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Are you sure you want to be eating beans in a confined space?
GUNSMOKE
- Thread starter Snarky Oracle!
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Are you sure you want to be eating beans in a confined space?
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Methane is a powerful fuel for heating purposes. Which will be necessary. That said, I've never been very gassy since I stopped drinking milk at around age 10.
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As others have said before me, AI such as ChatGPT are good enough to provide a starting point but you have to know enough about your subject to make your own corrections and edits. That said, how hard would it have been for the perpetrator to at least ask for a more concise second draft?
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I imagine the length is intentional, even if the end result is like reading a book report of a kid who didn't read the assignment. ("the book was very, very, very, very good ...")
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Yeah, I guess a certain number of words is called for and I understand sometimes they don't even read the report before they hand it in.
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Cast photos:
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James Arness would have been 101 years old today!
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What I like about the cast photo for the radio version of GUNSMOKE is that it actually looks like a nineteenth century photograph, back when the people didn't really know what to do yet in front of the camera.
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Roger Ewing, who played Thad Greenwood during Seasons 11 and 12 (and was a victim of the series' 1967 second of three cancellations), died last month, on December 18, 2025, at age 83. It was announced today.
He was only 21/22 when he was on the show! He had a fairly brief acting career, appearing in the film ENSIGN PULVER in 1964. Ewing became a photographer after leaving GUNSMOKE.
Absurdly, he was brought in to GUNSMOKE in 1965 by CBS as a negotiating wedge when contract talks with James Arness hit a snag, the network using Ewing as an implied threat that Arness could be canned and replaced with Roger Ewing! (Obviously, a ridiculous ploy). But Arness not only knew not to take it seriously, Ewing knew not to take it seriously, and Arness knew Ewing didn't take it seriously --- so it created no problems between the two men. (But one begs to wonder if the 1967 cancellation by the network board, quickly reversed by CBS CEO Bill Paley, was just part of that ploy -- the series had dropped to 35th place for Season 12, the lowest GUNSMOKE would ever be, but high enough of a rating to keep most shows on the air).
Along with Ewing's exit in 1967, the executive producer (from 1963), Philip Leacock left to do CIMMARON STRIP and Leacock's deputy (as it were), John Mantley, rose to the helm behind-the-scenes for the remainder of GUNSMOKE's run.
He was only 21/22 when he was on the show! He had a fairly brief acting career, appearing in the film ENSIGN PULVER in 1964. Ewing became a photographer after leaving GUNSMOKE.
Absurdly, he was brought in to GUNSMOKE in 1965 by CBS as a negotiating wedge when contract talks with James Arness hit a snag, the network using Ewing as an implied threat that Arness could be canned and replaced with Roger Ewing! (Obviously, a ridiculous ploy). But Arness not only knew not to take it seriously, Ewing knew not to take it seriously, and Arness knew Ewing didn't take it seriously --- so it created no problems between the two men. (But one begs to wonder if the 1967 cancellation by the network board, quickly reversed by CBS CEO Bill Paley, was just part of that ploy -- the series had dropped to 35th place for Season 12, the lowest GUNSMOKE would ever be, but high enough of a rating to keep most shows on the air).
Along with Ewing's exit in 1967, the executive producer (from 1963), Philip Leacock left to do CIMMARON STRIP and Leacock's deputy (as it were), John Mantley, rose to the helm behind-the-scenes for the remainder of GUNSMOKE's run.
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The complete series is currently $170.00 (US) on Amazon.
Amazon.com: Gunsmoke: The Complete Series : Amanda Blake, James Arness, Dennis Weaver, Burt Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis: Movies & TV
Amazon.com: Gunsmoke: The Complete Series : Amanda Blake, James Arness, Dennis Weaver, Burt Reynolds, Milburn Stone, Ken Curtis: Movies & TV
www.amazon.com
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~27 cents per episode.
Some of the B&W installments I haven't seen. And $170 isn't bad. But will I live long enough to watch them all?? Something more for my heirs to store or get rid of!
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This afternoon, I was just watching a Season 11 episode I'd never seen before. And after Festus finished up a plate of beans, I was waiting for him to announced that it "was plum larrupin'!" ...And then he did.
Sometimes, it's as if the walls are closing on me.
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I see so little TV nowadays, but I've just found an all-western channel that runs GUNSMOKE for 2 1/2 hours daily, from 4:30pm to 7:00pm (a half-hour episode followed by two 1-hour episodes). I sat transfixed in my computer chair in the den all yesterday afternoon.... it's 10% of the day!
Some of the B&W installments I've never seen, so this gives the opportunity for Grandpa to catch up.
Will I take it?
Some of the B&W installments I've never seen, so this gives the opportunity for Grandpa to catch up.
Will I take it?
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I'd almost forgotten how dark the hour-long B&W episodes could get (especially after Philip Leacock took over as producer from 1963 to 1967).
The early, half-hour B&W episodes (retitled "Marshal Dillon" for decades in syndication) were so narratively truncated that they could only go so deep (of course, some of those were still better than others).
Today, I was watching a 1965 episode from Season 11 (the year which has my favorite opening theme, for some reason) and directed by Mark Rydell! (Yesterday, I watched an installment written by Sam Peckinpah!). And there's a scene in the Dodge House hotel where a gunman, badly injured and with a $30,000 bounty on his head, tells the very young man (an impoverished farmer with a pregnant wife) who's been deputized to oversee him, chucklingly, "Strangle it -- save it from the miseries of life...," referring to the farmer's imminent baby.
You'd have a tough time getting a line like that on network television today!
When GUNSMOKE switched to color in 1966 for Season 12 (you had to make the transition by fall of '66) some fans carped that the show had "been prettified" and "gone Hollywood"... Well, no, the series really hadn't done that at all -- it just went to color... But it does change the atmosphere a bit, inevitably: the starkness is seriously reduced (even though a late-'60s coldness remains until it warms up for the '70s and becomes almost cozy) and a foreboding artfulness shifts into something else as the B&W goes away.
Watching Season 11 from THE LOVE BOAT:
The early, half-hour B&W episodes (retitled "Marshal Dillon" for decades in syndication) were so narratively truncated that they could only go so deep (of course, some of those were still better than others).
Today, I was watching a 1965 episode from Season 11 (the year which has my favorite opening theme, for some reason) and directed by Mark Rydell! (Yesterday, I watched an installment written by Sam Peckinpah!). And there's a scene in the Dodge House hotel where a gunman, badly injured and with a $30,000 bounty on his head, tells the very young man (an impoverished farmer with a pregnant wife) who's been deputized to oversee him, chucklingly, "Strangle it -- save it from the miseries of life...," referring to the farmer's imminent baby.
You'd have a tough time getting a line like that on network television today!
When GUNSMOKE switched to color in 1966 for Season 12 (you had to make the transition by fall of '66) some fans carped that the show had "been prettified" and "gone Hollywood"... Well, no, the series really hadn't done that at all -- it just went to color... But it does change the atmosphere a bit, inevitably: the starkness is seriously reduced (even though a late-'60s coldness remains until it warms up for the '70s and becomes almost cozy) and a foreboding artfulness shifts into something else as the B&W goes away.
Watching Season 11 from THE LOVE BOAT:
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The outdoor Dodge City set looks much more artificial in color.
I’m a big fan of the B&W hour long episodes. They have the chance to go deeper than the half hours, and they were never rerun when I was a kid. And James Arness still had a prominent role as opposed to the color episodes when Arness wanted to work less.
I’m a big fan of the B&W hour long episodes. They have the chance to go deeper than the half hours, and they were never rerun when I was a kid. And James Arness still had a prominent role as opposed to the color episodes when Arness wanted to work less.
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Stream Like It’s 1965: ‘Gunsmoke’ Makes Nielsen Top 10 for the First Time
By Rick Porter
April 3, 2025 , The Hollywood Reporter
A long-running TV show with a huge library of episodes making Nielsen’s streaming charts is nothing unusual. It happens multiple times each week, in fact.
But a show making the streaming top 10 almost half a century after it last aired? That is a horse of a different color — or black and white, as the case may be.
Gunsmoke, which had a 20-season run on CBS from 1955-75, claimed a spot among the top 10 acquired series on streaming for the week of March 3-9. The show, which streams on Paramount+ and Peacock (which together carry 404 of Gunsmoke’s 635 episodes), amassed 646 million minutes of viewing time for the week, good for eighth place among library shows. Not surprisingly, the show’s audience skews older than the average streaming series: Nielsen says about half its viewers are 65 or older.
While this is Gunsmoke’s first top 10 appearance, the series has been a solid streaming draw for some time. It had more than 10 billion viewing minutes in 2024.
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Watching a 1966 Season 11 episode today, "The Treasure of John Walking Fox" (one of the final B&W installments), pitting noble Mister Spock against evil Jock Ewing (well, Scorpio Rising versus Scorpio Rising -- we've all seen that before). Somebody wants somebody's gold.
Nimoy, ever the wise Comanche, tricks the bad guys into getting themselves killed.
What's weird is that GUNSMOKE had a 1963 episode entitled "The Odyssey of Jabal Tanner," and two years later, so did BIG VALLEY! Both written by Paul Savage. And BIG VALLEY's Peter Breck plays Jubal Tanner in the GUNSMOKE episode...!
I mean, what the hell is that about?
It's confusing enough that GUNSMOKE, BIG VALLEY and WILD, WILD WEST all use the same studio western street set, with little attempt hide it!
Nimoy, ever the wise Comanche, tricks the bad guys into getting themselves killed.
What's weird is that GUNSMOKE had a 1963 episode entitled "The Odyssey of Jabal Tanner," and two years later, so did BIG VALLEY! Both written by Paul Savage. And BIG VALLEY's Peter Breck plays Jubal Tanner in the GUNSMOKE episode...!
I mean, what the hell is that about?
It's confusing enough that GUNSMOKE, BIG VALLEY and WILD, WILD WEST all use the same studio western street set, with little attempt hide it!
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This W.E.S.T. station airs the installments with minimal-if-any edits. And yet the commercials occur jarringly midway through scenes, like old broadcast TV used to do all the time. In today's market, it seems kookie.
Today, the first two color episodes reran (Season 12, the 1966-67 year). With Philip Leacock still in as executive producer, the show switches from its original B&W noir to a slightly different, more cinematic look: bigger camera movements, dramatic angles, a more claustrophobic Long Branch with active gambling tables, an aloofly authoritative tone.
That will mostly end as Leacock leaves. As line-producer John Mantley rises to the helm, for the next year, Season 13 (following GUNSMOKE's second cancelled cancellation in 1967), the series will become less majestic, but friendlier.
One drawback for the switch to color: it's harder to obscure the multiple use of store fronts along Front Street, an interior set pretending to be an exterior location (e.g., the Dodge House hotel becomes the "Star Hotel" and the "Poppy Hotel" within minutes, with little attempts to mask it). In B&W, such sins seemed less obvious.
Next up: Bette Davis.
Today, the first two color episodes reran (Season 12, the 1966-67 year). With Philip Leacock still in as executive producer, the show switches from its original B&W noir to a slightly different, more cinematic look: bigger camera movements, dramatic angles, a more claustrophobic Long Branch with active gambling tables, an aloofly authoritative tone.
That will mostly end as Leacock leaves. As line-producer John Mantley rises to the helm, for the next year, Season 13 (following GUNSMOKE's second cancelled cancellation in 1967), the series will become less majestic, but friendlier.
One drawback for the switch to color: it's harder to obscure the multiple use of store fronts along Front Street, an interior set pretending to be an exterior location (e.g., the Dodge House hotel becomes the "Star Hotel" and the "Poppy Hotel" within minutes, with little attempts to mask it). In B&W, such sins seemed less obvious.
Next up: Bette Davis.
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Just rewatched "The Jailer" installment (although "The Second Day" seems the better title) which became perhaps the most famous entry in GUNSMOKE's 635 episode history, due to the guest appearance of Bette Davis. Only the third color episode of the series, "Miss" Davis plays Etta Stone, an embittered matriarch to her four worthless sons: Bruce Dern (only two years after playing her doomed lover in HUSH... HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE), Zalman King (decades before his softcore RED SHOE DIARIES excursion), Tom Skerritt (the sensitive, ineffectual one), and Robert Sorrells (the boring one whom you don't know); Julie Sommars plays Dern's wife (who's been carrying on a tasteful affair with Skerritt while Dern and his other brothers have been languishing in prison for six years after their father was hanged for murder).
Tautly directed by Vincent McEveety, with an original score by Morton Stevens and a 1966 Halloweenish photographic color scheme by cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr., the story focuses on Bette Davis' goal of exacting revenge (big surprise) on Marshal Dillon by having two of her sons kidnap Miss Kitty from the Long Branch saloon by night in order to lure Matt out to Davis' farm so she can hang him in retribution.
Reportedly (from reliable sources like Jim Arness, and casting maven Pam Polifroni -- who'd recommended Bette Davis' casting to incredulous producers), Amanda Blake was terrified to the point of nausea of working with Davis. (Instead, the two actresses became fast friends to the day they died, both succumbing to the sarcophagus 23 years later in 1989). Well, both Scorpio Rising, naturally.
The episode totally works. With Miss Kitty getting the honors of blowing Etta Stone away (the only flaw in the final scene being Kitty's revolver seems devoid of any gunsmoke, ironically, after she fires). I also want a raven to descend on Bette Davis' corpse, ensconced in funeral black, but I guess no one thought of that.
"The Jailer" reminds us of what a good actor James Arness was, his blend of unrelenting roughness and paternal softness making Matt Dillon a more compelling hero than other tough-as-nails western actors could offer up. Amanda Blake, too, a similar mix of don't-mess-with-me resolve and the madam with-a-heart-of-gold. As the clock ticks and the duo awaits their fate.
Four years later, in "Morgan" (with Steve Forrest) and his giant gatling gun spraying hot lead into Dodge City's architecture, I always want to see a gender switch with Joan Crawford in Forrest's place. But I guess they didn't think of that either.
And lesbianic flirting wasn't allowed in TV in 1970.
Tautly directed by Vincent McEveety, with an original score by Morton Stevens and a 1966 Halloweenish photographic color scheme by cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr., the story focuses on Bette Davis' goal of exacting revenge (big surprise) on Marshal Dillon by having two of her sons kidnap Miss Kitty from the Long Branch saloon by night in order to lure Matt out to Davis' farm so she can hang him in retribution.
Reportedly (from reliable sources like Jim Arness, and casting maven Pam Polifroni -- who'd recommended Bette Davis' casting to incredulous producers), Amanda Blake was terrified to the point of nausea of working with Davis. (Instead, the two actresses became fast friends to the day they died, both succumbing to the sarcophagus 23 years later in 1989). Well, both Scorpio Rising, naturally.
The episode totally works. With Miss Kitty getting the honors of blowing Etta Stone away (the only flaw in the final scene being Kitty's revolver seems devoid of any gunsmoke, ironically, after she fires). I also want a raven to descend on Bette Davis' corpse, ensconced in funeral black, but I guess no one thought of that.
"The Jailer" reminds us of what a good actor James Arness was, his blend of unrelenting roughness and paternal softness making Matt Dillon a more compelling hero than other tough-as-nails western actors could offer up. Amanda Blake, too, a similar mix of don't-mess-with-me resolve and the madam with-a-heart-of-gold. As the clock ticks and the duo awaits their fate.
Four years later, in "Morgan" (with Steve Forrest) and his giant gatling gun spraying hot lead into Dodge City's architecture, I always want to see a gender switch with Joan Crawford in Forrest's place. But I guess they didn't think of that either.
And lesbianic flirting wasn't allowed in TV in 1970.
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