I was thinking about the absence of Bat Masterson and the Earps in Dodge
Is there a reason they never featured any historical characters like other western series did?
shareFeature was historical.
share
MovieChat Forums > Gunsmoke (1955) Discussion > I was thinking about the absence of Bat ...
Gunsmoke is an almost total fictionalization of the real Dodge City. There was a real Long Branch and Dodge House -- and that's about it.
shareNo Moss Molly's? Oops, I mean Ma Smalley's? I used to think it was the former, but I think I finally saw the name on screen.
I've always wondered about Dodge. Is there still a Dodge City? Was it just a podunk town back then? Seems like Kansas is sort of non-descript place. A couple fairly big cities but not a whole lot to talk about. No offense meant to any Kansans out there. There's no place like home.
Hickok showed up at least once. I was going to say that Billy the Kid did too, but now I'm thinking that might have been radio only.
shareThanks! I never knew they had Wild Bill on the series.
The only real figure I remembered was Geronimo in Gunsmoke: The Last Apache.
Did they mention famous Native American names, such as Crazy Horse, Dull Knife or Sitting Bull? Cheyenne did it a lot, but I'm not sure about Gunsmoke.
shareUnlike Cheyenne (which has Mr Bodie interacting with real people), Gunsmoke rarely includes them, probably because it would destroy the illusion of reality the show projected.
Billy the Kid appears in the first radio episode.
I know Calamity Jane and Doc Holliday appeared on "Bonanza". The closest I've seen on "Gunsmoke" is on some of the wanted posters. One was for "William Bonney" (a.k.a.: Billy The Kid).
Annoying the world since 1960!
My post # 418 in the thread https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/ridiculous-crossovers-youd-like-to-see.268483/page-21#post-12913966 at TrekBBS discusses the relationship between Gunsmoke and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.
There are several fictional works that create multiple crossovers:
The maverick episode "Hadley's Hunters" 25 September 1960 had several crossovers:
"Bart runs into nearly every major star on the Warner Brothers lot. He meets Will Hutchins from Sugarfoot (1957), Clint Walker from Cheyenne (1955), John Russell and Peter Brown from Lawman (1958), Ty Hardin from Bronco (1958) and Edd Byrnes from 77 Sunset Strip (1958) (under a sign at the livery stable reading 77 Cherokee Strip). There is also a scene where Bart walks into an office. He finds a satchel on the desk, and a gunbelt hanging on the wall. This was a reference to Colt .45 (1957), which had just recently been canceled."
The Star Trek novel Ishmael (1985) by Barbara Hambly has many crossovers with Here Come the Brides, Have Gun Will Travel, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Bonanza, Maverick, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, and Rawhide, etc., etc.
The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw, 3 November 1991 has crossovers with Have Gun, Will Travel (1957-1963), Bat Masterson (1958-1961), the Rifleman (1958-1963), Cheyenne (1955-1963), Maverick (1957-1962), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955-1961), etc., etc.
So if one puts them all together Gunsmoke and the Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp would happen in the same fictional universe, and my post mentioned above discusses how it could happen.
Dodge City was not the violent, hell raising town that television and the movies have made it out to be.
share