Gunsmoke: 50th Anniversary Collection

This deluxe collection, including 29 memorable episodes on six discs, commemorates the 50th anniversary of Gunsmoke's TV debut. Originally a dramatic radio show, Gunsmoke presented the adventures of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness), who kept the peace in the legendarily wild and woolly frontier town of Dodge City in the late 19th century. Aided over the years by a slew of deputies that included Chester (Dennis Weaver), Festus (Ken Curtis), Quint (Burt Reynolds), and Newly (Buck Taylor), Marshal Dillon locked horns with some of the West's toughest hombres. In quiet moments he frequented the saloon run by Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) and traded good-natured barbs with crusty old Doc Adams (Milburn Stone). Westerns were all the rage on network TV when Gunsmoke first hit the airwaves in 1955, but the show distinguished itself from the outset with reasonably intelligent scripts, relying less on traditional horse-opera action and more on character-driven storylines and fairly complex moral situations. A frequent Emmy Award-winner, the long-running series played host to innumerable guest stars, some of them well-established actors and others who were then just beginning to climb the ladder of stardom. In this collection you'll see John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Angie Dickinson, Dennis Hopper, Kurt Russell, Adam West, and George Kennedy. You'll also see future Star Trek principals William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and James Doohan—though not all in the same episode. Paramount's Gunsmoke: 50th Anniversary Collection presents the finest Gunsmoke episodes in one giant box (also available in two separate three-disc sets), with DVD extras including interviews and commentaries with various guest stars, blooper reels, and appearances by the principal cast members on other TV shows. Recommended. (E. Hulse)