James Arness Gunsmoke) Passes Away

[GAC]

http://www.canyon-news.com/artman2/p...Dead_At_88.php

Passed away in his sleep of natural causes.

His show was a regular staple in our household growing up for years. My Dad loved it. When it came on you made no noise in the living room, and you especially didn't sit in Dad's chair.

Quality TV for sure.

[Mutaman]

The real Mr Saturday night.

[RedsBaron]

Originally Posted by GAC

http://www.canyon-news.com/artman2/p...Dead_At_88.php

Passed away in his sleep of natural causes.

His show was a regular staple in our household growing up for years. My Dad loved it. When it came on you made no noise in the living room, and you especially didn't sit in Dad's chair.

Quality TV for sure.

And by all accounts a Quality person as well.
I've read that because of his war wounds that caused him to limp, any scenes requiring Arness to walk any distance were usually filmed early in the day, before his limp became worse as a result of pain.
As a kid, we only got one TV channel, an NBC affiliate, so I didn't grow up watching Gunsmoke on CBS. When I think of Arness I usually first picture him as "Zeb Macahan", his character on How The West Was Won. R.I.P.

[Joseph]

RIP Marshall.

[Roy Tucker]

The original "The Thing" and brother of Peter Graves.

RIP Marshall Dillon

[Spitball]

I had a Gun Smoke lunchbox when I was in first grade. I remember the thermos fell out and and the glass liner they used in those days broke. I was devastated. I wasn't even old enough to stay up to watch it, but it was my favorite show.

Bonanza and Candid Camera were my other favorite shows that I was not old enough to watch. I guess I was easily influenced and was seriously affected by the hype.

[RedsBaron]

Originally Posted by Spitball

I had a Gun Smoke lunchbox when I was in first grade. I remember the thermos fell out and and the glass liner they used in those days broke. I was devastated. I wasn't even old enough to stay up to watch it, but it was my favorite show.

Bonanza and Candid Camera were my other favorite shows that I was not old enough to watch. I guess I was easily influenced and was seriously affected by the hype.

I had a "Bonanza" lunchbox when I was a kid.

[Spitball]

Originally Posted by RedsBaron

I had a "Bonanza" lunchbox when I was a kid.

I can still remember the smell of apple and peanut butter and jelly when I would flip that clasp to open my lunchbox.

[GAC]

Originally Posted by RedsBaron

I had a "Bonanza" lunchbox when I was a kid.

I had so many of those old metal much boxes I can't recall them all. At the beginning of every new school year we'd get a new one.

And I know where you're coming from Spitball on those thermos' and those glass liners. Broke quite a few in my day.

I've seen some of those old lunch boxes at flea markets and such. We'd all be rich guys if we still had ours. Of course I could say the same for all those old baseball cards too that ended up in the spokes of my bicycle too. LOL

I still have etched in my mind that opening scene, as well as the music, where Matt is facing off with that guy in the street.

I loved those old TV westerns, and I'm so glad they're starting to rebroadcast so many of them nowadays. I watch the Virginian, Wagon Train, Cheyenne, Have Gun Will Travel, and The Rifleman, practically every night. Simply good stuff.

[cumberlandreds]

I watched many episodes of Gunsmoke with my dad when I was little boy. That was a staple of TV viewing in my childhood. Arness was great in that role. R.I.P James Arness.

[Kingspoint]

He joined his brother, Peter Graves, who passed away recently himself. That was quite a pair of brothers to watch in films.