Burt Reynolds Left Gunsmoke Because His Movie Career Was Taking Off. During a summer hiatus from shooting Gunsmoke Reynolds went and shot a movie and started to be noticed as a movie star. Milburn explained to him, “Your movies are taking off — get out of here," and Reynolds listened.
Gunsmoke made Ken Curtis' Festus Haggen a series regular to replace Dennis Weaver's beloved Chester Goode after he left to pursue other acting opportunities. However, Curtis refused to return for the first made-for-tv Gunsmoke movie after its 20-season run because of a couple of serious disagreements with a producer.
Did Burt Reynolds get along with the Gunsmoke cast?
Luckily, Reynolds not only had the support of Gunsmoke producers, but he had Marshal Matt Dillon on his side as well. The actor said that, while James Arness had a more reserved personality, he gave Reynolds his undivided support.
Galen Adams (Doc) on the TV show “Gunsmoke.” He starred in “Gunsmoke” through its entire television run, except for seven episodes in 1971 when Stone required heart surgery and Pat Hingle replaced him as Dr. Chapman.
Originally, John Wayne was offered the role but turned it down because he had no interest in committing to a weekly TV series. If he had accepted the part, it's incredibly unlikely the series would have ever run that long, and more TV movies of "Gunsmoke" probably would have hit the airwaves instead.
During the invasion of Anzio, Italy in 1944, his right leg was shattered by machine-gun fire, resulting in his losing part of his foot. He was hospitalized for a year and underwent surgeries to correct his leg, which left a limp.
The cast of Gunsmoke was able to get pretty chummy with each other during the show's twenty-season run, to the point where they felt like a family. Leading this cast of Western stars was James Arness, a man who was— apparently— as tall as he was kind.
Between 1963 and 1967, the ratings for Gunsmoke had declined to the point where the show fell outside the Top 30 in the Nielsen ratings. The decision to cancel Gunsmoke was initiated by a younger core of CBS executives, who felt that Gunsmoke was outdated and should be replaced with a more contemporary show.
A list of Gunsmoke cast members in order of how many episodes they appeared in would start predictably enough. James Arness, who lead the series as Marshall Matt Dillon, was in all 635 episodes.
Taylor said he was up for a couple of other film roles at the time and had to make a choice. It turns out to have been the best decision of his career. Newly became a key member of the cast and Taylor stayed with the series for eight seasons and 174 episodes until its cancellation in 1975.
"He was a wonderful guy to work with, and we all became friends," Arness said. "He just fit right in with the family group, and we had a wonderful time. He was there, I think, for only a couple of seasons, and then he moved on to gigantic screen stardom."
Stone was brought on as one of the original principal cast members along with James Arness, Amanda Blake, and Dennis Weaver. However, they didn't all initially get along. Stone initially “hated” Arness because he didn't think that he took the job seriously enough.
' ” Arness, who remained close to Weaver after he left the series, praised him as a “really fine actor.” “We really liked each other a whole lot,” Arness said.
Nineteen years of encouraging the good works of Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV show ”Gunsmoke,” and never even a kiss from the hero. Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty, grew tired of commuting from her Phoenix home to Hollywood and quit the show in 1974.
Dennis Weaver never anticipated that the series would be as successful and long running as it was— and as he neared the end of his time on Gunsmoke, he was entirely out of creative directions in which to take his character, and he began to feel the physical repercussions of walking with a limp for so long.
First of 6 episodes where Pat Hingle played Dr. John Chapman as a replacement for Doc Adams when Milburn Stone left the series for heart bypass surgery.
The television series of Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to 1975 and is said to be one of the longest running prime-time shows on television. There were 635 episodes and many of the outdoor scenes for this show were shot in Johnson Canyon near Kanab, Utah.
Longtime Gunsmoke viewers know that Doc killed a few people during the twenty-year history of the series. While Doc's reaction to Myles Brandell shooting his horse is surprising, it is justified under the circumstances. It does not make sense that anyone would think Doc should be prosecuted.
Fully retired to his ranch in 1975 after the show's cancellation, he was eventually awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Mary of the Plains College in (of course) Dodge City, Kansas. Married to Jane Garrison, the 75-year-old veteran died of a heart attack on June 12, 1980 in La Jolla, California.
Who turned down the role of Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke?
But that was the reasoning behind Polly Bond's decision to refuse the part of Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke. The former Polly Ellis had recently married Tommy Bond, a former child actor most famous for playing "Butch" on The Little Rascals.
A: Matt Dillon (James Arness) and Kitty (Amanda Blake) never married during the series 1955-75 run, although close watchers of the show were convinced they had connected at some time. But in a 1973 episode, Matt had a brief affair with another woman, Mike Yardner (Michael Learned), while he had amnesia.
But the changing of the guard really happened in the Season 9 episode titled "The Prairie Wolfer," where Chester and Festus actually appear together. In fact, this particular episode had appearances from Matt, Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, Sam and Quint.
Did James Arness and Milburn Stone get along in real life?
Obviously, Arness straightened out and once the two actors were on the same wavelength, they got along just fine. In a later interview, Stone told TV Guide, "I spent the first two years on Gunsmoke despising Jim's lack of professionalism.
