Friday, June 03, 2011

R.I.P. Sheriff Matt Dillion


I don't know about you but I grew up watching Gunsmoke on Sunday nights on our Black and White 17 inch Admiral TV set.

The show lasted 20 years, most people kinda wished that Miss Kitty and Sheriff Dillion would be a couple....maybe there were.

James Arness was a tall 6ft 6" guy who even played the monster in the movie The Thing..his brother who died last year, was Peter Graves of Mission Impossible fame, later he played the airline pilot on the comedy Airplane.

The 50's and 60's had lots of Westerns on TV but Gunsmoke outlasted all of them.

12 comments:

Brenda Maas said...

A blast from the past, I always watched Gunsmoke.
So many of the actors that I remember are passing on.
Time stops for no one.

Anonymous said...

I watched Gunsmoke on a Muntz TV. You remember those big things?

-- Felipe

Tancho said...

Brenda, seeing the actors pass, the ones we grew up with,sure makes me see how much time has slipped away, as well as the fond memories of growing up...you seem to remember only the fond ones....
Felipe, oh yes, my grandmother had a Muntz, but what I remember are the constant Mad Man Muntz commercials for the tv's. Muntz was the first one to bring cheap tv's into the market place allowing more families to get hooked to the box.
My grandmothers tv was an ugly blond, that had a record changer and radio stuck into the cabinet also, took up half the living room.

Judy said...

We didn't get a TV until my younger brother had Meningitis; the doctor recommended one for him. We went to the neighbors to watch the Mickey Mouse Club every afternoon. Our TV was a huge box that Dad, every once in a while, would take tubes out and go to the drug store, to test, to find out which one needed replacing.

JerryL said...

We use to watch that program, it was like all the families where glued to the tv set on Sundays to watch it.

Dan in NC said...

Gunsmoke, Paladin, Maverick, Sugarfoot, were all early westerns we enjoyed in our B&W beaut! It was the FIRST, and for some time, the ONLY piece of furniture we had when we emigrated to the States. It had a lot of use between the phono and radio, and although we had 13 positions on the TV's rotary dial - only 3 or 4 were active ! Funny, but TV time was Family time... and there were reasons to turn on the set - and Dillon & Kitty topped the list for my Mom! Wow! Now we have 500 channels - but still usually watch only 3 or 4! Who Knew??
BTW, Arness was in "The Thing" from another planet (1951).. Scared the bejeebers out of this kid.
Cheers!
Dan in NC

Tancho said...

Judy, I worked in a TV store as a teenager and fixed a lot of tv's by changing tubes, I remember the testers at supermarkets, and lots of burnt finger tips trying to remove and replace them in sets...
I also had a pair of Mouse Ears and loved the Spin and Marty series, I told my mother that I wanted to change my name to "Spin" kinda funny nowadays...
Jerry, yep, it was right after the Ed Sullivan show if I remember correctly too.
Ahh, Dan thanks for correcting me, I wasn't sure about it, but then as you mentioned the Thing, It came back to me...it scared the wits out of me and my brother at the movie. But then all was ok as we watched the Three Stooges and a few cartoons....And you were right, we only got 3 channels and it was family time, now there is not much of that.

Steve Cotton said...

That is one reason I enjoyed seeing Hal Holbrooke still treading the boards in Water for Elephants last night. He is a class act. As was James Arness.

Tancho said...

Steve, he is one of the recognizable ones, I remember seeing him as Mark Twain..Now you have me thinking of going to the Cineopolis...

Babs said...

A trip down memory lane for sure. We had the first TV on our block in Chicago. My mom would set up folding chairs for all the kids in the neighborhood to come over and watch TV. I now wonder why she didn't just let everyone sit on the floor!
Our family watched Ed Sullivan, Texaco Hour with Milton Berle, Gunsmoke, and other shows as I grew older. One of my fondest memories was my Dad, when I was a teenager, laying on the carpet and watching The Honeymooners and his great belly laugh.
Thanks for jogging my memory!

Calypso said...

My father was the chief engineer and designer of Muntz TV's for years - we even had two Muntz Jet cars ;-) I worked for the Madman summers for several years as well when he migrated into 4-track and then 8-track stereo equipment and cartridges.

Muntz sets were notoriously cheap. My father's methodology was to design each section (or circuit) to its highest quality - then start removing parts until that section stopped working - then put that part back. The tubeless wonders sold a LOT ;-)

Tancho said...

Calypso,
I use to have to work on Muntz TV sets and we always talked about the less parts scenario. It was surprising that they worked very well, but when any one part went out of tolerance, that was it.
I remember installing my share of 4 track and 8 track units...lots of nice tape wow, especially when you went over bumps. The transport was another surprised it even worked unit, because of how flimsy it was built. Those were the days of Taiwan factories I think.