Since i on vacation ,get to catch up with Gunsmoke on Me TV.. Ever notice on the old Black and white shows ,, about 1955- 65. Marshall Dillon would wear a different shirt every show ,a lot of times with out a vest ,sometimes with a vest .But when they came out with color shows from about 1965 to end in 1975 ,90 percent of the time he just wore a faded red shirt ,with brown vest almost every episode . Was they trying to save money on clothes ?Made him look like he had no clothes ,.... On a different note ,in early Black and White shows 1955 -60 Miss Kitty sure was... hot...hot...hot !!!!!!...as a small kid got old enough to remember watching this every week from in the late 60's to 1975 when it went off

Ya, as a kid all I ever saw ( or since we’re on the campfire, “seen”) were the later episodes & I always wondered why the puffy faced overly made up lady with the unnaturally colored hair was considered so beautiful.

Wasn’t until I retired & saw (seen) the original, old episodes that I understood the precedent.

We had a barn cat named Miss Kitty

Miss Kitty was asked if she smoked after sex, she said I don't know I've never checked

Check out Bonanza. Lorne Green never changed clothes once.

Dated a girl right out of high school named Kitty.

yes i knew that ,wondered if they copied them ?

I believe it was quite common to have a "work shirt" and a "church shirt" back in the day.

The first season at least, they didn't have the same clothes as the later shows. Don't know when they made the switch.

Sunday go to meetin' clothes.

Most all series characters had a costume. The Virginian wore the same red shirt and black vest.

The same with Hoss & Little Joe. Only time they changed is if they got fancied up for one of their shindig parties.

Coincidence but just this morning I read a piece about filming Bonanza. The cast basically never changed clothes for the 14 years that the show ran. Exceptions as noted for a wedding etc. that called for different clothes. It stamped the character ID almost like a superhero costume, and it saved quite a bit of money in the costuming.

Read one time that Clint Eastwood had a ratty old serape and hat when he went to Italy to film the Good, Bad & Ugly movies. The Italians had no western cowboy type clothes so his own stuff became the costume for the whole series.

I also noticed that on the black and white episodes just about every time Matt got on his horse he grab the mane instead of the saddle horn .

I don't remember Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger & Tonto, Palladin, Josh Randall or Wyatt Earp ever wearing different duds.

Leanwolf used to be a screenwriter for Gunsmoke.

I hope he sheds more light on what he knows about this.

Most western TV shows were the same way about never changing costumes.

They just stated running ALL the gun smokes ......so I can say I watch the very first one and I can also say that Dylan should be dead cuz the other guy beat him to the draw ..and fired 1st.... hands down

It was a great show, miss Kitty died from smoking

The other guy missed.

Hal

It took Adam a year to get squared away in all black, and then he never changed clothes. Sadly he quit the show in 1965.

Maybe it was honoring John Wayne since the "Duke" was who originally introduced him to the public as the star of the "new" TV series, Gunsmoke, and also often wore a similar faded 'reddish' color shirt and vest in his Western movies..

I've read that too. Only saw the color episodes for years, seeing the early episodes showed that Miss Kitty was gorgeous until the smoking aged her.

I thought Miss Kitty got done in by the AIDS.

That's right.
Maybe 2 work shirts.
Wear one M-Sat.
The clean one Sunday if a work shirt was needed.
Then the rest of the week.

On Monday the Old Lady would warsh the dirty one.

Liver failure from hepatitis.

The AIDS thing was a rumor.

Changing clothes wasn’t big in the day , knew some old timers that changed twice a year and bathed twice a year .
Expect in the 1800’s it may have been less for a good many .
Kenneth

It was, as mentioned earlier, a "branding" of the character. When that character came on screen, everyone knew who he was immediately. All the shows of the western genre used the same costumes for their running characters.

It was not an issue of saving money, as the costumers had many exact copies of the characters' costumes, i.e. Gunsmoke made millions and millions of $$$$$ for CBS, as did Bonanza for NBC.

FWIW.

L.W.

L.W.

I want to say again I always enjoy your post & info. The 60-70'sTV westerns a major part of TV hen I was growing up.

But on the clothing thing. Even in the 1950' & 60's regular folks just didn't have a big closet full of clothes. Not in my town anyway. Nothing as flamboyant as times today. The wealthiest folks in town might be the most conservative with what they drove, the house they lived in, or what they wore. Hint.

Gunzo, glad you enjoy the info I post of what I know of Tinsel Town. After 36 years in "The Business," one gets to know quite a bit of the goings on there. I'm retired now, but still have a few friends in Los Angeles who tell me a few things.

L.W.

So which writer were you, I don’t recognize “Leanwolf” as a contributing writer for Gunsmoke.

I'm sorry, if we told you alec Baldwin would have to Kill you, it's a trade secret.

I think Festis was faking that limp.

I wonder if he ever inadvertently limped with the wrong leg.

Bruce

Marshall?

Chester had the limp. Festus walked bow legged.

That is how you do it.......

naw, not really..... he was like Charlie Brown..... just had 25 pair of the same set of clothes....

That brings back memories.... in those days... Loved that Band and Loved that Song...Loved good Ol Southern Rock.

Listened to a lot of Marshall Tucker back in my college days....on the under dash 8 track in my 68 VW Squareback, with the sunroof open, cruising down the interstate at 60 mph, adjusting to the 55 mph speed limit....

The good ol days were the bad ol days were the good ol days, John!

Ya walk like that when your underwear is too tight....so he wasn't faking that limp....

not changing them for a few weeks will make ya walk like that also...

Schtick did a thread on that one night when he was drunk....

Good morning Andrew.....

yeah yer right... I could drive that car..( had several in a row... ) all night, from one side of a state to the other....

I was such a traveling fool, I use to put 40K a year on my car, when I was in College....I explored all over the country and half of Canada...

I was the writer who wrote the best and most interesting episodes they filmed.

L.W.

I lol'd fwiw

Also ... there are rules

Miss Kitty didn't have that drawn on beauty mark during the first episodes. Matt had a brown wooden grips on his handgun early on too before he got the white stag ones. He also rode Ben Cartwright's horse, or was it the other way around? Chester up and quit the show in '63 which are the ones that I'm watching lately and Burt Reynolds has been in a lot of them lately. Deputy Festus should be along any time now. I do get a kick out of the guest women on the show. All drop dead gorgeous model material and I suspect that wasn't the case back in the old west.

The episodes with Amanda Blake, and Forrest Tucker were always great!

Chester was completely useless.

Matt let Chester shoot a few guys, so he wasn't completely useless. He did make the coffee. Chester did way better as McCloud.

I imagine they also keep the same clothes so they can reuse stock footage from other episodes or deleted footage. It makes continuity a lot easier if they always wear the same clothes.

How many times did old Matt Dillon get shot in the left shoulder? Must have been 20+ times that shoulder caught a slug................. If that happened to a real person, he'd have been SOL after the second, most likely.

He got hit on the head with the barrel of a gun too many times to count. Those blows would've been life threatening. Brain bleeds are serious.

I think the only Gunsmoke regular cast member still alive is Buck Taylor.

My granddaddy used to put on a white button up shirt and a tie with his bib overalls to attend church..... lol

The Virginian only had one outfit, too, at least while working on the ranch. When he was conducting business for the Judge elsewhere, he'd wear his business attire and fancier hat.

I remember when Miss Kitty was an occasional celebrity player on Match Game.

Miss Kitty must have been real good in the shirt mendin' dept. as you never see any sign of all of the bullet holes from earlier episodes.

That's like Lucas McCain vis a vis being knocked unconscious with a blow to the head from behind. I swear, I think he was knocked unconscious every third episode.

I’m watching Matt right now!!

That and shoes...

Yes, you're correct. And Buck's getting a bit long in the tooth. But aren't we all?

L.W.

I believe he was in Tombstone.

The feller that owns my lease wears his clothes until they fall off.I think he might bathe 10 or 12 times a year.I try to keep him out of my truck if possible

Yep. He played “Turkey Creek Jack Johnson”

He has a Ranch about 90 miles SE of me.

He did all the Narration for the TX Fort Trails Museum in my old hometown.
They used to have his picture on billboards on either side of town when you passed through on Interstate 20.
Probably still do, I haven’t driven that way in quite a while.
http://frontiertexas.com/

Used to also see him attending our local Ranch Rodeos when all the big Ranches have their annual meeting. Seen him at the local BBQ joint when that was going on in town.

Kinda like The Rockford Files. Poor ole Jim got knocked out at least once in every episode. 🤪

I believe Joe Mannix had the same trouble.

Speaking of Lucas McCain, do you remember the show Chuck Conners was in called "Branded" ? I think it was only on for a couple of years in the mid 1960's.

Buck Taylor was recently seen on Yellowstone as one of the cattle ranchers offering support to one of the Duttons if they'd run for office.

To the tune of branded when I was growing up.

Stranded! on the toilet bowl, what do you do when you're stranded! & ya ain't got a roll?

Never heard that one!

Oh yea. He had the broken Calvary Saber they gave him when they kicked him out of the Fort. He made himself a Bowie knife of sorts out of it.

Also reminds me of the scene in the Movie, “The Big Lebowski” when they go to the kids house that they think stole “The Dudes” Car. The kid’s dad is is ln an Iron Lung machine in the living room, and he’s supposedly wrote “Branded” and ole John Goodman is trying to tell him what a huge fan he is. 🤪

Yep. I rewatched all the episodes of The Rockford Files this year when I signed up for one of the free internet TV apps.
I swear ole Jim got knocked out more than any character in TV history. 🤪

They all must have been punch drunk in later life, LOL.

Yep. I absolutely remember that show.

So you are John Mantley, nice to meet you.

Watched till it went off?...🤔🤣

The fountain of youth!

Matt’s left shoulder took a lot of hits.
Wish I had a dollar for every time Doc Adams says, “that bullet’s gotta come out of there.” 😊

In the cowboy shows, it was no big deal to get shot in the shoulder. "Just a flesh wound."

I worked in an ER for 14 years and I worked hundreds of GSW. I saw lots of patients shot in the shoulder. In real life it is a big deal. The lungs run way up into the shoulder, and a shoulder shot usually means a collapsed lung, which requires the insertion of a chest tube, or the pt will die.
Lots of bones in the shoulder, like the collarbone, that would require sophisticated orthopedic surgery, if struck by a .45 Colt slug.

The subclavian artery runs through the shoulder, if it gets hit, call the coroner.

They also portrayed a bullet to the hand as "no big deal." Im not even going to get in to what can go wrong when the hand is hit by a .45 Colt.

ps I was going to post a video of a chest tube insertion, but it is too gross. Let me just say it is 18 inches long and 3/8 inch diameter and doc shoves it about 9 inches deep up inside the chest. Pt is conscious and you ought to see 'em wiggle and squeal.

Easily one of the best shows of all time, and my #1 favorite. I actually have my wife and kids hooked on the show as well. I like ol Chester, but Festus makes a much better deputy. I really like Doc Adams. His sense of humor and overall good judgment make him ideal for the role. He passes easily for a doctor on an old western town. Doc just knows what’s up. Hollywood couldn’t match this show to save their lives today!

Yeah, I remember a couple of cases of intentionally shooting the gun hand in a shootout because the other guy was young and misguided, and that was to end his chances at a career as a gun fighter.

I record every episode on DVR so I can skip commercials. During the beginning years of gunsmoke Kitty didn't have the mole on her cheek. I also like to pause when fist fights break out, you'll see the stunt men and the missed swings. I did know what year Matt got the white grips but forget now.

i meant in 1975 when they stopped filming new episods LOL

The other body shot that's no big deal.

Just above the belt line, off to one side. Figure a person could take 4 or 5 of those over the years. As long as it don't hit yer gizzard it's OK.

Nope, but I knew John pretty well. Worked for him on a couple other shows than Gunsmoke.

As an aside, John was originally from Canada. When England entered WW II, John joined the Canadian Royal Air Force, learning to fly fighters. He was sent to England where he flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. He told me a couple of stories about that when we had a few drinks together. Interesting man.

L.W.

That’s a great story, LW ! Always enjoy your input when we’re talking about old Westerns and Classic Movies.

Except in the John Wayne movie “Eldorado”.
JW Shoots ole Luke from the Rifleman series there and ole Luke kills himself because his Dad told him “gut shot was a bad way to go” 😬