Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke was a western drama television series. John Meston created the series. It ran for twenty years from 1955 to 1975. Each episode ran for 1 hour. In 1955, CBS television network tried to hire John Wayne. They finally decided on James Arness to play the role of Matt Dillon in the Gunsmoke series. The main cast was Arness, Dennis Weaver playing Chester Goode, Milburn Stone as Doc Adams, and Amanda Blake as saloon keeper Miss Kitty Russell. Ken Curtis played Festus Haggen and Burt Reynolds played blacksmith Quint Asper.

Gunsmoke
Created by	Norman MacDonnell John Meston
Starring	James Arness Milburn Stone Amanda Blake (Seasons 1-19) Dennis Weaver (Seasons 1-9) Ken Curtis (Seasons 9-20) Burt Reynolds (Seasons 8-10) Buck Taylor (Seasons 13-20) Glenn Strange (Seasons 7-18) Roger Ewing (Seasons 11-12)
Theme music composer	Rex Koury Glenn Spencer
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	6 ('Marshal Dillon', syndication re-titling of half-hour episodes) 14 ('Gunsmoke'), 20 (total seasons)
No. of episodes	233 ('Marshal Dillon', syndication re-titling of half-hour episodes), 402 ('Gunsmoke') 635 (total episodes) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	26 minutes (1955–1961), 50 minutes (1961–1975)
Production companies	CBS Productions Filmaster Productions The Arness Production Company (1961–'64)
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 10, 1955 (1955-09-10) – March 31, 1975 (1975-03-31)

Between 1955 - 1961, the episodes were 30 minutes long. After that, they were one hour long. 635 episodes were made between 1955 to 1975. Many well known actors have been on the series. These include John Wayne (presenter of the pilot), Bette Davis, Harrison Ford, Jon Voight, Kurt Russell and Jodie Foster. In 1987, Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge was made. Arness returned in the role of Dillon. Later television movies included Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990), Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992), Gunsmoke: The Long Ride (1993) and Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice (1994).

References

• Information on Gunsmoke Archived July 13, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
• Gunsmoke episodes at the Internet Movie Database