Starter of this subject: Bob Paine
Last post in this subject: 1/7/2005
Messages in this subject: 4
| Bob Paine | 1/7/2005 4 replies |
| I watched part of an episode of Gunsmoke recently and as one who was exposed to the TV version before discovering OTR, I've become very frustrated with the TV makeover of the program. I won't diss James Arness and company, although I read something that he and Milburn Storn are alleged to have said about the writers. They are said to have felt that the writers "didn't understand the characters." My opinion is that Arness and Stone were the ones who didn't understand. Both did a creditable job but nowhere near the performances by William Conrad and Howard McNear. Dennis Weaver did a pretty decent job as Chester but Amanda Blake, IMO, was the only one of the four whose did nearly or as good as her radio counterpart. I think she could have done the part on the radio version. When you consider all the visual medium needs to present a program, radio's version did more in half an hour than TV did when it gained the extra thirty minutes after the sound version was cancelled. James Arness could never, in my mind, capture the essence of Matt Dillon. Conrad's version had something that I can't put my finger on, an underlying anger that would surface on occasion. Matt was friendly but a bit stand-offish, as though there was something in his past that he had to keep inside. I turned off the TV version, logged onto the computer, found a site that had the radio recordings and proceeded to listen to what I consider the real Gunsmoke and THE Matt Dillon. Oh, BTW - again IMO, TV's Doc Adams (or is it Addams?) lacked the kind of....ghoulish humor that Howard McNear put into the character. When I see him on Andy Griffith I'm not looking at Howard the barber, but Doc in 20th century Mayberry. Almost like he was playing the same character, different time, different show. My ramblings are not meant to provoke a debate or anything; I'm just spouting off because it fries me that so much talent was never permitted to carry over to TV. I guess I'll go back and listen to the Gunsmoke theme...even the radio version of that puts the TV effort to shame...Gunsmoke Trails, no traveler to care where you go. Sands of time are hiding your way.... |
| Bob Paine | 1/7/2005 3 replies |
| Obviously, I need to take remedial spelling...it's "Stone", not "Storn". |
| Hal Evans | 1/29/2005 2 replies |
| Those are good observations. There should have been a 100 percent use of the radio GUNSMOKE folks. Just transfer them to TV. John Dehner would have been a hoot, too. He most often played a sleazy villain who sounded like he had no teeth. Real gutteral voice. He'd need makeup on TV to make him look like he sounded on radio, though. I can still hear John Dehner say, "Marshull. You got no cause to fight me!" Or the likes of that. Indeed, John Dehner was the BEST sounding scuzzy old-west villain bum villain ever. |
| Stewart | 1/29/2005 0 replies |
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John Dehner auditioned for the role of Matt Dillon on the radio GUNSMOKE series. Reportedly he turned down the role because he didn't want to become type cast as Western actor.
It is ironic because Dehner later starred in two Western radio series: "Frontier Gentleman" and "Have Gun Will Travel." Also, Dehner was the most frequent GUNSMOKE quest star, he appeared in 235 episodes. So frequent were his appearances, that several times he was not mentioned in guest credits in episodes in which he appeared. In the 10/16/1960 episode "Crack-Up," Dehner received credit in guest cast credits as John Forkum. This was his real name. You can find out lots of interesting information about the radio version of GUNSMOKE by visiting the GUNSMOKE Phorum at: |
| WaltP | 8/21/2005 0 replies |
"There should have been a 100 percent use of the radio GUNSMOKE folks. Just transfer them to TV." That would have been interesting to see. A chubby Marshall Dillon. I don't think so... The producers didn't want Conrad, they wanted John Wayne. Wa |