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 andat #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".
Billy The Kid was the first regularly scheduled episode of Gunsmoke. After 2 audition episodes that were recorded but never aired, the show would debut April 26th 1952 with William Conrad as US Marshall Matt Dillon.
Last time I had the legendary comedian/TV star Dick Van Dyke, today its his contemporary and also a legend in comedy and television, Andy Griffith. Andy is one of my all time favorites and The Andy Griffith Show is preferred viewing at my house (well except the color episodes, just B&W for this family).
Even though I like the radio version much more than the tv show, my father never missed it. It was such a part of growing up I never realized it had been around so long.
Here from 1958-59 the 4th season - Stage Hold Up written by co creator John Meston (who wrote over 95% of the radio and tv episodes.
Today in 1971 CBS television aired the first episode of a show that would go on to change television and sitcoms forever. This was the premier of "All in the Family" starring Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers.
I stumbled on these over the weekend. Its the preview of the 1961 television season for CBS, with host Andy Griffith, Garry Moore, Sebastian Cabot, Bob Cummings,Rod Serling,Raymond Burr and Ed Sullivan. One of the highlights for me was the preview of a new comedy on CBS, "The Dick Van Dyke Show". Amazing how far television has come that none of the networks program anything remotely new for Saturday nights now.
Today in 1983 CBS aired the finale to one of the best shows ever on television, M*A*S*H. The final episode was a 2 1/2 hour "movie" of the final days of the Korean War for the members of the 4077th MASH, Hawkeye, BJ, Col Potter, Maj Margaret Houlihan, Cpl Klinger, Maj Charles Emerson Winchester III, Father Mulcahey and all the others that made this one of the best shows ever. First airing in 1972 and barely surviving its low ratings (thanks to a more patient CBS) it developed some of the most memorable characters, episodes and dialogue on tv. The tv show followed the popular film of the same name but only one actor stayed with the show from the movie, Gary Burghoff as Cpl Walter "Radar" O'Reilly. Thanks to syndication and airing on TVLand and Hallmark channel as well as the complete series on DVD new generations can discover what great tv is like. My daughters have watched with me since they were old enough to understand what they were watching and they enjoy it just as much as I do.
