Matt Dillon

[Old Doc]

Anybody watch the daylong marathon yesterday of the first half hour Gunsmoke episodes? Things
I noticed.
1. Doc had a funny looking hat in the first episode.
2. Matt had three different gun rigs in a single episode, a drop loop rig he wears in the Boot Hill scene, a holster with the gunbelt passing through it and the Arvo Ojala rig in the opening shootout sequence, where he actually faces off against Arvo. I suspect the now famous opening sequence was added later to these episodes as the Arvo rig and the stag-handled Colt seen in it, did not appear until later. I think the original opening was probably the weekly scene in Boot Hill.
3. His original gun was pretty non descript with two piece dark wood grips, later to be replaced by the faux stag grips on the gun he used for years.
4. It took two or three episodes for Miss Kitty to develop the beauty mark on her right cheek. Much less make up in general in the first one or two episodes.
5. Harold McNeer (Floyd the barber on Andy Griffith) appears in an early episode as a town father. he played Doc on the radio version of Gunsmoke.

[The Elderly Kid]

I'm sure the quick-draw shootout opening scene was added later. I'm remembering way back here - it was 1955 and I was 9 years old, living in Beaumont, TX. I'd seen the John Wayne intro and was eager to see the first episode of the new series. I've long forgotten the story of the first episode, but the way I remember the opening sequence of the first season was a montage of guns being drawn and fired. No faces visible, just hands going for six-shooters, drawing and firing. Different costumes, obviously depicting different men, different holster rigs and cartridge belts, at least one beginning with his back to the camera, turning and drawing. The producers may have thought this was too violent and put too much emphasis on gunplay, though when you name a show "Gunsmoke" you sort of expect that. Anyway, the mainstreet shootout began with the second season or later.

[Major 2]

all of those early episodes were Directed by Andrew McLaglen
who also directed most of Have Gun Will Travel
He was the son of Victor McLaglen and stood taller @ 6'7" than James Arness & John Wayne by 1"

and BTW  Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake and Milborn Stone were Singing trio before Gunsmoke.

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[Texas Lawdog]

GunSmoke was my Dad's favorite TV show. He watched until the show ended in 75. I've enjyed seeing the old 30 minute show on the Western Channel. Everybody on the show looked young except Milburn Stone. I remember him from old movies in the 30s, 40s, and the early 50s. I was too young to understand Matt and Kitty's relationship at the time. In the early 80s, I met Buck Taylor(Newly), who had been on the show. He and I have remained friends through the years. I get to see him several times a year. Ken Curtis was a member of the Sons of the Pioneers before he started acting in movies.

[Old Doc]

GunSmoke was my Dad's favorite TV show. He watched until the show ended in 75. I've enjyed seeing the old 30 minute show on the Western Channel. Everybody on the show looked young except Milburn Stone. I remember him from old movies in the 30s, 40s, and the early 50s. I was too young to understand Matt and Kitty's relationship at the time. In the early 80s, I met Buck Taylor(Newly), who had been on the show. He and I have remained friends through the years. I get to see him several times a year. Ken Curtis was a member of the Sons of the Pioneers before he started acting in movies.

Hell, I'm almost 70 and I don't understand Matt and Kitty's relationship!

[Highlander999]

First off, I too have noticed the gun belts that Matt was wearing and esp the one that looks almost period correct where the belt runs through the holster loop, rather than that drop loop buscadero from the rest of the shows.  I logged in this morning just to comment on that and see if anyone else had seen it.

As to Matt and Kitty's relationship...  You are trying to understand it from a "woman's" point of view.  Matt never fell for a woman, a little interest, but just like in the Toby Keith song, "He never hung his hat up at Kitty's Place"..  He wasn't a marrying man...

[Mustang Gregg]

I could go for that marathon!   
But all we can get is AFN (occasionally).

MG

[Rube Burrows]

I am enjoying the 30min Marshal Dillon shows also. I noticed the mole on Kitty was not there but then started seeing them.

These shows seem to be more dark in nature and Dillon is more of a shoot first ask questions later kind of guy.

[Old Doc]

I don't remember the exact date, probably the early 1960's, when congress got on an anti-violence kick, holding hearings, ad nauseum and as a result all the cowboy shows and the detective shows, such as Dragnet had to adopt non-violent story lines. There were even ridiculous guidelines put in place, such as if, God forbid, there was a shootout, you could see the good guy shoot and you could see the bad guy get hit, but not in the same frame. Obviously, the quality of our elected officials has not improved with the passage of time.

[Old Doc]

Also noted in episode of Matt Dillon shown yesterday, not only was Matt wearing an odd drop loop rig with two conchos on the face of the holster, he was using a 4 3/4 in barreled sixgun instead of his usual 7 1/2 in model.

[Drayton Calhoun]

If anyone remembers 'The Dakotas' that show fell victim to one of the Marshals shooting a priest that was protecting a murderer, show got canceled pretty quick from public uproar, or so it is said...