I watch A LOT of old Gunsmoke episodes quite regularly. Recently, I've come to realize the things that irritated and fascinated me about Gunsmoke as a kid, still kind of resonate with me today. Here's just a few of them..
One-off episodes with guest actors like Carol O'Conner, Jan Michael Vincent, Victor French, Jodie Foster, and Mariette Hartley definitely packed a punch in regards to dramatic acting. However, I tuned in to watch the adventures of Matt Dillon first and foremost. There was stellar acting in the storylines that weren't focused on Marshall Matt Dillon, but they never brought as much joy to me as the Dillon based episodes did.
It really perturbed me as boy, when I would watch an episode that only featured James Arness for a couple of measly minutes. While James Arness appeared in every single episode of Gunsmoke, it seemed like many an episode, especially towards the end of the series, had him appearing during the last five or ten minutes of the show. It was usually explained away by someone stating he was on the way back from official 'Marshalling business' and that he would be retuning soon.
The comedic value of sidekicks Festus and Chester was always appreciated as well. The way these two characters interacted with Matt and Doc was comedy gold indeed. When this dynamic was also absent from an episode, it felt like something was truly missing.
New Fangled Color Television
I hated the color episodes as a kid,
and I still prefer the black and white ones to this day. There was just
something about filming in black and white that gave the Old
West represented in the series, a more authentic feel. I remember thinking as
a kid, "There's too much color, and everything looks too clean". I even
pondered if such colored clothes and wallpaper even existed back in the late
1870s. Color TV also made it more evident that Dodge City was located on a
sound stage. In addition to that, the scene shots, camera pans, and editing
were much different in the 1970s versus the 50s and 60s. The older
style of filming just gave the series a simpler, older, and grittier feel.
The end credit screen
I absolutely loved the black and white end credit
screen. I would actually move very close to the television to examine
it as closely as I could. I loved trying to count the tombstones on Boot-Hill,
and would thoroughly examine everything like the old dead tree, the town
buildings, and the night time sky. I would examine the artwork until
the credits faded to a final splash screen, stating the
show was produced by the 'Arness Company' in conjunction with CBS.
