Hacker Cinema
Gunsmoke
1955 · TV series · 45 min episodes · 20 seasons
Created by John Meston
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
6 neutralfrom 6 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
6 comments on Hacker News
Is this a useful first aid technique?
Like for Aron Ralston, who was trapped under a rock and had to cut off his own leg to escape: would it have reduced his pain if he had stabbed himself in the shoulder to the bone?
Would this best be done with, say possibly, acupuncture needles or an ice pick, so as to minimize the damage and to maximize the relief?
Gunsmoke TV episode:
Doc: Well, Billy, we'll have to amputate your lower left leg - it's shot plumb thru with gangrene.
Billy: Will it hurt, Doc?
Doc: Hell yeah, it'll hurt! But thanks to Hacker News we have a new pain treatment: every time you yell. Chester here will stab your right leg to the bone with this h'yar ice pick. And Mary will hold a leather strap in your mouth so your teeth don't crack off! Don't forget to breathe.
Billy: I'm obliged and grateful to be part of your research program, Doc, but can't you instead just wait 10 minutes while I drink this here quart of whiskey and pass out? Then you can do as you wish.
Doc: Hell, no, time's a'wasting! Hold him down, fellas! Doctorin' progresses only a step at a time!
My grandfather was born in Nocona, TX. He was food-insecure growing up, a survivor of the Dust Bowl, paratrooper in WWII and Korea, and avid watcher of Western TV series like Gunsmoke and Bonanza.
My grandmother was born in Wilson, OK. I guess she watched the cowboy series because that's what he watched. She was a quiet lady until her later years.
I think living in Texas, they didn't romanticize the old West too much but did appreciate it. Some of my remaining relatives have a farm with about 30 longhorn cattle.
I like to say "eat it or I'll beat you purple", loudly and in a crowded restaurant. Then my son and I laugh about it later. A routine we started when he was 4- or 5-years-old after we both watched an old episode of Gunsmoke, "Harper's Blood", where a dying mother enjoined the father to strictly discipline their two boys, worried that one of them might grow up to be like her grandfather, whom she reveals to have been an infamous, murderous outlaw. After the mother dies the erstwhile gentle father steels himself, promising his sons that if they ever disobey him or get into any mischief he'll beat them purple.
Pirates watch plenty of movies and TV newer than the original 14 year copyright term.
People aren’t getting too worried about people pirating Gunsmoke or whatever.
because it trivially meets factors for fair use. It is a very small portion of the copyrighted work and is not a substitute for the work. A couple screenshots from a TV show does not lower the market value for the TV show. TV Land isn't going to stop airing Gunsmoke because someone posted a couple screenshots online.
Except BTTF doesn't mention gays or trans people. If it did, you'd see a lot more of the major cultural shifts, especially surrounding trans rights and trans acceptance.
It also doesn't focus as much on television, except to the extent that people in 1955 apparently didn't know what a "rerun" was. (Did they in reality? Honestly don't know.) The other side to that is, back in 1985, if you wanted to see an old episode of I Love Lucy or Gunsmoke (which had actually gone off the air by then, I believe) you either caught the rerun of the one episode some network was broadcasting or you were SOL. I'm not sure anyone was even selling video tapes of episodes back then, even assuming you were one of the comparatively few people to have a VHS or Beta player. Your cultural library for recent-ish pop culture was about a millimeter deep, compared to now.
So, yes, 1985 is closer to 2015 than 1955 was to 1985 in some key ways. Some of that is because you can only repeal Jim Crow laws once. Some of that is because Netflix has Punky Brewster on demand. Some of that is because most people are neither gay nor trans.