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Trivia Quiz For Seniors - Gunsmoke TV Show

Free fun printable long trivia quiz with answers about the TV show Gunsmoke; great for seniors!

 

What was “Gunsmoke”?
A: Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston.
Where do the stories take place?
A: Gunsmoke was set in Dodge City, Kansas, during the thriving cattle days of the 1870s.

What period is it set in?
A: During the settlement of the American West.

Who is the central character?
A: Lawman Marshal Matt Dillon.

Who played Dillon on the radio?
A: William Conrad.

What actor played Dillon on TV?
A: James Arness.

When aired in the UK, the television series was initially titled what?
A: Gun Law, later reverting to Gunsmoke.

When did the radio series run?
A: From 1952 to 1961.

The television series ran for how many seasons from 1955 to 1975?
A: 20.

How many episodes were aired?
A: 635.

At the end of its run in 1975, Los Angeles Times columnist Cecil Smith wrote what?
A: "Gunsmoke was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the west.”

The radio series first aired on CBS on what date?
A: April 26, 1952 with the episode "Billy the Kid", written by Walter Newman.

When did it end?
A: It ended on June 18, 1961.

Conrad was one of the last actors to audition for what?
A: The role of Marshal Dillon.

With a resonantly powerful and distinctive voice, Conrad was already what?
A: One of radio's busiest actors.

Dillon, as portrayed by Conrad, was what kind of man?
A: A lonely, isolated man, toughened by a hard life.

Meston relished the upending of cherished Western fiction clichés and felt that few Westerns gave any inkling of what?
A: How brutal the Old West was in reality.

Many episodes were based on what?
A: Man's cruelty to man and woman, in as much as the prairie woman's life and the painful treatment of women as chattels were touched on well ahead of their time in most media.

As originally pitched to CBS executives, this was to be what?
A: An adult Western, not a grown-up Hopalong Cassidy.

Chester was played by whom on radio?
A: Parley Baer.

Who played Chester on TV?
A: Dennis Weaver on television.

What was Chester's name?
A: Wesley.

The amiable Waco expatriate was usually described as Dillon's what?
A: "assistant", but in the December 13, 1952, episode "Post Martin", Dillon described Chester as Dillon's deputy.

Contradicting this description, in the July 5, 1954, episode "Hank Prine" Dillon corrects a prisoner who describes Chester as his "deputy", stating what?
A: "Chester is not my deputy", though they both agree Chester acts like he is.

Whatever his title, Chester was Dillon's foil, friend, partner, and in an episode in which Chester nearly dies ("Never Pester Chester"), Dillon allows that Chester was what?
A: The only person he could trust.

The TV series changed the newly limping Chester's last name from Proudfoot to what?
A: Goode.

Chester was played by Dennis Weaver, who went on to star in what?
A: The NBC Mystery Movie rotating TV series entry of a police drama with a comedic touch, McCloud, in the early 1970s.

Weaver, himself an impressive 6'2", often looked small alongside whom?
A: Arness.

How tall was Arness?
A: 6'7".

Season two, episode 25 reveals that Chester was in the what?
A: The army.

Who starred as Dr. Charles Adams in the radio series?
A: Howard McNear.

In the television version who played Adams?
A: Milburn Stone portraying Dr. Galen Adams.

In the radio series, "Doc" Adams was initially a what?
A: A self-interested and somewhat dark character with a predilection for constantly attempting to increase his revenue through the procurement of au

topsy fees. However, McNear's performances steadily became more what?
A: Warm-hearted and sympathetic.

In some episodes Doc Adams had educational ties to where?
A: Philadelphia.

In others, he spent time as a what?
A: A ship's doctor aboard the gambling boats that plied the Mississippi River.

In "Cavalcade", his real name is what?
A: Calvin Moore, educated in Boston, and he practiced as a doctor for a year in Richmond, Virginia.

While in Richmond he fell in love with a beautiful young woman, who was also being courted by whom?
A: A wealthy young man named Roger Beauregard.

Beauregard forced Doc into fighting a duel with him, resulting in what?
A: Beauregard's being shot and killed.

Though it was a fair duel, as a Yankee and an outsider, Doc was forced to what?
A: Flee.

The young woman fled after him and they were married in St. Louis, but two months later, she died of what?
A: Typhus.

Doc wandered throughout the territories until he settled in Dodge City how many years later?
A: 17 under the name of "Charles Adams".

Kitty was played by whom on radio?
A: Georgia Ellis.

Who played Kitty on TV?
A: Amanda Blake on TV.

"Miss Kitty" did not appear until when?
A: The May 10, 1952, episode "Jaliscoe".

Kitty's profession was hinted at, but never explicit; in a 1953 interview with Time, Macdonnell declared what?
A: "Kitty is just someone Matt has to visit every once in a while".

What did Time magazine observe?
A: That she is "obviously not selling chocolate bars".

The television show first portrayed Kitty as a what?
A: A saloon employee (dance-hall girl/prostitute), then from season three as half owner of the Long Branch Saloon.

Sometime in 1959, Ellis was billed as what?
A: Georgia Hawkins instead of Georgia Ellis.

Some listeners, such as Dunning, argue the radio version was what?
A: More realistic.

Episodes were aimed at adults and featured some of the most explicit content of their time, including what?
A: Violent crimes, scalpings, massacres, and opium addicts.

Many episodes ended on a somber note, and villains often what?
A: Got away with their crimes.

Nonetheless, due to the subtle scripts and outstanding ensemble cast, over the years, the program evolved into a what?
A: A warm, often humorous celebration of human nature.

Apart from the doleful tone, Gunsmoke was distinct from other radio Westerns, as the dialogue was what?
A: Often slow and halting.

Due to the outstanding sound effects, listeners had a nearly palpable sense of what?
A: The prairie where the show was set.

John Dunning wrote what?
A: "The listener heard extraneous dialogue in the background, just above the muted shouts of kids playing in an alley. He heard noises from the next block, too, where the inevitable dog was barking."

In the early years, a majority of the TV episodes were adapted from what?
A: The radio scripts, often using identical scenes and dialogue.

Macdonnell and Meston continued the radio version of Gunsmoke until 1961, making it what?
A: One of the most enduring vintage radio dramas.

Conrad directed how many television episodes?
A: Two, in 1963 and 1971.

McNear appeared on six, playing characters other than Doc, including three times as whom?
A: Storekeeper Howard Rudd.

During its second season in 1956, the program joined the list of what?
A: The top-10 television programs broadcast in the United States.

It quickly moved to number one and stayed there until when?
A: 1961.

It remained among the top-20 programs until when?
A: 1964.