I used to watch this show and I liked it, but now I can't stand to watch the re-runs. There's only so much Festus I can handle, not to mention Doc and Matt Dillon, he bothers me the most, you would think after all the times the man was shot he would have died of lead poisoning or at least been crippled.The only episodes I would still watch are the original first couple of seasons, before the show got so unrealistic and silly.
James Arness was crippled. He had bad knees and could barely run, and in the later years on the show he never ran. He also hated to ride horses because he couldn't do it very well and it made his knees hurt. I always thought Ken Curtis as Festus was what gave the show energy. All the other actors on the show, including James Arness, were boring one-dimensional actors who by the mid-1960s, if not earlier, looked like they were just going through the motions for a paycheck. None, other than Curtis, seemed to put any energy into their performances. Thank heaven Morgan Woodward, Victor French, Jack Elam, Denver Pyle, John Anderson, Strother Martin, & Royal Dano appeared on the show so often. It was their frequent guest appearances that made the show entertaining. It certainly wasn't Marshal Dillon, Miss Kitty and old Doc Adams.
James Arness was one-dimensional. He had more charisma playing the role of The Thing From Another World than playing Matt Dillon
After GUNSMOKE became a hit show, James Arness had his contract redone allowing him to work no more than 3 days a week on the show. All his scenes had to done quickly so he could get 4 days off each week. Normally for a hour-long TV show, it works like 14-hour days 6 days a week. Arness never really wanted to be an actor. He just did it for the money. Notice that he never did anything else (movies or TV) during the 20-year run of GUNSMOKE. He never appeared in any movies during that time span. He never did any guest appearances on other TV shows. And he had it put in his contract that he wouldn't do any press interviews to promote the show. No interviews.
