Starz Encore Westerns is currently showing episodes from the fifth season, 1959-60. I've noticed two changes with that season:
1 - Different theme music over the closing credits.
2 - Cinematography that's darker and less crisp than the previous seasons.
Does anybody out there have an explanation for either?
Thanks!
When GUSNMOKE expanded to a full hour in 1961 (as many half-hour dramas were during at the era) they decided to rerun the old half-hour episodes (from 1955-1961) on Tuesday night on CBS while the new hour-long episodes aired on Saturday, the show's usual night.
In order to distinguish between the reruns and the new installments, the 233 half-hour shows from the first six seasons were retitled (supposedly temporarily) "Marshal Dillon" using a different theme and updated titles.
I don't think anybody guessed that some 50 or 60 years later, that the "Marshal Dillon" moniker would still adorn the half-hour episodes. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. And the closing music is sometimes fixed, and sometimes it isn't.
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Thanks...I've been wondering about the closing theme of some of the 30min episodes myself.
Some have the clippity-clop version of the main theme, while others have the more modern, smooth, orchestrated theme.
I am currently at the 5th season and noticed the same thing.
The stories are dark... men beating up women... men beating up their sons... men beating up other men... etc...
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Belated thanks!
shareby the same token, I also noticed that the first five seasons (or so) were familiar because the stories were from the radio plays. Once the 1 hr long episodes began, the stories were not related to the William Conrad scripts.
..and the clippity clop of the horses hooves were unnecessary to the theme song. I'm glad they removed it.
(by the way, if any one is interested in the old time radio plays, it's all there under archive.org)
Smoke me a kipper. I'll be back for breakfast