The "Gunsmoke" TV series debuted in 1955 and ran strong for 635 episodes over the course of 20 full seasons. It finally drew to a close in 1975, but even then, the franchise wasn't done.

Did James Arness use a special extra-large gun? In the pilot of Gunsmoke, Matt Dillon uses a short, 4.5 inch barrel revolver, but after the show was picked up, for the entire run of the series ...

When “Gunsmoke” was left off the CBS schedule in 1967 — apparently due to rising production costs — the network’s founding owner, Bill Paley, and his wife, Babe, insisted that it return.