Do you always know why you do things?
I don’t.
Not that I don’t know why I still watch the TV western “Gunsmoke” 41 years after the show ceased production. It was (and is) a great show. When I was a kid, the highlight of my week was at 9 p.m. each Saturday when Marshal Matt Dillon strode onto the screen to outdraw a black-clad bad guy.
“Gunsmoke” hit the air in 1955 as a half-hour, black-and-white show. The dramas were dark and tough, cramming an amazing amount of character and plot into less than 30 minutes.
James Arness led the wonderful cast of regulars: Dennis Weaver as Dillon’s helper Chester Goode, Amanda Blake as the smart and spunky Kitty Russell and Milburn Stone as grumpy but humane Doc Adams.
“Gunsmoke” was a half-hour show for its first six years, then expanded to an hour. The show first broadcast in color in its 12th year. “Gunsmoke” is still on the air, noon every day on Me-TV.
The first 11 seasons (all the black-and-white shows) have been released on DVD. I’ve watched all 11.
Now comes the part where I did something I’m not sure why I did it.
Let’s face it, a lot of the reasons I (we) watch westerns is for the climactic shoot-outs.
My brainstorm was: How many bad guys did Matt Dillon shoot? I decided to keep score of how many villains Matt Dillon killed in “Gunsmoke’s” first 11 seasons, all that are now available.
Why?
All I can answer is: Why not?
In the first 11 seasons, Marshal Dillon killed 211 bad guys. Season 1 – 21, season 2 – 17, season 3 – 21, season 4 – 19, season 5 – 12, season 6 – 24, season 7 – 17, season 8 – 17, season 9 – 15, season 10 – 5 and season 11 – a whopping 33.
Whew! Done.
But when I told my wife of my project’s conclusion, she said, “It seems to me that just about every show, Matt Dillon was being shot in the arm, or the leg, or in the back. How many times do you think he was shot and in what parts of his body?”
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Oh, great!
Back to season 1.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.