Gunsmoke: The Ninth Season, Vol. 1

CHESTER'S LAST SEASON - MINE, TOO
I love the Gunsmoke series - at least all the shows that concentrate on the original core cast.

Matt, Chester, Doc and Kitty were at the heart of the shows and formed a fine ensemble cast. Of course, there were some very fine shows that featured stories that isolated each of the four in plots that were interestingly revelatory of that character's personal strengths and back history. But for me it was always the gentle interplay between the main four characters that made me want to schedule time to watch that week's episode.

The other western shows of the time (and there were MANY) all had shootouts, bank robberies, disputes between open range ranchers and farmers, et., etc., etc. None of them had the mature story-lines and time-tested characterizations that Gunsmoke possessed. They did not have Gunsmoke's three years of proven radio show scripts to draw from. Quite a few of the recycled radio scripts had to be softened a bit for TV. Some of the harsher...

Still Good
The many shows in Season 8 and 9 that Chester was missing without comment or explanation (while Dennis Weaver was off doing other projects) causes you to reflect on what an important part of the show he was for the first nine seasons. However, the appearance of Festus in Season 8 and his return as a regular in Season 9 was a very good addition to the show. The writing is still very strong, the acting excellent. The episodes that Chester did appear in were all good, particularly with he and Festus in the same episodes. I will continue to buy the seasons as long as the writing remains strong and the acting good. At some point in the original run, I lost interest in the show, as it started to repeat stories, but through Season 9 everything is still going strong. I think it will be interesting to see the development of Festus into Season 10 and thereafter. On this set we even get the last appearance of Ken Curtis as a character other than Festus in Lover Boy, where he plays a very...

Excellent Western Series
My only objection is there weren't enough episodes with Chester. But then again, this was the last season that had Chester in it. The shows are well done and very enjoyable. A few episodes have Burt Reynolds as Quint Asper, and there are a couple of episodes with Ken Curtis as Festus, before he became a regular (I believe in season 10). One of the classic Western series.

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