Post by topbilled on Feb 15, 2023 16:06:04 GMT
About a week ago, I found some discs I had recorded when the half-hour episodes of Gunsmoke (titled Marshal Dillon in syndication) had aired on the Encore Westerns channel back in 2014 and 2015.
First, I am surprised how good the picture quality is, as these must have been digitally restored. Unfortunately I only recorded episodes from season 3 and season 4, which means I am going to have to buy the other seasons.
For those who don't know, seasons 1 through 6 were the half-hour episodes, all of them in black-and-white and all of them featuring Dennis Weaver as the marshal's loyal sidekick Chester, whom I have to say is my favorite character. I liked Festus (Ken Curtis) from the later seasons, but Chester is a cut above in my opinion. Weaver is very good at combining the humor and vulnerability of Chester. I never felt as if Curtis gave us much vulnerability with Festus, so this is probably why I like Chester more. Feel free to disagree!
Anyway, as I have started looking carefully at these episodes, it occurs to me how many of them feel like radio dramas...probably because they just reused the scripts from the radio version of the show, without really adapting them very much for the screen. However, the episodes where they get away from the soundstage and go on location to film are really quite excellent and feel more visual and less dialogue-driven.
I really enjoyed the season 3 episodes which I finished two days ago. I gave perfect scores on the IMDb for the following episodes from season 3: Joe Phy, Ma Tennis, The Cabin, Dirt (excellent script by Sam Peckinpah), Texas Cowboys, The Big Con and Overland Express.
I have already seen a few episodes from season 4, but the tone seems different. It is decidedly grittier, with less focus on the relationships between the characters and more focus on the darkness of the crimes being committed. I guess this is part of what made the show a long-running favorite...because they weren't afraid to cover a lot of adult themes and give us a less sanitized view of crime and outlawry in the old west.
Of course the whole thing would fall apart without a strong central protagonist. And I think Jim Arness is fantastic as Matt Dillon. He's one of the most consistently written lawmen and we know he will never falter in his duties. I also like how they show his disdainful attitude towards gamblers, though we are never told in these early seasons why he despises gamblers so much. You have to wonder what sort of past experiences he had with gamblers and other types of crooks, to make him so vigilant against these types of shady of characters and other assorted criminals that find they way into Dodge.
Has anyone seen the show all the way through? Especially the early seasons? I have a feeling I will end up buying all the seasons, up through season 9, since that would encompass all of Chester's run on the show. When I was a kid, the hour-long color episodes are the ones that turned up most often in syndication, usually on the weekends...seasons 12 through 20. So I am already quite familiar with the stories from those years. It's been a lot of fun looking at these early episodes of Marshal Dillon / Gunsmoke.
First, I am surprised how good the picture quality is, as these must have been digitally restored. Unfortunately I only recorded episodes from season 3 and season 4, which means I am going to have to buy the other seasons.
For those who don't know, seasons 1 through 6 were the half-hour episodes, all of them in black-and-white and all of them featuring Dennis Weaver as the marshal's loyal sidekick Chester, whom I have to say is my favorite character. I liked Festus (Ken Curtis) from the later seasons, but Chester is a cut above in my opinion. Weaver is very good at combining the humor and vulnerability of Chester. I never felt as if Curtis gave us much vulnerability with Festus, so this is probably why I like Chester more. Feel free to disagree!
Anyway, as I have started looking carefully at these episodes, it occurs to me how many of them feel like radio dramas...probably because they just reused the scripts from the radio version of the show, without really adapting them very much for the screen. However, the episodes where they get away from the soundstage and go on location to film are really quite excellent and feel more visual and less dialogue-driven.
I really enjoyed the season 3 episodes which I finished two days ago. I gave perfect scores on the IMDb for the following episodes from season 3: Joe Phy, Ma Tennis, The Cabin, Dirt (excellent script by Sam Peckinpah), Texas Cowboys, The Big Con and Overland Express.
I have already seen a few episodes from season 4, but the tone seems different. It is decidedly grittier, with less focus on the relationships between the characters and more focus on the darkness of the crimes being committed. I guess this is part of what made the show a long-running favorite...because they weren't afraid to cover a lot of adult themes and give us a less sanitized view of crime and outlawry in the old west.
Of course the whole thing would fall apart without a strong central protagonist. And I think Jim Arness is fantastic as Matt Dillon. He's one of the most consistently written lawmen and we know he will never falter in his duties. I also like how they show his disdainful attitude towards gamblers, though we are never told in these early seasons why he despises gamblers so much. You have to wonder what sort of past experiences he had with gamblers and other types of crooks, to make him so vigilant against these types of shady of characters and other assorted criminals that find they way into Dodge.
Has anyone seen the show all the way through? Especially the early seasons? I have a feeling I will end up buying all the seasons, up through season 9, since that would encompass all of Chester's run on the show. When I was a kid, the hour-long color episodes are the ones that turned up most often in syndication, usually on the weekends...seasons 12 through 20. So I am already quite familiar with the stories from those years. It's been a lot of fun looking at these early episodes of Marshal Dillon / Gunsmoke.
