Beginning with its 12th season, Gunsmoke switched from black-and-white to color, one of the last major network series to do so. This necessitated the reshooting of the series' familiar opening sequence, in which Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) outdraws an unidentified desperado on the deserted main street of Dodge City. Happily, the sequence was moved back outdoors, where it belonged: During the past several seasons, the "showdown" opening had been staged in a painfully phony studio "exterior". Also,the addition of color ...
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Beginning with its 12th season, Gunsmoke switched from black-and-white to color, one of the last major network series to do so. This necessitated the reshooting of the series' familiar opening sequence, in which Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) outdraws an unidentified desperado on the deserted main street of Dodge City. Happily, the sequence was moved back outdoors, where it belonged: During the past several seasons, the "showdown" opening had been staged in a painfully phony studio "exterior". Also,the addition of color rather surprisingly enhanced rather than detracted from the naturalistic "look" of the four main players, James Arness, Amanda Blake (as Miss Kitty), Milburn Stone (as Doc) and Ken Curtis (as Festus). Unfortunately, for the most part the series was still weighed down by the phlegmatic writing that had plagued season eleven; of the 29 new episodes this season, only a handful (notably the two-part season finale "Nitro!") are truly memorable. Conversely, the season's guest-star roster is much stronger than in the previous year. Among the talented players making one-shot appearances are such up-and-coming youngsters as Bruce Dern (and his then-wife Diane Ladd), Jon Voight, Tom Skerritt) and Zalman King, and such veterans as Carroll O'Connor, Fritz Weaver and Alan Hale Jr.. And in the episode "The Jailer", the great Bette Davis etches an searing portrait of an embittered woman who lives only for revenge. With the western format in the doldrums on network television, and with Gunsmoke's ratings lower than ever, the decision was made to cancel the series at the end of season 12. But at the very last moment, CBS president William Paley decided to give the venerable property a new lease on life--and in a brand-new timeslot. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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