I will never forget the episode where Festus was talking about, "The hangy down part on my ear." I don't remember all the specifics anymore, but he was a gas! :)
I remember visiting a live set at Iverson Ranch. It was the summer of 1958. We met Matt Dillon, Chester, and Doc Adams. I was 7 years old. Younger brothers 6 and 4. My grandmother had arranged for us to be there as we were huge fans. The director was hesitant to allow 3 little boys on set but we didn’t make a sound. We had another opportunity in 1964 to visit the indoor Dodge City set. Met Sam the bartender and Festus on that trip. I still have my autographed picture of him. Never got to meet Miss Kitty. Still love the reruns and realize as an adult why we liked it so much as kids.
Love the comedy quarrels written in the scripts. Love the memorys of watching it w/ grandma and grandpa At the house .. Love how Matthew is so TOUGH , But yet so fair . If your mean he's mean , if your nice , he's nice , If your fair he is fare
@@Ninnjette- I love that show. It had a good cast. Great storylines. Almost every major star has appeared on gunsmoke. Ninnjette, the best TV shows were in the sixties and seventies.
I thank James Arness and the entire cast of Gunsmoke. I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode more than once and consider it the best western series made.
He was also quite a horseman. I remember an episode where he had to back up a hearse, with two horses in front, and actually PARALELL PARKED the hearse. That wudn;t no stunt double, neither. That was Ken the whole time.
James arness and John wayne were close friends. The producers of gunsmoke wanted John wayne for the role of Matt Dillon. John turned it down and recommended hits his friend, James arness and the rest is history.
Matt and Kitty are my favorite at 68 I look forward to watching my favorite show every day I wish I could see the very first and last episode of gunsmoke
My favorite was Glen Strange-Sam the bartender! He was my uncle. Greatest man that ever lived! He also played Frankenstein on Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein ❤️❤️❤️
I remember being so surprised to learn that James Arness and Peter Graves (of Mission Impossible fame) were brothers! Graves is the one who used a different last name.
Wanna hear something funny? I thought Chuck and Mike Connors were brothers! Someone told me this and I didn't question it because they had similar mouths and chins and they both had blue eyes!
They'll never be another show like Gunsmoke loved it grew up on it my mother and dad watched it and I still watch it to this day all the reruns all the episodes I really love brings back memories
And not to mention Festus was really a bad ass! That dude didn't give a fuck. Chester(R.I.P.) was pussy but I still love him as a Gunsmoke character,but FESTUS WAS THE MAN!!!!!!!!
I always loved the Christmas episodes, even from radio. I believe my favorite was the episode when Festus asked Doc about how one Doctor would treat and Doctor. It went something like this: “If a doctor was doctoring another doctor, would the doctor doing the doctoring, doctor the doctor who was being doctored, the way the doctor doing the doctoring knew how to doctor, or would the doctor doing the doctoring, doctor the doctor who was being doctored, the way the doctor who was being doctored wanted to be doctored?” Whew!
Gunsmoke?! Was in Primary going to High School period at that time! Always eating curry puffs during this evening Gunsmoke TV slot ... Brought back many School Time Nostalgic memories! Thank You So Much for Sharing! Stay Safe & World Peace! 🌍🌷🕊
James Aries’s was 6’ 7”...not 6’ 1”...and you forgot Thad played by Roger Ewing. He was not such a sterling actor and had enough sense to walk away from that career early on to succeed as a professional photographer. He was 6’ 5”. The Gunsmoke producers really liked tall men.
6'1"? Arness was more like 6'7"! Marshall Dillon, Miss Kitty, Doc Adams and Chester were the heart and soul of the series and some of the best writers and actors graced those episodes especially the early ones. An intelligent western with some great historic credibility.
I actually bought a set of the complete series and am reliving the episodes. As for a favorite character, it is hard to choose. I always enjoyed Kitty. She was a strong business woman who was ahead of her time.
Can’t believe you missed that Dennis Weaver was the star of two other series: McCloud and Gentle Ben. And how can you possibly not mention that Ken Curtis was one of the Sons of the Pioneers?
I got back into Gunsmoke on the insp channel. I read that Weaver didn't get the part of Chester on his first test read. He added the limp and the twangy speech pattern and was signed on the spot. He commented later that he wished he hadn't done the limp or at least not as pronounced as it left his legs sore after doing it for seven years. Both my legs are deteriorating and I require a cane to get around and still have a worst limp than Chester ever thought about and it wears out my (can't say "good" but . . ."better" leg. Loved Weaver in McCloud and his "Mr Poteet" character in the Centennial miniseries was a work of art!
Roger Ewing as Thaddeus greenwood, he may not have been on the show long but you forgot him like many do. He made a great impression on people playing his part. Only sorry he didn’t stay on for awhile he was good.
James Arness was not 6'1" but 6'7" , which is why he towered over everyone. How could you leave out Dennis Weaver's show McCloud? That show still airs and it's really good (dated, but good).
James Arness was 6'7" inches tall not 6'1 and Weaver was 6'2". Amanda Blake, unfortunately, contracted AIDS from her 3rd husband. Loved Arness in the original "The Thing from Outer Space". He was the Thing. Really liked McCloud with Dennis Weaver.
#1: James Arness was 6' 7" ... NOT 6' 1" as you stated! #2: Burt Reynold's character on GS was named QUINT ASPER (NOT Aspen)! If you're going to look back at iconic TV series, then get the FACTS correct. With over 16K views of this video, I'm sure a LOT of GS fans were offended by your obvious mistakes.
Some fun trivia. 1) Arness' limp was real from being wounded in WWII. 2) For the first two seasons of Bonanza Arness and Lorne Greens shared the same buckskin horse. *Arness himself confirmed that to me. 3 Amanda Blake died of AIDS which she caught from her cheating husband. 4) if you watch, sometimes Dillon's gun hand was left handed not right. 5) If you notice when a cowboy rode up the street, he always made a turn at the end of the street. This is because the Dodge City set was in a sound stage and if the actor didn't turn, he would have crashed in to a wall! 5) Everyone always thought Amanda Blake would have had a crush on Arness. Not true. She always had a crush on Milburne Stone in real life. Thanks Do, good upload. Loved Gunsmoke. Ken Curtiss was a heck of a singer in real life with The Sons Of The Pioneers. Buck Taylor is not only a very talented artist, he is the son of character actor Dub Taylor from earlier westerns!
Milburn Stone's cousin "Aunt Harriet" Madge Blake and her real life hubby actually worked with the ATOM BOMB project before she got into show biz in her late 40's.
You left out his other deputies. I would like to see you do one on " Characters of Dodge" on all the wonder character actors who were also regular citizens of Dodge like the late great Dabbs Greer as Mr. Jonas, James Nusser as Louie, Sarah Selby as Ma Smiley, etc.. I could name several more.
Im not sure if this waS where i heard that James Arness was 6 feet ONE inch tall. I think most sites have him about the same height as Chuck Conners, more like 6 feet SIX-SEVEN inches tall.
I've been a fan since the beginning. I've also attended the 2010 Gunsmoke reunion in Dodge City, KS. I've seen all the episodes many times and also have the book "Gunsmoke, An American Institution" written by Ben Costello. My favorite episode is: "Comanches Is Soft", featuring Festus (Ken Curtis) and Quint (Burt Reynolds). I laugh out loud every time I watch it. Especially when Liz (Kathy Nolan) tries to help in a few fights and Festus gets clobbered. (Liz, Please don't help!!) is one of my favorite lines. Ken was one of the Sons of the Pioneers before he appeared on Gunsmoke and Have Gun Will Travel. Please note: In 1 clip of your video, you have Audie Murphy as appearing in the show, that's incorrect. Audie Murphy starred in a movie called "Gunsmoke" but wasn't in the TV show.
Gunsmoke one of my favorites had such a great casts of people Matt Dillon kitty,doc,Chester later festus.and so many more.from Dudley to even Burt renolds.the stories were great I don't remember ANYONE not watching.or playing cowboys and OLD west.now we get arrested for not being po.itical correct.or be labeled. MENTALLY unstable because we all played westerns.
According to Milburn Stone biography, In 1961, he sold his residual rights of Gunsmoke (1955) to CBS for $100,000. It's Quint Asper, not Quint Aspin. Arness was 6'7 not 6'1. A lot of errors.
Yes, you're DEFINITELY right about James Arness' height. However, he didn't actually say it only ran 10 years. What he said was that it ran for a decade on Saturdays before being moved to Mondays.
I enjoyed them all I raised 3 girls and had one Tv and that’s what they had to watch and they never like the show and I still watch the reruns today over over and over Like when Festus and Dr argue even Chester and Ms Kitty held her own And Marshal Dillion was a fair and honest men I used to say why the Police men should be like him and just one of him but the town pulled together I just love this show
(no slight to this channel) Okay, whenever one of these RU-vid channels do a trivia or historical look on gunsmokes and focuses on James Arnes, they all neglect to point out that one of his first starring roles was the monster/thing in the movie The Thing From Another World 1951!
Chester saves doc life when injured Chester says he can't doc says in you don't I'll Die so Chester does the best he can and killing his horse for broth till mat shows up.
One of my favorite episodes was,"Luke ". Arness was not 6'1" or 6'7". When Arness was on the Ed Sullivan Show, Ed asked Arness how tall he was. Arness said,"six foot six,Ed."
Festus Hagen and relationship with Doc, I liked the episode where they were eating fish and Fetus wouldn't eat the fish because he said it was Mermaid.
You kind of forgot that these were the sixties and seventies... Everybody knew Miss Kitty and the sheriff were an item ... He was a good Sheriff she was a saloon owner... you know the censors then... James Arness was the monster in the original. thing movie.... and Miss Kitty also had are breast cancer and she just wasn't the average animal-rights person it was her life--
You might want check you info before you do the narration, as in the video it shows Milburn Stones grave stone with the dates July 5 1904 to June 12 1980 which made him 75, not 70 as your narration stated, you also got the height for James Arness wrong, he was 6'7" not 6'1"
At timestamp 4:57 Since the introduction brought up the fact that gunsmoke first started on the radio, the character Doc never supposed to be part of the show. Howard McNair, more famously known from TV as Floyd The Barber on the Andy Griffith Show, created the character doc and he was such a prominent figure in the radio version that it bled over into having doc as the television character also.
How about the spinoff series "Dirty Sally"? Sally had the mule with the hat. James Arness was Peter Graves's brother. Peter (Mission:Impossible) was 6'3" and James was 6'7". Arness also had a short lived series after Gunsmoke - "McClain's Law" As someone mentioned, McCloud" was also successful.
HOLD IT , The casting was perfect, They all loved there time in Dodge City , The regular cast did a great job , But -HOLD IT- also the guest appearances and the character Actors did a excellent job as well , Old School style icons visited Dodge City Bruce Dern , George Kennedy , Cowboy Jack Elm , Denver Pyle Angie Dickenson , Jodie foster ,Kurt -the flirt- Russell and a Hollywood character actor icon Harry Dean Stanton ( Who I last saw in a episode of Two and Half Men w/ Sean Penn also guest appearances) HOLD IT - Stanton ( Seans favorite smoking pot-ner ) was the very very rare skinny chronic smoker his whole life that lived to be 91 yrs old .George Kennedy retired happily to Idaho and raised his granddaughter after his daughter went to prison . Cowboy Jack Elam happily retired to Oregon . Miss Kitty ended up in Sacramento Ca as a acting teacher after retiring to Ariz . Mr. HOLD IT Himself played the TOUGH But completely fair authority figure Sooo well , That I would recommend Every authority figure in the WHOLE WORLD please watch and learn , Because it's well none , The best authority is a fair authority....!!!!!! Tip back a cup of coffee for them ol' Cowboys Matt ,Doc ,Chester and Festus Who really knew they had it real good getting payed well to dress up to play funny but serious ( detective ) cowboys as a J.O.B .. And tip a Beer for the tough, smart , & beatiful - Miss Kitty .cowboy 🤠 ...
My favorite character was Ms. Kitty. My favorite line was when she got pissed with Matt after he broke another date with her. Title: The way It Is. Kitty: “I don’t want to be one if the boys.”
i'm not sure which episode it was,but festus was waking up and sticks his fingers in the washbasin dabs the corners of his eyes then vigorously dries his entire face as if he had been drenched in water complete with "motorboat" sound.
