Gunsmoke: Season 2 Volume 1

Television series seem to come and go at an amazing rate. If a show lasts more than two or three seasons it is considered a hit. Those series that make it close to the decade mark are hailed with accolades like groundbreaking. Once again the generation that grew up in the fifties and sixties has different perspective on this subject. For us there is nothing that can touch a favorite series from our youth, ‘Gunsmoke’. It began in 1955 and ran for an unprecedented twenty years. To place that in perspective that means I was an infant at the start for this series’ run and celebrating my first wedding anniversary when it ended. In the spirit of full disclosure both the ‘Simpsons’ and ‘Law & Order’ (prime) are coming close to the record but it is still an incredible accomplishment. Unlike Law & Order’ this series kept the same actor in the lead role for the entire run of some 613 episodes. Volume one of the second season is on DVD straight from the deep and eclectic program vaults over at Paramount. This is the first half of 1956 – 1957 which consisted of episodes one through twenty. Yes, back then a television season ran for 39 week. Imagine almost ten months without reruns; amazing. Now a long season is 23 episodes with many shows calling ten to thirteen episodes a full season.

The mid fifties was the golden age of the western. It was one of the most popular genres for films and this naturally split over to that new fangled TV set. This was the era of Roy Rogers, Judge Roy Bean, Sergeant Preston and the Texas Rangers but none of them could hold a candle to Gunsmoke. Like several new television series Guusmoke had an audience waiting for it. This was a successful radio program for several years before debuting on TV. For the first few years this was a half hour program and, naturally, in black and white. Gunsmoke was also groundbreaking as one of the first western series targeted more towards the adults. Most of the kid oriented westerns the bad guy was always out matched by the hero. The only types that usually made it as villains were cattle rustlers and Indians (this was way before the politically correct term of Native American). In Gunsmoke the plots were never so straight forward, there where layers of subtext for more mature tastes. This is not to say that us kids were not entertained, we were. All we had to know was it had horses and gunfights and that was enough.

The show had a simple enough premise. Matt Dillon (James Arness) is the U.S. Federal Marshal for the town of Dodge City, Kansas. He was rough, tough and completely fair. Dillion was the kind of man who lived by his reputation. He would try to find a non-violent way out of any given situation but was adept with his six shooters when the need arose. He was frequently assisted by his friend Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver) who while not was an official deputy was always there to lend a hand. With his stiff leg he was one of the first handicapped heroes on television. Since there was enough lead pumped into Dillion to make a nuclear power plant it should come as no surprise that another of his best friends was Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), the town’s physician. He would perform necessary surgery, pull out bullets and dispense advice along with his remedies. There was a female presence in the series, something else not often seen in the kid’s westerns. Here it was the owner of the Long Branch Saloon, Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake). I was shocked years later when I found out the real profession of most women who owned a saloon in the old west. While a romance was never explicitly shown we all knew what the deal was between Miss Kitty and Marshal Dillon.

Those more mature stories are well represented by the episode ‘Legal Revenge’. The plot here concerns the topic of spousal abuse with a very modern twist. Doc rides out to welcome a new family to town. Once there he meets Flory Tibbs (Cloris Leachman) who claims her husband is in the fields working. Doc hears a sound from inside the cabin and finds a man with a bad leg wound. It is obvious that the injury was inflicted. Doc leaves afraid that the man will come to more harm if he is caught there by Flory. He reports the situation to the Marshal to investigate. This episode was written by none other than Sam Peckinpah. This episode is an example of something else great about this series. The list of actors, writers and directors who went on to fame and many awards started out here. Television was a fairly new medium where some of the most talented people learned to hone their craft. Another episode for the adults was titled ‘Cholera’. When a cholera outbreak hits Dodge City Doc is nowhere to be found. Matt and Chester have to find him before the disease destroys the town. While most westerns both on television and films had the villain as a tangible bad guy with guns this series dared to use something that was a real problem in the old west, epidemics. Breaking the mold like this is common place now but half a century ago this was groundbreaking. This trend was continued in other episodes including one called ‘No Indians’. Here when a family of four is shot and scalped the local members of the Pawnee tribe are held responsible. Matt has his doubts; he feels that it was a group of white men framing the Indians. It has to go against popular opinion and prejudice to vindicate the tribe.

These stories depended on real human emotions to drive the stories. Instead of the usual shoot ‘em up stories the other westerns used Gunsmoke explored such unheard of things like character development and tense dramatic situations. Even after over five decades these stories hold up. They are as good if not better than any story lines in modern television series. As novel as this was for the genre then the audiences went for it in droves. It was the number one rated series on television for five years straight and was rarely out of the top ten for its twenty year run. When the episodes shown in this DVD set was first broadcast they dominated Saturday night. For the young boys we all had Gunsmoke play sets that included a tin badge, six shooter and hat. As far as I know there was never a Miss Kitty set for the girls.

On behalf on my generation thank you Paramount. You have not only been releasing these vintage television series to DVD you are letting relive our cherished childhood memories. Let many men my age as young boys we would sit next to our fathers on Saturday night and watch this show. Now we can enjoy then with our children and grandkids. The full screen black and white video has held up well over the decades although it is grainy. Most of us that remember the series should have held up this well. Even with the grain this is still much better than most of us originally watched the show. The Dolby mono is usually clear with some slight degree of distortion. While most of these old TV series are presented on DVD with no extras Paramount did throw in one that is interesting. They were called sponsor spots. Here the stars of the shows would plug the products instead of running regular commercials. Many of them were for the tobacco companies. Paramount does have disclaimer before the featurette warning that tobacco products are harmful and the spots are for historical purposes only. One shows James Arnes coming off the set after the episode aired. He hopes that the audience enjoyed the show and in the mean time enjoys the taste of L&M cigarettes. It did seem that they were careful not to show him in costume. This is a piece of history and is must have for any collection.

Posted 12/28/07