I’m not sure if I was clear enough to emphasis my surprise at just how much I enjoyed watching/listening to this classic show.My disinterest in it while growing up was real (at that time the only westerns I’d ever watch was “Alias Smith & Jones” and “Kung Fu” which were nothing like the standard westerns). When I discovered that many of the early half hour episodes were just the radio show episodes but shot for TV, it was easy to understand why they were so enjoyable to me, to listen to while drawing.

Overall, I prefer the black & white seasons (the first 10 seasons 1955-1965) over the color. Especially because the scenes shot on the sound stage in black & white looked more real, more natural, while sound stage scenes in color looked fake.

I prefer the Chester episodes over the Festus episodes. I know that both characters were intended for comic relief, but they seemed to highlight more “comedic” full episodes with Festus and his large band of relations then was ever necessary. When it comes to “Gunsmoke” dramatic episodes were excellent, comedic light hearted episodes were a slog sitting thru.

Because TV shows in the 50’s, 60’s & 70’s didn’t usually make a big deal of series finales or character finales (they were afraid if they made finales the show wouldn’t do well in syndication) there were many departures that SHOULD have been noted. When Chester, Quint (Burt Reynolds half breed character) and especially Miss Kitty were written out of the show none of the other characters ever reacted to hem being gone. That just never felt right to me.