A lot of them were. Most of the reruns I could watch as a kid were the newer ones that were in color. Many years later I got a cable package that ran the early Gunsmokes,
and noticed right off that they were quite a bit darker. Matt and the gang were all business at first.....no kidding around. At some point, the people in charge decided to inject some levity into the characters and I guess you could say it was a good decision.
Season one is on or used to be on Youtube.
