Theme from Gunsmoke, one of my favorite television shows as a kid. Radio episodes were produced from 1952 to 1961 with William Conrad as Matt Dillon. The radio broadcasts have a grittier feel to them than the televised episodes. Here is a sample:
Theme From Gunsmoke
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
My mother tuned in to Gunsmoke weekly; don’t think she was partial to westerns generally. (I’m not either, but the demise of the genre in mass entertainment I think is a bad sign).
I seldom watched it, not being a big fan of westerns. But I always loved the theme.
The thing about Ken Curtis’ statement is, ALL of the network TV shows used to do that, before Norman Lear led the conversion of prime time into leftist lesson time. I praise Mr. Lear for his outstanding service in WW2, but he led the destruction of the culture of entertainment for its own sake, for which I have had great difficulty forgiving him, as I know I must.
I’m certain Gunsmoke would offend the left today.
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Frank, don’t be so hard on Norman Lear … He gave us Fernwood Tonight 🙂
Heard the radio broadcasts as a kid. In fact, still listen to them on online Old Time radio channels! (And if you don’t know about OTR, you are missing a treat.)
before Norman Lear led the conversion of prime time into leftist lesson time.
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I think that was a torpedo which circled back to the source. Characters like ‘Michael Stevic’ and ‘Maude Findlay’ weren’t going to advance the purchase of leftoid attitudes and policy nostrums. IIRC, other Norman Lear efforts (“The Jeffersons”, “Good Times”) weren’t didactic.
I praise Mr. Lear for his outstanding service in WW2, but he led the destruction of the culture
As I look at that time more and more, I’m amazed at how many who ‘led to the destruction of the culture’ weren’t those rascally Boomer hippy types at Woodstock, but were instead fellows who had stormed the Normandy beaches, fought at Iwo Jima, or flew missions over Germany.
Sixteen million Americans served in World War II, almost all men. The country had a population of 125 million then. If you were a male between 20-35, the odds were overwhelming that you would serve. It should also be noted that most of them, ten million, were conscripts. Out of such a huge cohort it is not unusual to see them doing most of the good and most of the evil in our society for the next generation and a half.