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Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, 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 pul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunsmoke
''Gunsmoke'' is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. It centers on Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870s, 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 pul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Arness
James Arness (born James King Aurness; May 26, 1923 – June 3, 2011) was an American actor, best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon for 20 years in the CBS television series ''Gunsmoke''. Arness has the distinction of having played the role of Dillon in five decades: 1955 to 1975 in the weekly series, then in '' Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge'' (1987) and four more made-for-television ''Gunsmoke'' films in the 1990s. In Europe, Arness reached cult status for his role as Zeb Macahan in the Western series '' How the West Was Won''. He was the older brother of actor Peter Graves. Early life James Arness was born in Minneapolis. His parents were businessman Rolf Cirkler Aurness and journalist Ruth Duesler. His father's ancestry was Norwegian; his mother's was German."Ancestry of James Arness" '' [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Meston
John Lyman Meston (July 30, 1914March 24, 1979) was an American scriptwriter best known for co-creating with producer Norman Macdonnell the long-running Western (genre), Western series ''Gunsmoke''. He developed storylines and wrote radio scripts and teleplays for 379 episodes for the series, which was first broadcast on CBS Radio in 1952, and then adapted to the "small screen", as well, airing on television from 1955 to 1975.Barabas, SuzAnne and Barabas, Gabor (1990). ''Gunsmoke: A Complete History and Analysis of the Legendary Broadcast Series''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 1990, pp. 34-35."John Meston, 64, Script Writer Who Created 'Gunsmoke' for TV" obituary, ''The New York Times'', March 28, 1979, digitized cop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norman Macdonnell
Norman Scarth Macdonnell (November 8, 1916 – November 28, 1979) was an American producer for radio, television, and feature films. He is best known for co-creating with writer John Meston the Western series ''Gunsmoke'', which was broadcast on CBS Radio from 1952 to 1961, and on television from 1955 to 1975. Other radio series that Macdonnell either produced, directed, or at various times wrote scripts for include ''Suspense'', '' Escape'', '' The Adventures of Philip Marlowe'', ''Fort Laramie'', ''Rogers of the Gazette'', and '' Have Gun—Will Travel''.Dunning, John. (1976). ''Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, 1925-1976''. Prentice-Hall, Inc. , pp. 12, 185, 215, 259-60, 268, 518, 584. He was also a long-time executive producer for the NBC television series '' The Virginian''. Early life Norman Scarth Macdonnell was born in California in 1916. Named in honor of his paternal grandfather, he was the youngest of four children of Alice L. (née Talcot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Gunsmoke Radio Episodes
'' Gunsmoke'' is an American western radio series, which was developed for radio by John Meston and Norman Macdonnell. The series ran for nine seasons and was broadcast by CBS. The first episode of the series originally aired in the United States on April 26, 1952, and the final first-run episode aired on June 11, 1961. During the series, a total of 480 original episodes were broadcast, including shows with re-used or adapted scripts. A television version of the series premiered in 1955. ''Gunsmoke'' is set in and around Dodge City, Kansas, in the post-Civil War era and centers around United States Marshall Matt Dillon ( William Conrad) as he enforces law and order in the city. The series also focuses on Dillon's friendship with three other citizens of Dodge City: Doctor Charles "Doc" Adams ( Howard McNear), the town's physician; Kitty Russell ( Georgia Ellis), owner of the Long Branch Saloon; and Chester Wesley Proudfoot ( Parley Baer), Dillon's deputy. Other roles were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marshal Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon is a fictional character featured on both the radio and television versions of ''Gunsmoke''. He is the U.S. Marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, who works to preserve law and order in the western frontier of the 1870s. The character was created by writer John Meston. The character evolved considerably during nine years on CBS Radio and twenty years on CBS Television (Columbia Broadcasting System). Overview Writer John Meston created Matt Dillon, "whose hair is probably red, if he's got any left. He'd be handsomer than he is if he had better manners but life and his enemies have left him looking a little beat up, and I suppose having seen his mother (back about 1840) trying to take a bath in a wooden washtub without fully undressing left his soul a little warped. Anyway, there'd have to be something wrong with him or he wouldn't have hired on as a United States Marshal in the heyday of Dodge City, Kansas." On the radio series which ran from 1952 until 1961, Matt w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howard McNear
Howard Terbell McNear (January 27, 1905 – January 3, 1969) was an American stage, screen, and radio character actor. McNear is best remembered as the original voice of Doc Adams in the radio version of ''Gunsmoke'' and as Floyd Lawson, the barber on ''The Andy Griffith Show'' (1961–1967). Career McNear studied at the Oatman School of Theater and later joined a stock company in San Diego. McNear also worked in radio from the late 1930s, including in the 1937–1940 radio serial '' Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police'' as ace operator Clint Barlow. McNear could be effective in such authoritative roles, but he gravitated more toward character roles, often comic. He enlisted as a private in the United States Army Air Corps on November 17, 1942, during World War II. He created the role of Doc Charles Adams in CBS Radio's ''Gunsmoke'' (1952–1961). McNear was under contract to CBS for many years and was featured in many of the network's radio and TV programs. Fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Conrad
William Conrad (born John William Cann Jr., September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer, and director whose entertainment career spanned five decades in radio, film, and television, peaking in popularity when he starred in the detective series ''Cannon''. A radio writer and actor, he moved to Hollywood after serving in World War II as a fighter pilot, and played a series of character roles in films, beginning with the film noir ''The Killers'' (1946). He created the role of Marshal Matt Dillon for the radio series ''Gunsmoke'' (1952–1961) and narrated the television adventures of '' Rocky and Bullwinkle'' (1959–1964) and '' The Fugitive'' (1963–1967). Finding fewer onscreen roles in the 1950s, he changed from actor to producer-director with television work, narration, and a series of Warner Bros. films in the 1960s. Conrad found stardom as a detective in the TV series ''Cannon'' (1971–1976) and ''Nero Wolfe'' (1981), and as district atto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a hostile, sparsely populated frontier in a state of near-total lawlessness patrolled by outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other stock "gunslinger" characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, Manifest Destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. History The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. These featured veterans of ''Buffalo Bill's Wild West'' show exhibiting skills acquired by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vic Perrin
Victor Herbert Perrin (April 26, 1916 – July 4, 1989)Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s--A Biographical Dictionary.'' Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., p. 228: . was an American radio, film, and television actor, perhaps best remembered for providing the "Control Voice" in the original version of the television series '' The Outer Limits'' (1963–1965). He was also a radio scriptwriter as well as a narrator in feature films and for special entertainment and educational projects, such as the original Spaceship Earth and Universe of Energy rides at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Early years Perrin was born in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the elder of two sons of Kathryn (née Mittlesteadt) and Milton A. Perrin, who was a traveling salesman. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City is the county seat of Ford County, Kansas, United States, named after nearby Fort Dodge. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 27,788. The city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West. History The first settlement in the area that became Dodge City was Fort Mann, built by civilians in 1847. At that time the territory was part of Mexico, and the fort was built to provide protection for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Fort Mann collapsed in 1848 after an attack by Natives. In 1850, the U.S. Army arrived to provide protection in the region and constructed Fort Atkinson on the old Fort Mann site. The army abandoned Fort Atkinson in 1853. Military forces on the Santa Fe Trail were re-established farther north and east at Fort Larned in 1859, but the area remained vacant around what would become Dodge City until the end of the Civil War. In April, 1865, the American Frontier Wars in the West began he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parley Baer
Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was an American actor in radio and later in television and film. Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Chester" in the radio version of ''Gunsmoke'', and as the Mayor of Mayberry (Roy Stoner) in ''The Andy Griffith Show''. Early life, family and education Parley Edward Baer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He studied drama at the University of Utah. Career Baer had a circus background, but he began his radio career at Utah station KSL. Circus Early in his career, Baer was a circus ringmaster and publicist. He left those roles for military service in World War II. In the 1950s, he had a job training wild animals at Jungleland USA in Thousand Oaks, California. Still later, he served as a docent at the Los Angeles Zoo. Military Baer was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, attaining the rank of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
