Gunsmoke on Youtube

[Onomea]

Well, maybe I am the last to know it, but Gunsmoke, the classic western TV show, is on Youtube. John Wayne intros the very first show. Miss Kitty, on the first show, looks about 18 years old.

Chester limping around -- "Mr. Dillon'?!" -- and all.

Been enjoying it the last coupla nights.

When I was a real little guy, in Frankfurt, Germany, in the 1950s, we used to listen to it on the radio. Must a been the US Armed Forces Radio Service, I s'pose.

As I grew older -- that show was on, what? 17 years? -- I kinda hoped Marshall Dillon might give Miss Kitty a squeeze and mebbe a peck on the cheek, but, alas, it was not to be....

 

[UncleEd]

Twas implied just as it was on the radio show with William Conrad as Dillon.

Of course Miss Kitty also had a frisky life before Dillon and becoming a woman of means to own a saloon.

 

[Onomea]

Well, Ed, you are probably right, and I sure hope so. Two of 'em deserved it, for sure.

 

[Marine Corps Air]

I wouldn't mind at all if they replaced that garbage that's in our television programs these days with re-runs of these great programs, with an understandable story line, characters that you can relate to personally, and characters that would never twerk for any price!

BTW - I had heard in the past that John Wayne was originally asked to accept the role of Matt Dillon but for whatever reasons he declined. He recommended James Arness whom he knew from other work and the rest is history. How far off base am I???

 

[diamonback68]

I wouldn't mind at all if they replaced that garbage that's in our television programs these days with re-runs of these great programs, with an understandable story line, characters that you can relate to personally, and characters that would never twerk for any price!

Get ME-TV channel. Every day they have Gunsmoke, Rifleman, the Steve McQueen one ?? and other westerns as well as Rockford, Columbo, Get Smart etc and on and on.

 

[Chuck24]

The Encore Western channel carries a lot of the old western tv series. Gunsmoke 12 hour marathon on Sunday 9-13 starting with episode 1.

 

[DWalt]

I well remember those days. Every Saturday night, several of my buddies and I would sit on our living room floor, eat potato chips, drink Double Cola, and watch "Have Gun, Will Travel" and "Gunsmoke". My parents still had the 16" B&W Stromberg-Carlson TV my father bought in 1949, so we had to get up close to see the action.

 

[DWalt]

"BTW - I had heard in the past that John Wayne was originally asked to accept the role of Matt Dillon but for whatever reasons he declined. He recommended James Arness whom he knew from other work and the rest is history. How far off base am I???"

Not so about the Wayne offer, but he did recommend James Arness for the part. In fact, no one wanted the role, and James Arness had to be talked into taking it. But he did, and the rest is history. Arness didn't have too much experience as a movie actor. He was "The Thing" in the movie of the same title, and also had sort of a leading role in the giant ant SF movie "Them." Both of which I liked a lot. The Thing is one of my top ten favorites, have watched it many times.

For those who don't know, Peter Graves (original "Mission: Impossible" star) was James Arness' brother.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Ken Curtis was an "A List" jazz singer that took Sinatra's place in the Tommy Dorsey band.

Festus's "mountain speak" came out of Ken's head.

 

[UncleEd]

Arness was also in at least four of Wayne's movies: The Sea Chase, Hondo, Island in the Sky and Big Jim MacLain.

Ken Curtis also was in Wayne films including The Searchers where John Ford got him to talk like a hayseed.

 

[Chuck24]

Ken Curtis was an "A List" jazz singer that took Sinatra's place in the Tommy Dorsey band.

Festus's "mountain speak" came out of Ken's head.

He also sang with the Sons Of The Pioneers, featured in many John Wayne and John ford films. Was also John Fords son in law which couldn't hurt in getting movie roles.

 

[DWalt]

In retrospect, I don't think anyone could have played the Matt Dillon role any better than James Arness. It did type-cast him, but I imagine he didn't mind too much, given the longevity of the show. I've always wondered why the series was not resurrected a la "Hawaii 5-0". I guess TV and movie westerns have pretty well lost popularity these days. But they may return someday.

 

[Jack Flash]

-- I kinda hoped Marshall Dillon might give Miss Kitty a squeeze and mebbe a peck on the cheek, but, alas, it was not to be....

It was pretty strongly implied in the early episodes. For example, one scene opens in the Long Branch with the usual patrons drinking and milling around. Then we see Matt and Kitty enter the scene by descending the staircase side by side, smiling. Why they had been together upstairs is left to the viewer's imagination.

As I understand it, even this was too much for the TV censors of the day!

 

[DWalt]

Back in those days, it was probably the rare western saloon that did not offer several types of recreational opportunities to its male patrons. For the most part "decent" women were not even allowed entry to saloons. Any ladies seen in a saloon could be safely assumed to be of the other type.

 

[Tradewind36]

Thanks for the heads up on the Encore Western Gunsmoke, I set the DVR. I remember the early days, listening to it on the radio and watching on black and white tv. Good memories.

 

[rwsmith]

You can find about anything....

You can find about anything on the internet and usually for free. I don't have cable. If I see a movie I can't find for free I just go to Amazon or other site where you don't have to 'join' or 'subscribe' and pay a few $$ to stream a movie long enough for me to watch it. I seldom have to do that because there is SO MUCH on the net now. No disks to return and all that jazz.

PS: I love the old "Marshall Dillons". MUCH grittier than the later shows.

 

[Jack Flash]

... For the most part "decent" women were not even allowed entry to saloons. ...

I'm confident that is right. A western saloon was pretty much a den of iniquity, to use the vocabulary of the time. Gambling was another vice available in saloons. The laws, if any, were loosely enforced, if at all.

Heck, ladies even stayed away from baseball games well into the 20th Century since men at the ball park were prone to using profanity, chewing tobacco, smoking cigars, and drinking beer.

 

[Abbynormal]

Matt Dillon and Chester in B&W!

 

[MK]

Ken Curtis was an "A List" jazz singer that took Sinatra's place in the Tommy Dorsey band.

Festus's "mountain speak" came out of Ken's head.

I met him at the KC Fat Stock Show/Rodeo way back in the mid 60's.
He was playing Festus when I saw him.. I remember watching it
with Chester, probably going back to the late 50's. It was among the
first TV shows I remember watching, besides Capt. Kangaroo, the
Jack LaLanne show, and 77 Sunset Strip.. :/

 

[DWalt]

" A western saloon was pretty much a den of iniquity, to use the vocabulary of the time. Gambling was another vice available in saloons. The laws, if any, were loosely enforced, if at all. "

I have a second home on an old West Texas frontier Army fort, in operation from the Civil War to WWII. The small adjacent town, back in the day, was composed of mainly those "dens of iniquity" to "serve" the soldiers stationed there. Many of the original "den" structures (mainly stone) still exist but are in ruins.