Get Out of Dodge!

Continuing with the theme of American Western TV series, let’s revisit Gunsmoke, the American television western that aired on CBS for twenty seasons (1955–75), becoming the longest-running prime-time television western in history.  The series was the top-rated show from 1957 to 1961, and maintained excellent ratings throughout its run. 

Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas, in the 1870’s to 90’s.  The series centered on the character of Matt Dillon, played by James Arness (brother of Peter Graves of Mission Impossible fame), a U.S. marshal charged with maintaining law and order in an American frontier town.  

The real Dodge City was reached by the railroads in 1872, and became an end point for cattle drives going to eastern stockyards.  It was a rough town, although there is no record of multiple gunfights. 

The supporting characters included Miss Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake), owner of the Long Branch Saloon, which doubled as a bordello; Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), the town’s adept physician; and Deputy Marshal Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver), Dillon’s loyal sidekick.  When Weaver left the show in 1964, Festus Haggen (Ken Curtis) replaced his character. 

Much of the series featured Dillon and his allies battling bandits, robbers, or other threats that blew in from the prairie.  Most conflicts emanated from an outsider’s entering the small, tight-knit community and causing some form of tumult.  

Marshal Dillon was the originator of the phrase “Get out of Dodge” for his fascist commands to the unwanted to leave town.  However, one website said, “…the program’s enduring success resulted from the psychological drama and tense situations that were resolved with moral ambiguity rather than with a showdown at high noon.” 

During the 20-year span of CBS’s Gunsmoke series, the body count ranges from 138 men and seven women to 303 people.  If you add in the ones U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon capped in the made-for-TV movies, the total is 407.