Gunsmoke (TV series)

Gunsmoke is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from September 10, 1955, to March 31, 1975, across 20 seasons and 635 episodes, adapting a radio drama of the same name that had run since 1952 with William Conrad voicing the lead role, though CBS chose not to carry over Conrad or the rest of the radio cast for television while retaining radio writer John Meston as the new series's head writer. James Arness starred as United States Marshal Matt Dillon in the fictional frontier town of Dodge City, Kansas, alongside Milburn Stone as Doc Adams and Amanda Blake as saloon owner Miss Kitty Russell, with Dennis Weaver as Deputy Chester Goode through 1964 succeeded by Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen. The series dominated the ratings from 1957 to 1961, survived a threatened cancellation in 1967 after public protest, and held the record as the longest running scripted American primetime series until The Simpsons later surpassed it.