During the late 1960s, television took a turn away from Westerns, violence and shows about gunslinging heroes. Television started trading them in for medical dramas and comedy-based sitcoms and variety shows.
The ’60s brought a strong anti-violence movement aimed at many TV shows. One of the existing shows to be affected by the anti-violence movement was Gunsmoke (1955).
Gunsmoke began in 1955 and had a successful 20-season run, ending in 1975. Milburn Stone, who played the role of ‘Doc’ Adams, was just one of the many Gunsmoke cast members to step up for his show.
“The trend is now to eliminate all violence as much as possible, and I think that’s a ridiculous attitude,” Stone said. “I don’t like senseless force anymore than the next guy, but violence was in the Old West.”
According to the interview, in the early ’60s, when the networks were on a previous anti-violence trend, Gunsmoke went for a six-week period in which no shots were fired. In the late ’60s, the call for no violence started up again.
“We’ve been on the wrong side of the fence, too,” Stone said. “I remember one two-parter when we killed off 17 people. We killed the whole cast and were ready to start on the audience.”
Stone said that even his character, the doctor who spent his days fixing up Matt Dillon, got a chance to make a kill on the series. Although Stone could see both sides, he felt that the Western genre was accurate in portraying violence in the way Gunsmoke did.
“Violence in period pieces isn’t the same as in the contemporary shows,” Stone said. “In the end, we always show that crime doesn’t pay. There’s a psychological difference between characters in costumes and characters who dress like the guy next door.”
According to the interview, many higher-ups from across the country tried to step in and alter Gunsmoke’s storyline in order to reduce the violence. Stone said he would get angry when people tried to tamper with his series.
“Until I had my heart attack, I’d get violently mad about someone tampering with the show,” Stone said. “Now, I have to guard against that, but I still get emotionally upset. I can’t do it like Arness does. He never lets them get through to him. He listens to what they have to say, then says no. Period. Then, forgets it.”