The run
- Network
- CBS
- Years active
- 1953–1961
- Surviving broadcasts
- 902
- Genre
- western
First Show: Jun 26, 1952 Last Show: Jun 18, 1961 Number Shows: 480 shows, 2 auditions, 5 hour tribute Audition Shows: Jun 11, 1949, Jul 13, 1949 Series Description: Gunsmoke is one of those long-running classic Old-Time Radio shows that everyone knows and remembers.
Restoration quality — measured from the surviving files
Source collection
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
Rights
Public domain — no renewed US copyright
Cataloguing
Air dates and notes from the Archive item record
The shape of the run
What survives, year by year
12 dated broadcasts across 13 years on the air, with 4 years where nothing is known to survive. Brightness is transfer quality; empty cells are months lost to time.
Episodes
Start here
Listen to the run in order
Restored broadcasts from 1949, in original transmission order.
- 1. 49-06-01 · 1 Jun 1949
- 2. The Cabin · 27 Dec 1952
- 3. Moon Rehearsal · 15 Aug 1953
- 01
49-06-01
1 Jun 1949 · 29 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 02
The Cabin
27 Dec 1952 · 29 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 03
Moon Rehearsal
15 Aug 1953 · 27 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 04
Old Friend
20 Mar 1954 · 25 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 05
The Patsy
30 Oct 1954 · 29 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 06
The Army Trial
25 Jun 1955 · 29 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 07
Legal Revenge
5 Feb 1956 · 24 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
- 08
Box o' Boots
23 Sep 1956 · 24 min
Broadcast on CBS. Transferred from the Internet Archive's Old Time Radio Researchers collection (public domain).
Also on CBS
CBS in 1953–1961
Other series the network carried while Gunsmoke was on the air.
Same seasons
western on the air then
Series in the same genre whose runs overlapped this one.
What it became
The adult western
Gunsmoke was sold as the first adult western: moral ambiguity, weather, silence. Serialised folk horror and long-form fiction inherited its patience.
Lineage is written by our editors, not inferred from listening data.
Descendants
Working in the tradition of Gunsmoke
Modern series carrying this form forward.
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