She impresses him with her determination, stamina and, ultimately, great bravery. It's a great script, a kind of mini- Westward the Women, with Matt accompanying a Boston-bred pioneer, Sarah Drew (Barbara Lord, in an Emmy-worthy performance), on a particularly treacherous journey from Dodge to remote Fort Wallace to meet her fiancé, whom she's known since childhood. An excellent example of the hour format working to Gunsmoke's advantage is "Long, Long Trail," written by Kathleen Hite. Many of the shows included in this set are outstanding. Sometimes in these shows the accused is a friend of Matt's, like Chester, sometimes he's a guest star, but always, even with a mountain of evidence stacked against him, Matt remains calm and just. A favorite plot Meston did myriad riffs on has cool cucumber Matt withholding judgment on an accused killer's guilt or innocence while all of Dodge City is ready to lynch the accused. Two of his favorite devices are the "What's Going On Here?" and "How's Matt Going to Solve/Get Out of This?" structures, with Matt presented with a puzzling situation/irresolvable conflict at the beginning of the episode, and he and other characters working through the mystery which is revealed/resolved, often violently, at the end. Writer John Meston (1914-1979) was to Gunsmoke what Rod Serling was to Twilight Zone he penned an incredible 257 episodes of the series during its 20-year run, and that's not counting episodes of the radio show he also wrote (though there was a lot of crossover, apparently). Matt's line of work often requires the services of cantankerous Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), another close friend of Matt, Chester, and Miss Kitty. She's also its madam, and though the audience doesn't get to see much of that business, it's implied. Matt's friend Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake), formerly a (coded) prostitute, is now half-owner of the city's finest, the Long Branch Saloon. The various gunslingers and cattle rustlers causing Marshal Dillon no end of grief usually can be found drinking and gambling at one of the innumerable saloons. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) and his eccentric, game-leg assistant (not deputy) Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver) are still maintaining the peace in unruly, barely-tamed Dodge City, Kansas. Sponsor material and, for the first time, preview trailers of next week's episodes are included (on about one-third of the shows).Īs before, U.S. This volume, The Seventh Season, Volume 1 includes the first 17 episodes of the 1961-62 season, spread across five discs instead of the previous sets' three. I've sung Gunsmoke's praises many times already, having reviewed the first season, the the second season, volumes 1 and 2, the third seasons, volumes 1 and 2, the fourth season, volumes 1 and 2, and the fifth season, volumes 1, 2, and the sixth season, volumes 1 and 2. I was expecting the series to drop a peg or two quality-wise but, truly, here's it's as good as ever. ( Gunsmoke stayed an hour program for the next 13 years, until its cancellation in 1975.) Everything that was good about the half-hour Gunsmoke has been retained, while the longer running times allow for more complex stories, additional continuing characters, and far richer characterizations. Unexpectedly, Gunsmoke actually benefits enormously from the switch, at least judging by these earliest hour shows. Most of the others were weak and felt padded. Before switching back to a half-hour for its fifth and final season, 18 hour Zones were produced but of those only two could truly be considered excellent. Those longer running times caused both shows to suffer, particularly Twilight Zone which for its stories was perfectly suited to episodes running about 25 minutes minus the commercials. As noted in my review of The Sixth Season, Volume 2, there was a trend toward this kind of thing among prime-time network shows in the early 1960s, with Alfred Hitchcock Presents/ The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and the expanded Twilight Zone, also CBS shows, being the most obvious other examples. Gunsmoke, the long-running television Western (20 years plus later TV movies extending it another 19 years!), underwent a big change in 1961 when, at the beginning of its seventh season, the show expanded from 30 minutes to a full hour.
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