Gunsmoke premiered on the radio on June 26, 1952. It was the first radio Western targeted at an adult audience—previous radio Westerns, of which there had been many, were intended for a kiddie audience. Its stories were grittier and well-acted, written, and directed. It was certainly the best radio Western and IMO the best radio drama full stop.
Such was its popularity that shortly after premiering on radio Gunsmoke was adapted for television where it remained a fixture for decades. Radio’s Matt Dillon was voiced by William Conrad. The deftness of his vocal acting is indescribable. The other regulars were Georgia Ellis (Kitty), Parley Baer (Chester), and Howard McNear (Doc). Not usually listed as a regular but appearing in nearly every episode was John Dehner. He played almost every sort of character imaginable from buffalo hunters to sod busters to gunslingers to government bureaucrats.
Episodes may be streamed for free at the Internet Archive. Each episode is about 28 minutes long. Most include the original commercials. The early episode embedded above, “Never Pester Chester”, should give you an idea of what the show was like. Radio’s Matt Dillon was if anything tougher, grittier, and grimmer than television’s.
Dillon says, “We’ve hung Texans up here before.” He means to say, “We’ve hanged Texans up here before.” Hung and hanged are past tense forms of two different verbs, one meaning suspended and the other meaning suspended by rope around the neck until dead.
Either way one less human, right Jim?
I lived in Texas a while. Hanging is too good for them. They should be hung.
Steve