While watching a “Gunsmoke” rerun on TV Land the other day, I was suddenly struck by how much the announcer at the beginning of the show who names the stars (Gunsmoke - with Milburn Stone as Doc, Amanda Blake as Kitty, etc.) sounded a lot like Peter Graves (Mission Impossible, Airplane, Biography). Graves, whose real name is Peter Arness, is the brother of star James Arness, of course. Does anyone know who the announcer was, or if in fact it actually was Graves?
Sorry, wrong forum. I’m going to ask the mods to please move this to Cafe Society.
Moving thread to Cafe Society.
Thank you, Giraffe.
It was George Walsh, who also announced the radio version for most of its run.
Career radio man. Voice of Smokey the Bear. Died in 2005.
Oh man, I thought it was Keith Jackson, mainly because of the part where he says “Around Dodge City and in the territory out West, there’s just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that’s with a U.S. marshal and the smell of Miss Kitty going long and woah Nellie, fumble!”
Roy Rowan did some of the radio shows as well.
Sponsored by Chesterfield and L&M filters.
According to Wiki Don Morrow also announced some of the programmes.
Thanks Mr. Moto. It’s surprising how often Dopers can come up with quick answers for just about anything.
I found an interesting bit of trivia in Wikipedia. Doc Adams in the radio version of Gunsmoke was named Charles Adams, in tribute to famed cartoonist Charles Addams. Note the TV character of Doc had a different first name, Galen.
I like the radio shows a lot better. The TV series was way syrupy.
On the radio, they didn’t sugarcoat the fact that Kitty was a prostitute, and that Matt “went to see her” from time to time.
The radio and TV Chesters had different names as well, iirc. Chester Proudfoot on radio, Chester Goode on TV.
I recently saw many of the 1955-63 or so TV episodes. Much much better than the 1970s episodes I actually remember watching as a kid. I could never stomach Festus, even as a ten or twelve year old. Just got on every little nerve I had.
Sir Rhosis
I’m suprised there hasn’t been a Gunsmoke moive.
My bet is Kevin Costner will do a very ernest 3.5 hour long version in 5 years.
Five TV movies were made between 1987 and 1994.
I love listening to the radio series, mind, but I wonder what else can be done with this thing - it was on the air continuously from 1952 to 1975 and had the revival I mentioned above. There might not be anything left.
Besides, Gunsmoke was so character driven that it works well as a series, or as a continuation of a series. That can’t be captured as easily in two hours.