I normally pay no attention to the RIP posts here but I am a huge western TV/movie fan. I watch Gunsmoke everyday. We pay extra for a bunch of channels on cable that I don't watch just so I can get the Encore Westerns Channel to watch Gunsmoke and a few other shows I like.
If you have never watched Gunsmoke I recommend sitting down and watching about 650 episodes. The characters are great. The acting is great. The sets and props are realistic and period accurate. Marshal Dillon is one of the best TV characters ever and James Arness was perfect for the role.
I knew his health was going down from reading his website from time to time so it wasn't a suprise but still a bummer.
My father has been living with us for about 2 years now. He's 89 and his hearing is such that programs with lots of noise or music are hard for him to listen to and understand. It's also a fact that westerns and western heros were a huge part of everyones life in the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s, so I grew up watching most of them as firrst run programs. Life changes, but westerns are forever and DTV has the western channel, a great source of entertainment for my father and I. I record many of those westerns and seldom a night has gone by when the two of us don't watch Have Gun Will Travel, Cheyenne or Gun Smoke together. We even sing Paladins and Cheyennes theme songs together and am thankful to god every day for just one more show with my father. Rest in peace James.
