in the radio series. Like Doc Adams, Chester was present from the first episode of the show, initially designated as simply 'Townsman' in the script. Bill Conrad wanted the character to have a proper name, stating that they should "Call him Chester or something." Baer would later go on to give him a full name, ad-libbing in a later episode "Well, as sure as my name is Chester Wesley Proudfoot..."Chester served as Marshal Dillon's deputy in Dodge City, and was always a dependable presence for him to rely on when he needed backup. Baer posited that "Dillon trusted Chester and Doc as much as he dared trust anyone. He knew that if he needed someone to stand at his back, Chester would be there, but he wasn't sure that Chester would function at all times." Baer disagreed with a critic who saw Chester as a "dimwitted town loafer", preferring to describe him as "a dependable nonthinker."
As the show progressed the relationship between Matt Dillon and Chester Proudfoot grew from quiet tolerance to a trusting bond. In one episode, Chester saved the Marshal's life, but refused to let him discuss it in town as "it would only be embarrassing to them both."
Distinction from other radio Westerns
Gunsmoke is often a somber program, particularly in its early years. Dunning writes that Dillon "played his hand and often lost. He arrived too late to prevent a lynching. He amputated a dying man's leg and lost the patient anyway. He saved a girl from brutal rapists, then found himself unable to offer her what she needed to stop her from moving into... life as a prostitute." Some listeners, such as Dunning, argue the radio version was more realistic. Episodes were aimed at adults with some of the most explicit content of their time, including violent crimes, scalpings, massacres, and opium addicts. Many episodes end on a somber note, and villains often get away with their crimes.The program was set after the arrival of the railroad in Dodge City, and Kansas had been a state since 1861. In reality, a US Marshal would not be based in Dodge City and would not be involved in local law enforcement.
Apart from the doleful tone, Gunsmoke is distinct from other radio Westerns, as the dialogue is often slow and halting, and the outstanding sound effects give a palpable sense of the prairie setting. The effects are subtle but multilayered, giving the show a spacious feel. John Dunning wrote, "The listener heard extraneous dialogue in the background, just above the muted shouts of kids playing in an alley. He heard noises from the next block, too, where the inevitable dog was barking."