--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Gunsmoke image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf31a31f4e62e0cbf/69869f1b55a8592bc5a821eb/t100_tv_gunsmoke1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2014 # _Gunsmoke_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett Like it’s six-foot-seven star James Arness, this classic Western seemed to go on forever, setting the drama-series longevity record at 20 seasons. Arness’ Marshal Matt Dillon was the focus of life in Dodge City, Kan., whose large ensemble also included young Burt Reynolds as a half-Indian blacksmith and Amanda Blake as saloon keeper—or was that “saloon keeper”—Miss Kitty? (In an earlier radio version of the show, Kitty was implicitly a prostitute.) Crisply directed, moral but not naive, _Gunsmoke_ showed good winning out over greed and brutality, but—like Dillon in the opening shootout—good was always only a split-second ahead on the draw. [Get This TV Series](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PHX5KU/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101678/gunsmoke/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101678/gunsmoke/"},"headline":"Gunsmoke","datePublished":"2014-08-11T21:52:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:19.755Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101678/gunsmoke/","keywords":["Western"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf31a31f4e62e0cbf/69869f1b55a8592bc5a821eb/t100_tv_gunsmoke1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf31a31f4e62e0cbf/69869f1b55a8592bc5a821eb/t100_tv_gunsmoke1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101678/gunsmoke/","name":"Gunsmoke"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Gunsmoke","description":"Like its six-foot-seven star James Arness, this classic Western seemed to go on forever, setting the drama-series longevity record at 20 seasons.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PoSZKBAA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-05T15:28:39.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PoSZKBAA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101678/gunsmoke/","duration":"PT35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101678/gunsmoke/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```