Gunsmoke Tv Series Wiki (2024)

FAQs

Why did Festus quit Gunsmoke? ›

Gunsmoke made Ken Curtis' Festus Haggen a series regular to replace Dennis Weaver's beloved Chester Goode after he left to pursue other acting opportunities. However, Curtis refused to return for the first made-for-tv Gunsmoke movie after its 20-season run because of a couple of serious disagreements with a producer.

Between 1963 and 1967, the ratings for Gunsmoke had declined to the point where the show fell outside the Top 30 in the Nielsen ratings. The decision to cancel Gunsmoke was initiated by a younger core of CBS executives, who felt that Gunsmoke was outdated and should be replaced with a more contemporary show.

A: Matt Dillon (James Arness) and Kitty (Amanda Blake) never married during the series 1955-75 run, although close watchers of the show were convinced they had connected at some time. But in a 1973 episode, Matt had a brief affair with another woman, Mike Yardner (Michael Learned), while he had amnesia.

Nineteen years of encouraging the good works of Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV show ”Gunsmoke,” and never even a kiss from the hero. Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty, grew tired of commuting from her Phoenix home to Hollywood and quit the show in 1974.

' ” Arness, who remained close to Weaver after he left the series, praised him as a “really fine actor.” “We really liked each other a whole lot,” Arness said.

Reynolds left Gunsmoke to pursue a career in movies, which ultimately led him to become an iconic movie star.

He stayed with Gunsmoke through its entire television run, with the exception of 7 episodes in 1971, when Stone required heart surgery and Pat Hingle replaced him as Dr. Chapman.

Matt Dillon resigned his position at least three times over the course of the series. Once because he was upset that he mistakenly killed a man he thought was trying to shoot him. The second was when he was angry and wanted the freedom to kill a man that had brutally attacked Kitty Russell. This is the third.

Dennis Weaver first became familiar to television audiences as Matt Dillon's assistant Chester Goode in Gunsmoke (1955). After playing the part for nine years, he moved on to star in his own series, Kentucky Jones (1964).

Did the cast of Gunsmoke get along in real life? ›

The cast of Gunsmoke grew so close to one another that at times, they seemed more family than friends. However, two actors on set, Milburn Stone and James Arness, unfortunately, got off on the wrong foot when they first met.

Daughter Jenny died of an apparently deliberate drug overdose in 1975. His former wife Virginia died of an accidental drug overdose in 1977.

After the surprising cancellation of "Gunsmoke" in 1975, Arness jumped immediately into another successful (though much shorter-lived) Western project, a TV-movie-miniseries-series combination known as "How The West Was Won." A brief modern police drama, McClain's Law (1981), followed, and Arness played his mentor John ...

For nearly 20 years, Blake played Miss Kitty Russell on the popular Western TV series Gunsmoke. Although when she died in August 1989, the media initially reported that she died of cancer, the cause of death was later confirmed to be AIDS-related complications. It is not known how she contracted the virus.

Mr. Curtis played Festus Haggin, sidekick to Marshal Matt Dillon, from 1964 to 1975, when the series ended. He replaced Dennis Weaver, who played Chester Goode before leaving the show after nine years.

Greenland, Stone explained that when he first began working with Arness, he was annoyed by him. Stone, best known for his role as Doc Adams, recalled, "I felt he did not belong in the business at all." He remembered one specific instance in which he snapped at the actor.

Dennis Weaver never anticipated that the series would be as successful and long running as it was— and as he neared the end of his time on Gunsmoke, he was entirely out of creative directions in which to take his character, and he began to feel the physical repercussions of walking with a limp for so long.

But the changing of the guard really happened in the Season 9 episode titled "The Prairie Wolfer," where Chester and Festus actually appear together. In fact, this particular episode had appearances from Matt, Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, Sam and Quint.

First of 6 episodes where Pat Hingle played Dr. John Chapman as a replacement for Doc Adams when Milburn Stone left the series for heart bypass surgery.