Why did Gunsmoke end abruptly? The cast read about it in the papers — the reasons behind CBS's call
Gunsmoke was still pulling top-30 ratings when CBS ended it in 1975, and the network managed the exit so quietly that the people making the show read about it in the trade papers. Here's what was behind the decision, and how close it came to happening eight years earlier.
After 20 seasons and 635 episodes, Gunsmoke went off the air in 1975 with "The Sharecroppers" — a comedic episode that was never written as a finale, because nobody making the show knew it was one. Marshal Matt Dillon got no send-off. Neither did anyone who played him.
How the cast found out
According to James Arness's memoir, producer John Mantley was informed on April 25, 1975, that CBS had decided to end the show — after the season had wrapped, and after 20 years of business together, via essentially nothing. The cast and crew learned the news from The Hollywood Reporter.
"The end of 'Gunsmoke' came with a jolt!" Arness wrote, noting that none of the people working on the show were told in advance.
He was blunter with the Associated Press later: "We didn't do a final, wrap-up show." The cast, he said, had fully expected another season or two or three — production on season 21 was reportedly about to gear up when the ax came down.
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The reasons behind the call
The show wasn't failing. It was still in the top 30 when CBS pulled it. The problem was who was watching: Gunsmoke's audience skewed older and more rural, and mid-1970s CBS was chasing young, urban, advertiser-friendly viewers. Its time slot went to Rhoda and Phyllis, the two Mary Tyler Moore spinoffs — about as clear a statement of intent as network scheduling gets. It didn't help that the ratings crown had moved on, with NBC's Columbo and ABC's The Rookies winning the head-to-head numbers Gunsmoke used to own. A Western that had been the No. 1 show in America from 1957 to 1961 was now, in the network's math, prime real estate occupied by the wrong tenant.
It nearly happened in 1967
CBS had tried this before. The network moved to cancel Gunsmoke in 1967 amid sliding Saturday-night ratings — until the wife of CBS chief William S. Paley intervened, as chronicled in writer-producer William Froug's memoir:
"You can't cancel Gunsmoke. It's my favorite show."
Gilligan's Island got canceled instead, Gunsmoke took its Monday time slot, and promptly climbed back into the top 10. That reprieve bought eight more seasons. The 1975 decision came with no such rescue.
The make-good, 12 years later
Arness eventually got his ending, just not from the network schedule. He returned as Dillon for five TV movies — Return to Dodge (1987), The Last Apache (1990), To the Last Man (1992), The Long Ride (1993), and One Man's Justice ( 1994), which doubled as his final acting credit. Along the way the original run had quietly stockpiled records: Arness appeared in every episode, the guest list included Burt Reynolds, Kurt Russell, and a three-time Jodie Foster, and the show held the longest-running-primetime-drama title until Law & Order tied it decades later.
Not bad for a series that ended, officially, in a trade paper.
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