GUNSMOKE

Other Gunsmoke Links and Resources

Other Gunsmoke Web Pages

Here's another Gunsmoke page, complete with episode lists for both the radio and TV series, and lots of other info. http://pluto.spaceports.com/~marks/Gunsmoke.html

OK, another new Gunsmoke page, this one is by Mandy. AOL users, take note! Mandy has links to AOL only Gunsmoke resources. Take a look at: http://members.aol.com/Mandy148/index.html

Here's a Gunsmoke web page out of Canada. It's in French! http://www3.sympatico.ca/rgosselin/gunsmoke.htm. They have a couple of pictures of Matt, Kitty, and Chester.

Here's a Gunsmoke page that is basically a copy of mine, right down to the artwork and the words. Hmm...can you say copyright violation. There are some nifty pictures, though. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/1331/tv/gun/30093index.html

A page about the radio Gunsmoke, with radio shows you can listen to and everything! http://members.xoom.com/sirjam/index.html

Here are some pictures from the early days of Gunsmoke from a private collection: http://www.geocities.com/~tschuyler/gunsmoke1.html

Here's another Gunsmoke site with lots of pictures and sound clips (in WAV format). It also has a complete episode list of the TV shows. http://desiluweb.com/TVLand/Gunsmoke/

Another Gunsmoke page - with beautiful paintings of the main cast. This is a must see! http://www.geocities.com/~christianna/Cowboys/gunsmoke.html

The Nick-At-Nite site has a little page devoted to Gunsmoke. Check it out online. They also have an episode guide, of a sort. See the note below, under Online Episode Guides.

Online Episode Guides

I have a complete radio log, listing all the radio episodes and when they were shown. Also listed are characters that appeared in the radio shows, and some more info about the radio shows in general.

The Nick-At-Nite site has an episode guide online. It's strange, though. The seasons that they list are not correct. The episodes listed are only for the color seasons. I don't know why they label the first color season as 6. It was really 12. So just add 6 to the season numbers they give and you'll be OK.

Where to Get Gunsmoke Radio Shows

Fan Gary Mercer has a nearly complete Gunsmoke radio collection. Look here for more information.

Also, try this new website - http://members.xoom.com/sirjam/index.html

Where To Get Gunsmoke Videos

Some episodes of Gunsmoke are available at your local video store. You can find a list of these videos by looking at http://www.tcfhe.com/search/genreIndex.CLASSICTV.html (these are movies available from Fox Home Entertainment).

Other episodes are available from Columbia House Video. I have a list of episodes that they are offering. You can purchase these episodes individually, or you can sign up for one of their plans where they will send you a tape every month or so. Either way, you can reach them at (800) 457-0866.

If you are looking for Gunsmoke Bloopers on video tape, you might try Movies Unlimited. They seem to have a small selection.

Books

The best source for Gunsmoke information is not on the web. It is the book Gunsmoke by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. Publisher: McFarland and Company (http://www.mcfarlandpub.com). ISBN: 0-89950-418-3. This book has 836 pages and is the complete reference work for both the radio and television series. Complete with pictures (all black and white) and episode summaries (for every episode!), this book is a must have if you are a Gunsmoke fan. Check out the FAQ for more information.

A good place to look for Gunsmoke books is Interloc. There you can find (used) Gunsmoke books of all types, including the book I mentioned above. Just do a search for Gunsmoke or Barabas.

A truely interesting book called TV Tie-Ins: A Bibliography of American TV Tie-In Paperbacks is available (http://www.mindspring.com/~tvtieins/). Although not strictly about Gunsmoke, it looks like a lot of fun.

The Real Dodge City

Dodge City seems to have a whole bunch of web pages devoted to it. They don't say anything about Gunsmoke, but you may find them interesting to visit:

http://www.dodgecity.net/ - mostly local info, like movies and classified adds
http://history.cc.ukans.edu/~hersite/kcn-2/dodge/dodgcity.html - interesting links about Dodge, including a link to a page of old maps of Kansas from the late 1800s and early 1900s
http://www.dodgecity.net/nws/ddchist.html - a brief history of Dodge City on the local National Weather Service web page. If you are looking for old pictures of Dodge, look here. They have a really nice picture of Front Street from about 1878, as well as pictures of the Dodge House. It doesn't really look like it did on TV. Go take a look!
http://www.dodgedev.org - this one has a definite bent toward attracting business to Dodge.
http://trails.net/dgcity/index.html - this is probably one that visitors to Dodge should look at. There is a little bit of history, also, as well as some old pictures.
http://usacitylink.com/dodge/do.html - Citylink's "What to do in Dodge City"

An online look at the history of the real Dodge City, published in the Denver Post.

http://www.americanwest.com/pages/dodge.htm - More history of Dodge City, and lots of pictures

Look here for a little info on Ford County, KS (the county that Dodge City is in)

Collectables

Here's a very incomplete list of places to get Gunsmoke collectables - things like dolls, comic books, old TV Guides, etc.

If you are into Gunsmoke trading cards or comic books, there are lots of places on the web to find them. One such place is The Red Planet Comics. You can find them at http://www.comics2000.com/redplanet/

Even more collectables will be found at www.starticles.com/movies/gunsmoke.html

Autographs

Of course, the best place to get an autograph of James Arness is to go to www.jamesarness.com and order your own.

Terry's Celebrity Autographs and Min-Pin Links also has some autographs. The page takes forever to load. You can skip right to the picture with James Arness and Dennis Weaver by clicking here.

Tony Runfalo sent along this address for James Arness: James Arness, P O Box 49599, Los Angeles, CA 90049

Places Where Gunsmoke Was Filmed

You may want to find out about the history of CBS Studio Center (where most of Gunsmoke was filmed). They even have a picture of the Long Branch.

They also did some filming at the Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita, CA during the 50's and maybe the early 60's. Go to http://www.santa-clarita.com

You can get some information about the Johnson Canyon, Utah, set that they used occasionally on my Fan Questions and Answers page, any you can visit the set online at http://www.so-utah.com/gunsmoke/

I got this from a fan who seems to know what he is talking about -

I thought I'd pass along some info regarding where Gunsmoke was filmed.

The pilot (and I believe the first 4-5 years) was filmed at Producers Studio on Melrose Ave and Bronson Ave. (Across the street from Paramount Studios) It was an old studio dating back to the silent era and had two stages. This is where they filmed the show's interiors. I know this for a fact as my father, character actor Larry J. Blake, appeared in the pilot episode, Hack Prime, and he said that's where they shot it. FYI - my dad appeared in about 6 episodes .

By the early 1960s, they had moved to KTLA Studios on Sunset Blvd (the original site of Warner Bros Studio). Paramount Studios had bought the lot in the mid-1940s and one of the first TV stations in LA was based out of there (it still is). Anyway, they had the whole interior street with sets for Matt's office, Long Branch, Doc's office, etc. there. I know this for a fact as I was there as a kid.

By 1963-64, they moved to CBS Studio Center, with the interior street sets on stage 3. Other series on the lot also used the Gunsmoke street sets (both interior & exterior), such as Big Valley and Wild, Wild West. The old back lot with the sets are long gone. I was there in 1980 (I work as a make-up artist in the film/TV industry) and a small portion of the last street (where the stock church was located) remained. By 1985, the next time I was there, it was all gone. Two of the last films that featured the old back lot was Muppet Movie and Capricorn One.

Today, the old western street is a parking lot and sound stages. They have named streets after the various shows, including Gunsmoke. About 3-4 years ago they tore out the old lagoon from Gilligan's Island, which Gunsmoke also used.