Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

ras170071 Doing a review of Gunsmoke is a labor of love. 635 episodes over twenty years! Starred James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, the steadfast beacon of Dodge City, dogged in his pursuit of killers, thieves and villains. Amanda Blake portrayed the beautiful, fiery Miss Kitty Russell, the proprietor of the Long Branch saloon, and Milburn Stone as the curmudgeon Doc Adams, always stroking his face and patching up countless wounds. Marshal Dillon's sidekick was first Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode, the loyal helper with a limp who always seemed to encounter trouble. Burt Reynolds was Quint Asper, the half-breed blacksmith who could fight with his hands or a gun. And in Season 9, the introduction of Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen, Matt's deputy, the tough, whiskered companion, whose running verbal feuds with Doc Adams ( you ole scudder! ) were always of great amusement. In Season 1, the introductory soliloquy by Matt Dillon as he walked ruefully through Boot Hill cemetery, reflecting on the unfortunate inhabitants, and remarking that men were quicker to draw their guns than to draw upon their logic in the face of danger. The acting was hallmark, the stories exciting and a great cast of characters who appeared in each episode, such as John Dehner, Darren McGavin, Steve Forrest, Lee J. Cobb, Richard Kiley, Ricardo Montalban, Betty Davis, Nehemiah Persoff and James Gregory to name a select few. The show's themes of courage, redemption, justice, honor, revenge, love and loyalty stand as timeless monuments to the greatness of each week's episode. Gunsmoke defines the western genre as none other ever will!

Tthomaskyte This programme was way ahead of its time in being the first TV western made for adults. I recently saw one episode on Youtube which was thought-provoking. A father ashamed of the way his cowardly, murderer son is begging him to stave off his execution, actually tricks the son into behaving like a man as he stands on the gallows. The degree of thought that went into the scripts encouraged good actors to accept guest roles. Together with the performances from a strong regular cast, James Arness, Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis and Burt Reynolds, this made Gunsmoke a rare quality programme of the time.

John T. Ryan MANY OF THE best TV series from all of the time periods of Video History are oft consigned to the pigeon hole of mediocrity. This type of classification is neither fair, nor very accurate; owing its exaggerated importance to what could be only described as fallacious argumentative premises to begin with.THE MAIN CULPRITS in this case would seem to be our reliance on often less than spectacular memories and a natural inclination to write off any TV Series, which has had both longevity and popularity. Remembering that old adage that, "Familiarity breeds contempt."* WHAT IS CALLED for,and not exactly being coincidental, is a reviewing of as many episodes as is possible; with the object being to attempt to approach such a project without any prejudices, neither Pro or con. Thanks to the existence of such cable entities as NICK AT NIGHT, its video sibling TV LAND and local stations such as Chicago's WMETV (Channel 23) and sister ship, METOO (Channel 48), viewing the episodes is available several times each day.RECENTLY, WE HAVE taken time to revisit the folks in Dodge City, and make an honest attempt to look at each episode thorough 'new' eyes; putting any or all previously formulated attitudes about the stories on the back burners of mind and memory.AVAILABLE FOR OUR inspection, were episodes from all seasons. In addition to what has become much more familiar full hour long, color episodes, we were able to take in so many of the old half hour b & w installments from the earlier seasons. Possessing a brand new opening* with a combination of undistinguished theme music and unspectacular fade-in type of graphics, these 1/2 hours were rechristen ed MARSHALL DILLON before their initial season in syndicated reruns.WHEN WATCHED EN MASSE considered in total, the differences between the products of the various seasons become evident; the earlier stories being far more more unabashedly violent. The more recent entries displaying much less in the area of gunfights, fisticuffs and general mayhem per reel of film exposed. We've heard an explanation recently by the way of an interview on a PBS series. The now retired Marshall of Dodge said that there was an anti-violence crusade in progress fro the U.S. Senate. Consequently, the story lines were shackled with quotas of those very essentials that make a western a western.**ALL OF THAT being out of the way, we can now move on to what is it that made GUNSMOKE the perennial ratings block buster that it was for some two decades.IN ORDER TO state it plainly, we need just two words; cast and characterization. The production team knew that the key to success lie in having characters on the screen who would receive enough empathy from the 'characters' in the audience This would require a reasonable high dosage of realism and plain old fashioned authenticity; which of course, GUNSMOKE did posses.STEP TWO IN the formula for success requires the assembly of a stock company of thespians (that's Actors, to you Schultz) to create the best characterizations for those characters in the story for whom we will care. In the case of series such as GUNSMOKE, BONANZA or today's LAW & ORDER, this would also mean that the roster would undergo a considerably serious degree of metamorphosis; in that in the cast would undergo many changes over the normal course of an exceptionally long run.IN THE CASE of today's honoree, GUNSMOKE, its continued popularity over the the many seasons is in no way due to fine character development by a very talented stock company; who did their damnedest in giving us folks who we really identified with and truly cared forAND, WHILE WE are on the subject, we want to mention those very talented group of actors who made all of those seasons. We had people such as:Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness), Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake), Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), Chester Goode (Denis Weaver), Ken Curtis (Festus Haggen), Buck Taylor (Newly O'Brien), Glenn Strange (Sam the Bartender), Burt Reynolds (Quint Asper, town blacksmith), and many more.COLLECTIVELY AND INDIVIDUALLY, these folks were responsible for our identification with an affection for Matt, Kitty, Doc, Chester, Sam, Festus, Newly, Quint, etc., etc., etc.NOTE: * The series truly hit the ground running; as it had been a popular Radio Series on the CBS Radio Network. It featured: William Conrad (Matt), Howard McNear Doc), Parley Baer (Chester).NOTE: ** Much in the same way as other Radio to TV Series such as THE LONE RANGER, many of the early GUNSMOKEs were adaptations of radio scripts.

ellisel I enjoyed watching "Gunsmoke" reruns on television. The show maintained a wide variety of important issues that portrayed life in general. Concerns over rape, abuse, terminal illness, false imprisonment, morality, and race were knowingly important to the show's credibility and identity during the 20-year run. The finest episodes during the run were from the 1969-1970 Season until the 1974-1975 Season on CBS Television. Two key examples of abuse occurred in episodes titled "The Tarnished Badge" and "Hard Labor" were prevalent during its stint. The former had (the late) Victor French played a brutal sheriff in Ludlow, Kansas -- who had ran a sensible town -- in exploiting and intimidating people in the 1974-1975 Season. The latter: a ruthless (and dotty) sheriff had Marshal Matt Dillon imprisoned for life on (a trumped up) charge of first-degree murder. Dillon had no idea he was railroaded into a kangaroo court. He eventually arrested (with some reluctant help) the crooked officer in some aspect. These episodes dealt with the brutal (but actual) realities of abuse and exploitation in the show's content. These examples are why we have the United States Constitution against illegal detention in this country.