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This Gunsmoke producer said cast loyalty made the show a success
The secret to success? Friendship.
What makes a television series successful is a recipe every creator spends their career trying to perfect. There’s no single formula for success. Sometimes, the stars simply align, and everything falls into place.
John Mantley, a Gunsmoke producer, took to The San Francisco Examiner to draw back the curtain on the wildly popular series. If there was ever a show that understood what success felt like, it was Gunsmoke.
"There seems to be a growing interest on the part of the press and the public as to how it is possible for a series that was a blockbuster success in its first year on television, not only to have survived for 18 years but to be as healthy as it ever was," Mantley said.
Mantley believed that Gunsmoke's success was due to a combination of on-and off-screen talent.
"I believe the four original characters, Matt, Doc, Kitty, and Chester, were magnificently conceived and executed," Mantley added. "Consider, if you will, that they are really a cross-section of America."
Mantley argued that the actors playing those characters had incredible chemistry between them.
"I think it is fair to say that no more perfect a quartet was ever designed in a dramatic format than James Arness, Milburn Stone, Amanda Blake, Dennis Weaver, and later Ken Curtis," Mantley said. "The conception was brilliantly articulated."
Ultimately, Mantley felt that what truly made Gunsmoke special was the actors’ loyalty to one another, through thick and thin, much like the bond they shared on the show.
"The regulars on this show have always had enormous respect and admiration for each other,"Mantley said. "They are close personal friends. They are indeed a family. They admire each other professionally and personally, and I cannot believe that the series could have survived without this kind of communion."
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