Gunsmoke on Television

Gunsmoke debuted on CBS television on September 10th 1955 at 10pm on Saturday night.  It was not an immediate hit that season but came back the next season to finish tied for 7th place (I've Got a Secret).  The next season 1957-58 it was the #1 show in primetime with a 43.1 rating, well ahead of the Danny Thomas Show and leading several other westerns into the top ten prime time show list like #3 Tales of Wells Fargo, #4 Have Gun Will Travel, #6 The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and at #8 The Restless Gun.  
This would be the first of 4 straight seasons that Gunsmoke was the #1 rated show on television.  A record that it held until All In the Family had 5 straight seasons at #1 (1971-1976).

What I am going to do to pay tribute to this feat by Gunsmoke I am going to post as many of the episodes from that first season it was #1 in the ratings (1957-58) as I can find.   First of all though I would like to show the episode from this week, April 26th of 1957, "Innocent Broad".

Gunsmoke - Pucket's New Year

From the television version of Gunsmoke, Season 2 originally aired January 5th 1957

Pucket's New Year written by John Meston

this was a great episode and in the style of the radio version since it was written by the man who wrote the majority of the radio episodes and the first 10 season's of television episodes.

Have Gun Will Travel

On Saturday at 930pm, September 14th 1957 CBS television debuted a western that was to become just as legendary as Gunsmoke in the annals of TV westerns,  Have Gun Will Travel.
Starring Richard Boone this was the story of a man called Paladin, a gun for hire in San Francisco.
The show ran on tv until the end of the 1962-63 season, a total of 225 episodes and became almost more famous for its tremendous closing theme song "Ballad of Paladin" written and performed by Johnny Western.

The premiere episode was titled "Three Bells to Perdido" 

November 23rd of 1958 "Have Gun Will Travel" debuted on the CBS Radio network as one of its last radio dramas to feature continuing characters. This version featured radio veteran and Gunsmoke regular John Dehner as Paladin.
The radio version ran until November 22nd 1960 and initially each episode was a radio version of the episode that aired on television earlier in the week.  Eventually original stories were written and produced for the radio show including the finale when Paladin left San Francisco to collect an inheritance back east.

Thanks again to the great Buck Benny podcast for the posting of the debut radio episode and the second episode of Have Gun Will Travel.

Gunsmoke - Never Pester Chester

This episode aired on CBS TV November 16 1957, Season 3
in this episode the character of Stobo, was played by Jacob "Buddy" Baer who was the brother of heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer and uncle to Max Baer Jr, better known as "Jethro Bodine" on the Beverly Hillbillies.
Originally aired on CBS radio Season 1 July 5th 1952

The Bestselling and Most Played Single of 1957

"All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley. Written by Otis Blackwell, who also wrote "Don't Be Cruel", the biggest selling single of 1956, he wrote this when challenged by a fellow songwriter. He was handed a bottle of Pepsi and told "You say you can write a song about anything, write about this" and within minutes he was playing "All Shook Up" on the piano at the Shalimar Music Publishing house.
Here the Jordanairres talk about recording "All Shook Up" and then we here the song.