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50 free Gunsmoke trivia questions with answers. Gunsmoke ran for 20 seasons and 635 episodes on CBS, and before that for nine years on radio with a different Marshal Dillon. This quiz covers the whole story: how the radio show grew out of a request for a 'Philip Marlowe of the Old West', why the radio cast was passed over for television, the John Wayne introduction, the near-cancellation of 1967, the quiet axe in 1975, and the five reunion movies that followed. Along the way you will meet Matt, Miss Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, Quint, Newly and Sam the bartender, and the actors behind them: a wounded Anzio veteran, a decathlete who invented a limp, a Sons of the Pioneers singer, and a Miss Kitty who bred cheetahs. Easy warm-ups sit beside genuinely obscure questions about the radio scripts, the theme song and the spin-off Dirty Sally. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year did Gunsmoke first air on CBS radio?
1952
It debuted with an episode called 'Billy the Kid' and ran unsponsored at first, with the network paying for it out of its own pocket.
Q 02Whose deep voice played Marshal Matt Dillon on the radio series?
William Conrad
He later said the producers had auditioned everybody else first because he was already in too many radio shows, then hired him after two lines.
Q 03Who played Marshal Matt Dillon for the show's entire television run?
James Arness
He stood 6 feet 7 inches, which had kept him out of Navy flight training in World War II.
Q 04Which movie star introduced the first television episode on camera in 1955?
John Wayne
The intro predicted the show's star would become a big name; the persistent story that he had turned down the part himself is disputed by the show's first director.
Q 05How many television episodes were broadcast over the show's entire run?
635
That count stood as the record for scripted American primetime television until 2018.
Q 06The series is set in Dodge City, in which state?
Kansas
The stories take place in the 1870s, after the railroad reached the town in 1872 and turned it into a booming cattle stop.
Q 07What was the name of the saloon owned by Miss Kitty?
The Long Branch
A real bar of the same name operated in Dodge City from about 1874 until it burned down in 1885.
Q 08Who played Chester Goode, Matt's limping assistant, from 1955 to 1964?
Dennis Weaver
He heard he had won the part while working a side job delivering flowers.
Q 09Who played the scruffy deputy Festus Haggen?
Ken Curtis
The twangy Festus voice was invented for the role and sounded nothing like the actor, who had been a big-band and cowboy-group singer.
Q 10Which actor played Doc Adams for the entire television run?
Milburn Stone
He appeared in 604 episodes and based his country doctor on the physician from his own hometown in Kansas.
Q 11Who played Miss Kitty Russell on television?
Amanda Blake
She stayed 19 seasons and left before the final year, when a new saloon owner named Miss Hannah took her place.
Q 12Which future movie star played the blacksmith Quint Asper from 1962 to 1965?
Burt Reynolds
He beat out 300 other actors and later called the show the happiest period of his life.
Q 13Buck Taylor's character Newly O'Brien came to town practising what trade before becoming a deputy?
Gunsmith
He also studied medicine under Doc, and by the 1987 reunion movie he was the town's marshal.
Q 21What title did Gunsmoke's creators Macdonnell and Meston originally propose for the radio show?
Jeff Spain
CBS insisted on the title an executive named Harry Ackerman had already coined for an earlier audition script.
Q 22After two unsponsored years, the radio show got its first sponsor in 1954. What product was it?
Cigarettes
The producers had feared any sponsor would demand they clean the show up and put Matt on a pure white charger.
Q 23The first radio episode was named after which Old West outlaw?
Billy the Kid
Kitty was not in it; the actress who later voiced her appeared that day as an old flame of Matt's named Francie Richards.
Q 14Which sitcom did CBS cancel in 1967 to clear room after reversing its decision to drop Gunsmoke?
Gilligan's Island
That show had earlier used the Gunsmoke jail set for dream sequences in which Gilligan imagined himself as the Marshal.
Q 15In a 1953 Time interview, producer Norman Macdonnell said the radio Kitty was secretly what?
A prostitute
Time later observed that she was obviously not selling chocolate bars.
Q 16The TV Doc's actor chose the first name Galen in honor of whom?
An ancient Greek physician
The radio Doc had been Charles Adams; the TV version was billed as G. Adams before the G was pinned down.
Q 17On radio, Doc had changed his name and come west to escape a charge of what?
Murder
His real name was Calvin Moore, and in early episodes he cheerfully counted on autopsy fees whenever the Marshal shot someone.
Q 18Gunsmoke's Doc reportedly borrowed his surname from which cartoonist?
Charles Addams
The suggestion came from the radio Marshal himself, who found the early Doc's enthusiasm for autopsy fees fitting for the creator of a macabre cartoon family.
Q 19On the radio series, Chester's ad-libbed surname was what?
Proudfoot
The character was originally just 'Townsman' in the script until the radio Marshal said to call him Chester or something.
Q 20Howard McNear, the radio Doc, later became famous as which Andy Griffith Show character?
Floyd the barber
He also turned up six times on the TV Gunsmoke in other roles, including storekeeper Howard Rudd.
Q 24Under what title was the series broadcast in the United Kingdom?
Gun Law
A British newspaper comic strip and BBC hardcover annuals were also published under that name.
Q 25The theme's lyrics were never heard on the show, but which singing cowboy recorded them in 1955?
Tex Ritter
The tune, composed by Rex Koury, is titled 'Old Trails' and was also known as 'Boothill'.
Q 26The TV series was filmed on land in Thousand Oaks that became the campus of which college?
California Lutheran University
Nearby Wildwood Regional Park served as the open range around the town.
Q 27Which show finally passed Gunsmoke's scripted-episode record in April 2018?
The Simpsons
The milestone episode opened with Maggie Simpson in a gunfight against Marshal Dillon.
Q 28Which series broke Gunsmoke's season record for a live-action primetime drama in September 2019?
Law & Order: SVU
The original Law & Order had tied the record in 2010 before its cancellation.
Q 29A 2013 tally by Marshall Trimble found the TV Matt Dillon had been shot at least how many times?
56
The same count had him knocked unconscious 29 times, stabbed three times and poisoned once.
Q 30Miss Kitty's actress and her husband ran an early captive breeding program for which animal?
Cheetahs
She also brought her pet lion, Kemo, onto the set in 1974, and later helped found Arizona's largest no-kill shelter.