mr ed jumps the gun - Music Videos at MuViBee

Description:
Gunsmoke was the western that started it all, meaning the western craze of the 1950's and 1960's. Gunsmoke came on WISH-TV, Channel 8, our CBS affiliate most every Saturday night at 10pm. Have Gun Will Travel preceded Gunsmoke by one half hour. Even though it was an "adult" western, it was a show that our entire family sat around and watched. Television was our major form of entertainment (for the whole family), and Saturday nights would find us all sitting around the tv set in the living room. Mom sometimes heated oil on the stove and popped popcorn. And it was very rare if we had cokes in the house. Cokes were a special treat and normally if my sister and I wanted one, we had to buy it with our 25 or 50 cent allowance (cokes cost a dime and if you returned the bottle [no cans in these days] you got 2 cents for it!). When Gunsmoke debuted in the fall of 1955, the program only ran 30 minutes and the episodes were shot in black and white. As most tv nuts like me already know, the producers of Gunsmoke wanted John Wayne to play the character of Matt Dillon. Mr. Wayne turned the offer down, but recommended someone he knew: James Arness. The program Gunsmoke was carried over from radio beginning in 1952. William Conrad was the voice of Matt Dillon. When I was in the army stationed in Germany, I lived off post and had no television set, so I listened to the Armed Forces Radio Network. In the evenings, they broadcast the old radio shows, and I listened each week to Gunsmoke. Up until the time that Gunsmoke appeared on our black and white tv's, most western programs were geared toward children. The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were two very popular tv shows in the early days, and kids loved them. Gunsmoke, however, changed all that(the same week that Gunsmoke debuted, The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp also debuted on ABC. Both of these shows brought the "adult" western to life. While I Love Lucy dominated the number 1 position in the top rated evening series from 1952 to 1955 (I Love Lucy dropped to #2 in the October 1955-April 1956 season and was beat out by The $64,000 Question), Gunsmoke first appeared at the number 7 position in the October 1956-April 1957 season. It marked the end of an era. Top 10 Shows For the October 1956-April 1957 Season 1 I Love Lucy 2 The Ed Sullivan Show 3 General Electric Theater 4 The $64,000 Question 5 December Bride 6 Alfred Hitchcock Presents 7 I've Got A Secret 8 Gunsmoke 9 The Perry Como Show 10 The Jack Benny Show There was one western in the top ten of that season. Gunsmoke would jump to the number one position beginning with the October 1957-April 1958 season, and stay there for 4 years. Both Gunsmoke and Wyatt Earp set off an avalanche of westerns, and they started showing up quick. By the time the October 1958-April 1959 season rolled around, westerns would occupy 7 of the top 10 positions. Westerns were on every channel of our televisions sets every night. In one season alone, more than 31 westerns were shown in one week, and that number doesn't account for westerns shown out of prime time. Things would once again change with the debut of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1963. Gunsmoke ran from 1955 to 1975. The show attracted age groups of all kinds, and that's what killed the show. Advertisers could not target one specific demographic group. That's a shame. Our media now dictates how families live. Our tv shows are programmed to attract a certain demographic group, which means that for an entire family to be able to sit around on a Saturday night and watch good quality family entertainment is nigh on to impossible these days. Sheeeeeeeeesh............

Music videos for "mr ed jumps the gun"