Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series
created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. The
stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the
settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman
Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James
Arness on television. When aired in the United Kingdom, the television
series was initially titled Gun Law, later reverting to Gunsmoke.The
radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that among
radio drama enthusiasts, "Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best
shows of any kind and any time." The television series ran for 20
seasons from 1955 to 1975, and lasted for 635 episodes. At the end of
its run in 1975, Los Angeles Times columnist Cecil Smith wrote:
"Gunsmoke was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the
west. Our own Iliad and Odyssey, created from standard elements of the
dime novel and the pulp Western as romanticized by [Ned] Buntline,
[Bret] Harte, and [Mark] Twain. It was ever the stuff of legend."In
the late 1940s, CBS chairman William S. Paley, a fan of the Philip
Marlowe radio series, asked his programming chief, Hubell Robinson, to
develop a hardboiled Western series, a show about a "Philip Marlowe of
the Old West". Robinson instructed his West Coast CBS Vice President,
Harry Ackerman, who had developed the Philip Marlowe series, to take
on the task.
created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. The
stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the
settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman
Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James
Arness on television. When aired in the United Kingdom, the television
series was initially titled Gun Law, later reverting to Gunsmoke.The
radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that among
radio drama enthusiasts, "Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best
shows of any kind and any time." The television series ran for 20
seasons from 1955 to 1975, and lasted for 635 episodes. At the end of
its run in 1975, Los Angeles Times columnist Cecil Smith wrote:
"Gunsmoke was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the
west. Our own Iliad and Odyssey, created from standard elements of the
dime novel and the pulp Western as romanticized by [Ned] Buntline,
[Bret] Harte, and [Mark] Twain. It was ever the stuff of legend."In
the late 1940s, CBS chairman William S. Paley, a fan of the Philip
Marlowe radio series, asked his programming chief, Hubell Robinson, to
develop a hardboiled Western series, a show about a "Philip Marlowe of
the Old West". Robinson instructed his West Coast CBS Vice President,
Harry Ackerman, who had developed the Philip Marlowe series, to take
on the task.
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