Line #48 Radio/Gunsmoke


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gunsmoke_radio_5.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:The cast of Gunsmoke in 1954]]
3
4	->''Around Dodge City and in the territory out west, there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of...'' '''''[[TitleDrop gunsmoke!]]'''''\
5	''"Gunsmoke", starring Creator/WilliamConrad. The transcribed story of the violence that moved west with young America, and the story of a man who moved with it...''
6	->'''Matt Dillon:''' ''I'm'' that man. Matt Dillon, United States Marshal. The first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancy job, and it makes a man watchful... and a little lonely.
7	-->- The OpeningNarration
8
9	A long running [[TheWestern Western]] series about the adventures of U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon and the citizenry of Dodge City, Kansas. It aired on Creator/{{CBS}} radio from 1952 to 1961.
10
11	A [[{{Series/Gunsmoke}} television version of the series]] (with a completely different cast) aired on CBS television from 1955 to 1975.
12	----
13	!!This radio series provides examples of:
14	* AbsenceOfEvidence: A few villains either end up going free this way or are introduced as a free man this way during an episode.
15	* AcquittedTooLate: A few episodes involve an alleged horse thief whose innocence was proven ''after'' he was lynched, much to Matt's chagrin.
16	* ActionGirl: The episode "Hinka-Do" featured a homely woman taking over a local bar, who proved to be effective with a six shooter.
17	* AfterActionPatchup: Happens often, primarily to Matt.
18	* AlwaysOnDuty: Being law enforcement in an area known for it's lawlessness, Matt Dillon (and on occasion Chester and/or Doc) often find himself being woken up from sleeping to tend to a problem. The problems can range in severity and the reasons for sleeping can too.
19	* AmputationStopsSpread: Subverted in the episode "Home Surgery" where [[spoiler:Matt amputates an old man's leg to keep him from dying of Gangrene, but it was too late and he ends up dying anyway.]]
20	* AwayInAManger: "Beeker's Barn"
21	* BangBangBANG: An elephant gun sounds the same as a shotgun, which sounds the same as a six shooter, which sounds the same as a rifle.
22	* BangingForHelp: On more than one occasion, Chester finds himself forcefully trading places with the prisoner of the week and abandoned with only the hope that Matt will hear him yelling for help.
23	* BankRobbery: Very common plot element.
24	* BigDamnHeroes: Matt is often fashionably late.
25	* BluffingTheMurderer: Played straight whenever it comes up.
26	* ButtMonkey: Chester.
27	* CarnivalOfKillers: Was the general idea of the episode "Reward for Matt". Mrs. Hornby gets pretty mad when Marshal Dillon kills her husband. She offers $1000 to anyone who kills Dillon.
28	* CaughtInASnare: Happens to [[spoiler:Matt]] in the episode aptly titled, "Bear Trap".
29	* ClearMyName: The plot of "Matt For Murder".
30	* CluelessDeputy: Chester more or less served as this, although in most episodes he was only described as an "assistant" rather than an official deputy. In early episodes Matt calls him a deputy, but later on he's quite insistent that he's not his deputy. No explanation for the changing status is offered.
31	* TheCoconutEffect: What's a Western without one?
32	* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Billy, employed by the buffalo hunter Gatleth, is killed when Gatleth pushes his face into a pan of hot lead being melted for bullets. Billy lives for about half a day. Gatleth does suffer a KarmicDeath when the Indians torture him to death for killing so many buffalo. Gatleth's condition is so horrible that Matt and Chester just leave him and never speak of the incident again.
33	* CurbStompBattle: Every time Matt gets into a fist fight.
34	* DamselInDistress: Happens a lot.
35	* DareToBeBadass: The ending of the "Bloody Hands" episode.
36	* DomesticAbuse: A wife beating husband is very common.
37	* DoorOfDoom: Several episodes involves Matt and other characters on one end of an open exit, with gunmen deliberately waiting outside to kill anyone who walks through on sight. Some characters don't recognize the threat and take on the challenge and it ends about as well as you'd expect.
38	* DownerEnding: Frequently.
39	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Matt getting a romantic subplot, Chester being a more serious character who carries a gun, and Doc being gleeful when someone dies because it means he can collect a coroner's fee are all elements that don't last for more than a handful of early episodes before being dropped.
40	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: Several plots are usually contained within a single day.
41	* FrontierDoctor: Doc Adams
42	* GoodIsNotNice The closest thing to a squeaky-clean nice character is Chester, and even he has his moments.
43	* GraveRobbing: A major plot point in "Body Snatch".
44	* HeroicBSOD
45	** Happens to [[spoiler:Matt]] in "Bloody Hands" where [[spoiler:he quits after having to shoot outlaws a part with a shotgun.]] [[DareToBeBadass He gets better.]]
46	** Happens again in the episode "Matt's Decision", but it's less severe.
47	* HistoricalDomainCharacter
48	** The very first episode was based on the (fictitious) start of UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid's life of crime.
49	** The episode "The Brothers" ended on a [[WhamLine Wham Line]] regarding [[UsefulNotes/JesseJames Frank and Jesse James]].
50	** Both Doc Holiday and Annie Oakley have entire episodes about (and named after) them.
51	** A non-outlaw example has Matt recommending "Wild Bill" Hickok to be a law officer.
52	* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Miss Kitty. (The producer-director is quoted in a 1953 ''Time'' magazine [[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806658,00.html interview]]: "We never say it, but Kitty is a prostitute, plain and simple.")
53	* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: The episode "The Impostor".
54	* LetsFightLikeGentlemen: Unless a character in question is a coward or just a plain murderer, two fighting characters will never get into a gunfight unless both parties are armed with a revolver, often [[SubvertedTrope subverted.]] [[AvertedTrope averted]] or [[PlayedForDrama played for drama.]]
55	* TheLostLenore: Doc Adams was married as a young man, but sadly they were only married for two months before she died of typhoid fever.
56	* {{Jingle}}: Being a radio show from the [[TheFifties 50s]], it featured commercials complete with Jingles.
57	* {{Mangst}}
58	* ManOnFire: At the end of "Firey Arrest", you realize that the title of the episode was pretty literal.
59	* TheMeddlingKidsAreUseless: Usually results in some of the aforementioned [[DownerEnding downer endings.]] If an episode involves a [[HistoricalDomainCharacter real life outlaw]] from the [[TheWildWest Old West]], expect this to happen.
60	* MenacingStroll: Matt has his fair share of these.
61	* MissKitty
62	* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Matt (with very few exceptions) will enforce the law, regardless of it's purpose, because he believes that not enforcing the law during times when he doesn't want to would devalue it and make it harder to enforce otherwise. He believes in no uncertain terms that a flawed law is better than no law.
63	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Chester talks too much.
64	* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: Subverted, then played straight in the episode "Maw Hawkins".
65	* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: Sometimes a character (usually [[DamselInDistress Kitty]]) is held hostage and Matt is forced to cooperate with the villain.
66	* {{Protectorate}}: [[USMarshal U.S. Marshal]] [[JustifiedTrope of Dodge City, Kansas]]
67	* RadioDrama
68	* RailroadPlot: In an episode named, fittingly, "The Railroad", widow Libby Segar refuses to sell her home and land to the railroad. She and her husband moved there right after they were married and he died there during an Indian raid, and she is determined that nothing and no one will drive her off her land, even when she is served an eviction notice. She does not survive the episode, shot accidentally by the railroad agent while trying to cover Matt and keep him from being shot by Libby, who is defending her home from seizure.
69	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Matt will usually dish these out at a mob, or whenever Doc Adams is criticized.
70	* SaveTheVillain: Matt would do this, only to make sure proper due process is carried out. Results usually vary.
71	* ShipTease: Matt and Miss Kitty. The two of them definitely seem to have feelings for each other, but they never officially become a couple.
72	* SympatheticMurderBackstory: In the radio version, Doc Adams had unwillingly killed a man in a duel back East, and had to flee and change his name from Calvin Moore to Charles Adams in order to avoid extralegal retaliation.
73	* TakeMeOutAtTheBallGame: Subverted in the episode "Ball Nine, Take Your Base!".
74	* UnderestimatingBadassery
75	* UnexpectedInheritance: The perpetually broke Chester receives an inheritance from a deceased cousin in the amount of $368.63. It is an astonishingly large amount of money for Chester, who fends off requests to invest and pay bills by toying with the idea of gambling with it before he ultimately loans most of it to help pay off a friend's mortgage so they can keep their farm. Chester is almost happier being broke than he is having the responsibility of deciding what to do with that much money.
76	* USMarshal: Matt Dillon
77	* VillainBall: In “Cold Fire,” [[spoiler:the mother would have gotten away with her deceased son’s bank robbery if she had just quietly left town, instead of meeting Matt one final time to announce her departure from Dodge City and insist her son is innocent, spurring him to reconsider the facts of the case one final time.]]
78	* ViolenceIsDisturbing: Most of the violence portrayed is only (rarely) glorified in-universe.
79	* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: Matt would rather talk things out or otherwise resolve things without a gunfight or fatality. It doesn't always end that way.
80	* WantedPoster
81	* TheWestern

Context Radio / Gunsmoke