From its very beginnings Gunsmoke was a drama that stood apart from its peers. This unusual “western for adults” had its radio premiere at a time when even the most successful and long running of programs were being canceled. Gunsmoke’s strong nine-year run beyond radio’s golden age is testament alone to show’s quality and appeal with audiences.

This achievement is even more remarkable when one considers that radio’s Gunsmoke faced direct competition with the television version of the program for seven of those nine years. Gunsmoke as a television program would become even more successful than its radio predecessor; with a 20-year broadcast life, it still ranks as television’s longest running western!

The show was the creation of producer/director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. Macdonnell, once a director’s assistant for the program Escape, and Meston, a CBS story editor, collaborated over a two year period developing the then novel idea of a western radio-series for adults. In 1950 and again in 1951, Macdonell produced two Meston-written "western scripts" into episodes for the program Escape. In these episodes the two experimented with a dark realism and an uncluttered sound style, employing dialog and subtle sound effects (rather than narration) to depict each characters’ actions. The pair were pleased with the results and would soon incorporate this style and mood into their ideas for the program Gunsmoke.

In the spring of 1952 Macdonnell approached CBS with the idea for creating an adult western and happened to be in luck; the network had just cancelled a spy program and they informed him he had one short week to come up with a show! With no time to spare Macdonnell and Weston borrowed the title and basic premise for the series from two failed 1949 audition recordings created by Harry Ackerman, programming director for CBS West.

The setting for the new series would become the rough and tumble world of 1870’s Dodge City, Kansas, with the lead character as the town’s law officer, the sad and tragic figure of sheriff “Matt Dillon.” William Conrad, a film actor with some radio experience in programs such as Escape, Suspense, and The Adventures of Sam Spade, was chosen to play the lead role of Dillon. "Chester Proudfoot," the faithful though not-so-competent deputy, was played by actor Parley Baer. A saloon girl, "Miss Kitty Russell," would become the part of actress Georgia Ellis. Filling out the line-up of main characters was a vulturous “Doc Adams,” played by Howard McNear, who would go on to television fame as "Floyd the Barber" on The Andy Griffith Show.

In the earliest episodes of Gunsmoke, the characters came across as quite cold and stark, but within weeks (as the actors settled into their roles) these same characters began to come alive and develop in ways different from their original concepts. Chester became more humorous, and Dillon more understanding.

The Doc became far less ghoulish and Miss Kitty would emerge as a leading character and the sheriff’s love-interest. The show soon became popular with general audiences and critics alike, who would often praise the show for its realism, comparing it to Dragnet, the popular crime drama of the day. Among old-time radio aficionados Gunsmoke is still routinely placed among the best shows of any genre or era.

As early as 1953 there were plans underway to produce a Gunsmoke television series. It was Macdonnell’s wish that the radio cast would be retained for the television version to preserve the integrity of the characters and storyline they’d helped create, but CBS took this authority away from Macdonnell, offering the radio-cast only a token audition, and relegating him to the simple role of producer on the television series.

Wisely CBS chose to keep John Meston as scriptwriter, who fast became one of the program’s greatest assets. Actor James Arness would be chosen to play a very different “Matt Dillon.” Dennis Weaver would play the role of Chester, who’s surname was altered from Proudfoot to Goode and given a wooden leg. Weaver who grew to loathe the roll of Chester, remained on the program for nine years. After his departure a new deputy-character was created, that of “Festus Haggen” played by Ken Curtis. Milburn Stone would assume the role of “Doc Adams,” and Amanda Blake the incomparable “Miss Kitty.”

Like the radio show before it, the Gunsmoke television series would endear itself with hosts of loyal fans. For some 20 years it would dominate and help define the “TV-western." At one point in 1970, CBS executives moved to cancel the program, but the action raised such a furor (the subject even coming up in congressional speeches) that they were forced to relent and let the program air for another five years.

Gunsmoke fans are bitterly divided as to which version is the superior, but it comes as good news to both camps that all the episodes from both genres have been well preserved, and are readily available to collectors.

As a concession to all Gunsmoke fans we've included cast photos from both programs; though perhaps we reveal our preferences with today's audio selection, an episode from the radio series. Just click on the button above to have a listen. –Chris Plunkett

WE HAVE TEN HALF-HOUR "LIGHTS OUT" PROGRAMS FOR YOU TO LISTEN TO ON THE ARCHIVE SECTION OF NORM'S RADIO.

IT'S VERY SIMPLE. CLICK THE NAME "NORMSRADO" ON THE UPPER TOOL BAR OF THIS PAGE. WHEN YOU GET TO THE NORM'S RADIO HOME PAGE, CLICK "ARCHIVE" ON THAT TOOLBAR AT THE TOP. SCROLL TO "GUNSMOKE" AND CLICK LISTEN. YOU WILL HAVE TEN CHOICES OF PROGRAMS THAT AIRED FROM 1952 TO 1956 . WHEN THE PROGRAM STARTS YOU CAN GO BACK TO THE RAMBIN PAGE OR DO WHATEVER YOU WANT ON YOUR COMPUTER. DON'T LET YOUR BOSS CATCH YOU... BY THAT I MEANT YOUR SPOUSE SINCE YOU'VE GOTTA BE RETIRED OR A HISTORIAN TO BE INTERESTED IN THIS STUFF.

This Gallilean experience had to be incredible! Can you imagine being there? Isn't it interesting that Peter "put on" clothing before he dove into the water? I would not have wanted that encumbrance as I swam or waded to shore. And wasn't it a neat experience for the disciples to realize the reward for obedience -- even when they didn't even know who the person was that told them to try the other side of the boat. Certainly they had tried ALL sides during the night. But a true fisherman will try anything, I guess, before giving up. That "one last cast" ususally comes in multiple units before rowing to shore or putting away the equipment.

Later Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Lake of Galilee. This is how it happened. A group of men were there – Simon Peter, Thomas, “The Twin,” Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, my brother James and I and two other disciples.

Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing!” “We’ll come too,” we all said. We did, but caught nothing all night. At dawn we saw a man standing on the beach, but we couldn’t see who he was.

“Any fish, boys?” he called out. “No,” we replied. Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get plenty of them!” So we did, and couldn’t draw in the net because of the weight of the fish – there were so many.

Then I said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” At that, Simon Peter put on his tunic (for he was stripped to the waist) and jumped into the water [and swam ashore]. The rest of us stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the beach, about 300 feet away. When we got there, we saw that a fire was kindled and fish were frying over it, and there was bread.

“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said. So Simon Peter went out and dragged the net ashore. By his count there were 153 large fish; and yet the net hadn’t torn. “Now come and have some breakfast!” Jesus said; and none of us dared ask him if he really was the Lord, for we were quite sure of it. Then Jesus went around serving us the bread and the fish.

John 21:1-14 The Living Bible, Tyndale Press, Wheaton, IL

Don't you know that had to be the best breakfast ever in terms of taste, joy, exultation, excitement, anticipation, mental activity, physical restoration,and the full gamit of feelings. Today, we should be celebrating, every day, the victory Jesus secured for us on the Cross and the Resurrection. Jesus paid the price of sin by giving his own sinless life in our place. And he won the battle over spiritual death through resurrection power.

Remember, that very same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in anyone who has a personal relationship with God through his Son, Jesus Christ. That is definitely a WOW and a PRAISE THE LORD!

John wrote this after telling about the encounter between Jesus and Thomas: Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs that are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

That should get a "Maranatha" out of every one of us -- "Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!"

That little act allows us to benefit from more daylight before the "sun go down." But in the spring we have to sacrifice an hour of sleep and don't get it back until October. All this “Daylight Savings” nonsense -- lose an hour of sleep; sleep an extra hour.

Church attenders knew exactly who forgot to turn their clocks back... those who ended up at worship but thought they were coming to Sunday Schoo. And those who never showed up at worship, who usually do, or drive into the parking lot as everyone was leaving and coolly adjusted to the situation and drove off in the line pretending they had been at church. From personal experience, the low attendance for the year in Sunday school is always the first day of Spring Daylight Saving Time.

Good bye, for awhile to good ole Standard Time! That is unless you live in a permanent Standard Time area. For the U.S., that means the states of Hawaii, Arizona, and most parts of Indiana.

Were you aware there are still many places in the world that also don’t observe a Daylight Savings Time? (see map on right) They are most of equatorial and Asian countries. For the equatorial countries there’s really no incentive for a seasonal “mangling of the clock,” as the portions of daylight and darkness at these latitudes remain quite constant. On the other hand some high-latitude countries like Russia, have a summertime Daylight Savings set two hours ahead of Standard Time!

The story of “Daylight Savings” is quite a fascinating and tumultuous tale -filled with politics and controversy. But before we continue, perhaps a brief history of “standardized time” is in order.

Amazingly, well into the industrial age the concept of exact time was considered a local issue! The time of day in any particular town was “mean” or sun driven, working off the time of the local solar-noon. Residents were quite content to set their watches and clocks by the tolling of their favorite church bell or tower clock. By the early 1800’s individuals such as William Wollaston and William Lambert began advocating the need for time standardization. This need became quite evident during the advent of rail systems in Europe and North America.

In 1840 the Great Western Railway in England was the first company to adopt a standard “London Time” for all its stations across the country, and soon other rail companies followed suit. The idea of standardized time caught on with the public and by 1855 the vast majority of town clocks were set to the new Greenwich Standard Time -time calibrated to the “mean time” of the Greenwich Prime Meridian. This “starting meridian” of 0 longitude had been arbitrarily established by British cartographers (as early as 1675) to pass directly through the halls of the Royal Observatory outside London, in Greenwich, England (see photos). The last holdout against Greenwich Standard Time was the British legal system, which finally “adjusted its watches” in 1880.

The United States and Canada were a bit slower to incorporate standard time. As early as 1809 William Lambert (and later Charles Dowd in the 1870s) had petitioned Congress to establish multiple standardized times based on “time meridians,” but these proposals were dismissed. Finally on November 19, 1883 the rail systems of both countries moved to adopt Dowd’s proposed system virtually unchanged. As in England and Europe the advantages of standardized time soon became evident to the public and the system’s use quickly spread, but some towns clung tenaciously to their own local time –as was the case with Detroit.

In 1900 the Detroit city council decreed for all clocks be set back 28 minutes to correlate with the new-fangled “Central Standard Time.” But only half the city complied. Sensing “mutiny in the ranks” this gallant council of “bold leaders and visionaries” soon rescinded their ordinance and even entertained proposals that an official sundial be erected at City Hall. Central Standard Time was not adopted in Detroit until it passed by citywide vote some five years later!

It wasn’t until 1918, that standardized time and the existing time zones were set into U.S. law. Curiously, the Time Act of 1918 established both Standard and Daylight Savings Times –with the dates of changeover occurring on March and October 31st. It was the time of “the Great War” and two years previous England and many European countries had instituted similar daylight savings systems in a move to save energy costs.

However the idea of a “Daylight Savings” was not new, and in fact not necessarily European. “Founding Father,” inventor, ambassador, statesman, jolly skinflint, and everyone’s favorite deist, Ben Franklin, is credited with the idea’s origins in his 1784 treatise titled, “An Economical Project.” With this bit of history in mind it’s ironic to note that this first institution of “Daylight Savings Time” was vastly unpopular with the early to bed early to rise, “Poor Richard” readin’ American public of 1918, and Congress soon repealed it (overriding a President Wilson veto) in 1919. Daylight Savings did not make another appearance in the states until World War II, when President Roosevelt passed year-round Daylight Savings from 1942 to 1945 (creatively coined ‘War Time’) with a double Daylight Savings set in the summer months -two hours ahead of standard time!

From 1945 to 1966 there were no federal regulations about Daylight Savings and states and localities were free to use or not use whatever system they chose. This led to much confusion in the transportation and broadcast industries, which began lobbying for a uniform time system, but many other businesses and farm organizations opposed to daylight savings were also against a uniform standard time (i.e. a national Daylight Savings).

Growing up in Wisconsin, Dad remembers when the state of Wisconsin Dairy Lobby kept Wisconsin from participating in Daylight Savings Time. The farmers didn't want to mess up their day beacause the cows didn't respond to such time changes. When traveling to Chicago you had to adjust your watch as you would today when traveling from one time zone to another.

In 1966 Congress finally passed The Uniform Time Act, which created a nationwide Daylight Savings Time, to begin the last Sunday in April and end the last Sunday in October. In an attempt to appease some interests there was a clause that allowed entire states to opt out of Daylight Savings if their legislatures so voted, hence the exceptions of Arizona, Indiana and Hawaii. Another amendment was made to the act in 1972, which allowed states lying in multiple time zones (Indiana) to institute Daylight Savings in subsections of the state. This allowed certain border counties the option of keeping in time with major cities in neighboring states.

During the OPEC oil embargo of the early 70’s President Nixon prolonged daylight savings to eight and ten months of the year. This again proved unpopular however, and the old system was restored by 1975. President Reagan made the last adjustment to the national Daylight Savings in 1986 by advancing the start date from the last to the first Sunday in April.

And that’s the mad sordid tale of Daylight Savings! ...or its gist at least. Whether you're for it or not, (I actually found a few websites that where quite vehement and bitter about the issue!) Daylight Savings is probably not goin’ anywhere, at least in the long run. But to those “noble few” souls, dead-set against it, I say take heart, Sunday’s comin!’ Plus there’s always Arizona, Latvia, and Bangladesh. –ChrisP

"This was published in a monthly newsletter where a friend o mine lives. I had never heard this advice before and hadn't a clue as to how to help someone who is having a stroke -- a cerebral hemmorage. Perhaps you will see the value of this information and will file it away in your memory bank."

For further information about strokes and their treatment check out he web-site for the American Stroke Association.

Is It a Stroke?

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster for most victims. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage because people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say any bystander can recognize a stroke asking three simple questions:

1. Ask the individual to smile.

2. Ask him or her to raise both arms.

3. Ask the person to speak a simple sentence.

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

After discovering that a group of nonmedical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. They presented their conclusions at the American Stroke Association's annual meeting last year. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke victim and prevent brain damage.