Posted on 08/12/2013 1:27:59 PM PDT by Eleutheria5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKxnN9YBaw
Piece of genius casting, that. BTT
The writing and the acting just got better, instead of going down hill.
Ken Curtis was fantastic! Replaced D Weaver IIRC. But Curtis was already huge. Singer...was supposed to replace Sinatra at one point, accomplished actor, well respected. One of the best castings ever!
“Aw... I aint’ gonna shoot off his whole ear...jus’ the little hangy down part.”
You can find Curtis in many classic westerns including the greatest of all, The Searchers.
Actually I think it went downhill pretty quickly when it went to color and the Matt Dillon character had fewer lines and was in fewer and fewer scenes. I had a huge crush on Amamda Blake. What a doll.
Also The Alamo. The real one with John Wayne, not the stupid remake.
He was in a ton of stuff not all westerns.
Almost everyday Gunsmoke and Bonanza are on in my home.
He was John Ford’s son-in-law for a while. Seeing him in “Gunsmoke,” or in “The Searchers” where Ford made him use a silly accent, you don’t get the whole impression of how Wheee-doggies! gorgeous he was.
Directed one of the worse monster movies I ever saw, KILLER SHREWS.
It was so bad it was good, kind of like Sharknado.
He played the accordion in the Quiet Man.
I loved those Matt-less episodes, especially the one with Festus and the old prospector with the pet snake, or that backwoods family that kidnapped some show girls/prostitutes, and its sequel where they try to marry them all off but it turns into a brawl.
Weaver was no slouch, either. He had a gentleness that was hard to portray in a series about a rough-n-tough lawman. But Curtis was absolutely immortal, though.
That was just one of countless great lines he got.
***Actually I think it went downhill pretty quickly when it went to color and the Matt Dillon character had fewer lines and was in fewer and fewer scenes.***
It went downhill in 1968 after the murder of Bobby Kennedy and there began an anti-violence backlash against western TV shows.
Before 1968, Gunsmoke was for adults, with adult themes, being broadcast at Saturday 9PM Central time when the kiddies were in bed.
After 1968, it was moved to an early time period, extended to an hour and as Milburn Stone(Doc) said, there were then more kids on the show than he could ever remember. The scripts were so dumbed down it was pitiful. I could never watch it after that.
But then, everything went to hell after the murder of Bobby Kennedy. Only movies at the theaters escaped by starting up a joke called a “rating system.” They then began to make the most vile movies ever to come out of Hollywood.
didn’t know he sang:
That sounds hysterical.
good job on Have Gun Will Travel:
He should have been introduced earlier if you ask me but they changed his character a bit too much later if you ask me, he started acting like an old man.
“Hit was the onlyest photo I had of a TV star”
That episode of “Have Gun Will Travel” was a real gem. Such a memorable moment, when a group of hardcases see the raggedy Curtis (as Monk, the trapper) approaching, and laugh at him like the comical foil he’d already been to them... and then he nonchalantly uses Paladin’s pistol to blow them away!
I seem to recall a sequel episode in which Curtis reprises the character, but it was unfortunately a clunker.
I thought the headline was Matt Damon Meets Festus.
In the opening scene the bad guy outdraws Matt but apparently missed.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I thought the same thing, I saw the video was like an hour long and thought: holy cow that must be a lot of splicing Ken Curtis into bad modern movie clips or something.
Festus was a great character.
Freegards
And we could see his shirt was pink.
I thought this was about Putin and Obama.
I didn’t realize Festus didn’t join the cast till Season 8. So was Chester (Dennis Weaver) the side kick up until that time?
I read a Wikipedia entry that said they had considered Denver Pyle for the part of Dillon...he was a good bad guy in this episode, can’t have imagined him as Dillon.
This would have been in 1949 or 50.
Now them’s fightin’ words, pardner. Shane the best, The Big Country second, The Cowboys third, and then The Searchers fourth. Still in the top five.
8~D
Ditto. Thanks for the link to this. Great stuff.
I've wondered from time to time if anyone has ever tallied how many times Matt Dillon was shot in the left arm or shoulder....
=^)
I liked it when Matt had to go down to Old Mexico and it was a terrible, bandit ridden, corrupt Federalies, land that he always had a hard time in getting out alive. Coundn’t make that today.
I usually don’t “LOL” but that made me LOL!
The two seasons of “Ripcord” have been officially released on dvd-sets, just this very month. I plan on getting them.
Also in this episode was Elizabeth MacCrea as April, who repeated her role, becoming Festus’ girl, in the first few re-appearances of Festus, before Curtis really became an all-out regular. MacCrea usually played floozie-types, until a few years later, when she turned pleasantly sweet, playing “Gomer Pyle’s” girlfriend, Lou Ann. I met her once, and she was much more like Lou Ann than April!
It’s a real pearl button bangle billy.
I’m not 100% certain, but I recall it working something like this: Dennis Weaver made a pilot film or two. He was expecting to leave, but the pilots didn’t sell, and he stuck around, in fewer and fewer episodes for about a season or so. Burt Reynolds (as Quint, the blacksmith) was apparently added in early season-8, to pick up the slack of the gradually departing Chester. Around the same time, Ken Curtis made his first Festus appearance, but he didn’t really become a regular right away. Just made a few follow-up appearances for a year or more, but eventually eased into a full-fledged regular. None of it seemed a very clear-cut ‘replacement’ transition, in terms of these three sidekicks. And I even think there was a single episode or two which featured ALL three, Chester, Quint and Festus.
I listen you http://www.yesterdayusa.com/ and
they have the Radio Gunsmoke which gave birth to the
TV version later.
Regulars
William Conrad as Matt Dillon
Parley Baer as Chester Wesley Proudfoot
Howard McNear as Doc Adams
Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell
I think Curtis playing Festus (TV) looked to Baer’s earlier portrayal of Chester (Radio) to concoct his accent.
Listening to the Radio version and Parley’s
voice reminds me of the TV Festus.
William Conrad is almost Matt to me, because i’ve listened
so long to the radio show. His character of Matt was
one mean SOB for the first year of the radio show.
BTW , Wife took our daughter thru Dodge City recently.
They have a fake “Dodge City”now. She told me that
Urban Renewal efforts tore down the Old Dodge back
in the 1970s.
He remained the side kick until 1964, through 305 episodes (this from IMDB).
“...he always had a hard time in getting out alive. Coundn’t make that today.”
In real life, US federal agents don’t get out alive today, thanks to Eric Holder.
After 1968, it was moved to an early time period, extended to an hour and as Milburn Stone(Doc) said, there were then more kids on the show than he could ever remember. The scripts were so dumbed down it was pitiful. I could never watch it after that.
Gunsmoke switched to 1 hour episodes in September 1961 (Season 7) which was a year before the episode linked in this thread aired. It switched to color in September 1966 (Season 12).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047736/episodes?season=8
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.