April, a very, very pretty girl too. Played by Elizabeth MacRae. She played his gf for several seasons. She also played Gomer Pyles gf for a few seasons too.
I’d forgotten how much better I liked Festus in the early seasons. This was before he replaced Chester as deputy. I wonder why they took away Festus’ gf in the later seasons? I always thought it was very weird that no one had a gf except Marshall Dillion. Quint, Newly, Doc, none had a gf. I didn’t think Festus did either until this early episode reminded me that he did.
I just watched an early Festus episode. Really, really good one too. Ken Curtis even sings in this one. Ken was a very successful big band singer long before he started acting.
Here’s Ken Curtis’ very first Gunsmoke episode as Festus. He’d been on the show before playing other small characters. This was his first Festus episode. His gf April (Elizabeth MacRae) is in this episode too.
first 10 minutes. The other three parts are on you tube too. Search for “Us Haggens”
I admit the later seasons weren’t that good. IMHO the black & white years were excellent.
Festus for example was a very complicated character in the early years. He came from a family of criminals and was right on the edge himself. He did all kinds of dirty work like hunting wolves, skinning buffalo. Very edgy character. We never knew for sure in those early episodes what he’d do. Heck, in that first episode link I gave, he held a gun on Chester and broke a friend out of jail before his hanging. I like characters that aren’t totally good or totally bad. They’re more interesting.
I lost a lot of interest in Festus after he replaced Chester as Deputy. They took most of Festus’ rough edges away. Newly (part time deputy) was one of my favorite characters in the later seasons.
festus had another girlfriend too in the later seasons, but she appeared in only three episodes over a period of four years. her name was abelia, and she was played by jacqueline scott.
chester never hesitated to hit on women but of course he always struck out. apparently newly fancied himself a bit of a ladies man too.
i agree that the early festus was much better than the later version. in fct, the whole show was much harder edged and darker when the creators and ororiginal writers were working on it.
i never liked newly or thad. they were too bland and inept. chester was inept too, but he wasn’t bland.
i think they made a big mistake not keeping carl reindel as cale. he was much better than thad or newly.
I’m a weak Gunsmoke fan. I like the show, but haven’t seen very many episodes, and am not knowledgeable about the characters and actors. (Was that really Burt Reynolds as the blacksmith?)
They did a lot of little things right. For instance, when bad guys were hauling bars of gold from a train robbery, the bars were heavy. They weren’t just painted balsa wood which the actors would pretend were heavy: the bars actually were heavy. Little details like that count for a lot with attentive viewers.
(But, doggone it, if Doc rubs his face with his hand just one more time, I’m gonna scream…)
50’s kid here. I used to love Gunsmoke, but lost interest when Dennis Weaver left. Wasn’t the same without Chester.
But funny you should mention Ken Curtis- just a day or two ago Mrs. Cretin was watching some old movie ( I just asked her- “The Searchers”) and she wondered if the good-looking guy playing guitar and singing to his gal was Festus. I don’t think I would’ve recognized him on my own- I’d never seen him without “Festus” makeup and costume, and had no idea he was so handsome.
I already knew he’d been in The Sons Of The Pioneers, but was surprised to learn he got his start singing for Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra.
Gunsmoke, like many other shows, was really toned down after 1968, when the “anti-violence” movement started sanitizing TV.
Ken Curtis was on another action–adventure series called Ripcord in the early '60s. There are some episodes on YouTube; if they hadn’t named him in the credits, I never would have recognized him.
I was 20 years old when I finally realized what all those rooms at the top of the stairs were for, and just what Miss Kitty’s niche in Dodge City was. :rolleyes:
A good friend of ours, gone now, grew up best friends with Ken in Las Animas. Funniest sob I’ve ever known, he looked like John Wayne himself and had so many stories about them when they were young. Ken’s dad was Sheriff of course. Once three of them were riding their horses at a gallop through a draw, one of 'em fell off breaking both arms and his two friends wouldn’t give him a hand getting back on his horse. While I doubt tears were shed that day we darn near did listening to that and other tales. Those guys had a pretty good life.
yes, that was burt reynolds playing the half-comanche blacksmith quint asper. you can watch his first of 50 episodes here:
yes, matt and kitty had a sexual relationship, but that was intentionally never spelled out. they wanted to keep viewers guessing about it. matt never married her because his job was so dangerous that he felt it would be irresponsible to get married and have children.
see if you can spot ken curtis here in a pre-festus role. it’ll trip you out:
