Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. The radio series ran from to John Dunning wrote that, among radio drama enthusiasts, " Gunsmoke is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind and any time. In , the series was adapted for television and ran for 20 seasons.
It ran for half-hour episodes from to , and one-hour episodes from to A total of episodes were aired over its 20 year run. At the end of its run in , 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 pulp Western as romanticized by Buntline , Harte , and Twain. It was ever the stuff of legend.
Five made-for-TV movies were produced after its year run. The show won 15 Primetime Emmy Awards as well as other accolades.
It was frequently well received, holding a top spot in the Nielsen ratings for several seasons. The United Kingdom series was initially titled Gun Law.
Paley , a fan of the Philip Marlowe radio series, asked his programming chief, Hubell Robinson, to develop a hardcore Western series, about a "Philip Marlowe of the Old West". Two versions were recorded. The first, recorded in June , was very much like a hardcore detective series and starred Michael Rye credited as Rye Billsbury as Dillon; [ 5 ] [ 4 ] the second, recorded in July , starred Straight Arrow actor Howard Culver in a more Western, lighter version of the same script.
