For 20 years the TV series GUNSMOKE held fans of western
television series in its grip, presenting the adventures of Marshall Matt
Dillon (James Arness) and his friends in the town of Dodge City. Characters and
actors came and went with the years, among them a young Burt Reynolds and
Dennis Weaver. Until 2019 it was the longest running series ever on television,
finally surpassed by THE SIMPSONS in 2018 for most scripted episodes and LAW
& ORDER: SVU which had had the highest number of scripted episodes for any
U.S. primetime, commercial, live-action television series. Still for a series
to last that long when TV was just coming into its own is a supreme
achievement.
The series has made its way on disc the same way with season
after season being made available for fans to go back and enjoy over and over
again. This will culminate with the complete series being available this year
on its 65th anniversary. But if you’ve been picking them up as
released the 19th season is available now.
Believe it or not by season 19 regular cast members Arness,
Milburn Stone as Doc and Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty were all still there. Ken
Curtis as Festus who joined the cast in 1964 was still around as well having
replaced Weaver that year. By this time they were all characters fans were
comfortable with, cherished and loved.
One would have thought that in 20 years of serving in the
Wild West things would have changed but many of the issues from the first
season on still were the stories that confronted the cast members. The opening
episode is a two part event where women are captured and about to be sold into
white slavery by a renegade group. Another episode has Matt lose his memory and
find potential love. Another has Miss Kitty fall in love with a gunman with a
price on his head. Lynchings, robbers, gunslingers, con men and reformed drunks
make up the various stories found in this season, all made to feel as fresh as
could be given the longevity of the series.
Actors Victor French, William Schallert, Ron Moody, Vincent
Van Patten, Richard Kiley, Gerald McRaney, Steve Forrest, David Wayne, Jim
Davis, Kurt Russell and more make an appearance in this season. At the time
most of them were well known though by now some may have been forgotten. It
showed that even at that late date the series was able to bring in well-known
talent who wanted to be there.
If you’re a fan of the series you’ll want to make it a point
to pick this one up to keep your collection going. If you’ve never seen the
series and come across this on the shelf pick it up, you might find you enjoy
it. For those of us who grew up during the heyday of the TV western this was a
show you made sure you were there to see each week in the days before VCRs and
DVRs. Now you can watch it at your leisure on disc and enjoy it all over again.
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