Ah, those glory days. While we want to stay grounded and happy in the moment, it’s hard not to look back fondly on days gone by. Even those among us who peak late in life can agree, there’s nothing quite like yesterday. If only we’d known then what we know now! Would we have appreciated those halcyon days more fully? Would we hold on tighter to the moments while they happen, so we have more than just our rose-tinted glasses nowadays? Nostalgia, it seems, can be such sweet sorrow.
It’s interesting, then, to consider the way actors look back on their early work. Unlike the rest of us, TV and movie stars have living documents of their yesteryear. One needn’t rely on memory when DVDs and reruns can paint a more accurate picture. So, with proof of how it all went down, maybe these Hollywood figures can better understand which era was the greatest.
For Burt Reynolds, Gunsmoke represented a special time of learning and creating. It was a high point in his early career, so much so that he took time to write the forward to co-star James Arness’ 2001 self-titled autobiography.
“For many years (45 to be exact), I have been asked ‘What were the best times for you growing up as an actor?’ Without hesitation,” Reynolds wrote, “I have always said, ‘The two-and-a-half years I was on Gunsmoke.’ They were, for me, ‘the best of times.’ There were many reasons, but the main reason was that it was then I learned how actors on a film set should behave. What it meant to say someone is ‘really a pro.'”
While his time on Gunsmoke may have been brief (a little over 1/10th of the show’s runtime), the Western served as a real incubator for Reynolds as a burgeoning star.
“I learned that acting isn’t an easy career,” he continued. “Long, tough hours sometimes— but it can be a wonderful time. That the working environment really can produce a ‘family’ with real warmth among the cast and an honesty that you may or may not share again, but you will always be striving for from that time on.”