Why was Gunsmoke filmed in black and white? The switch to colour came in the same season CBS nearly cancelled it

Gunsmoke premiered in 1955 and didn't shoot a frame in color until 1966. Both halves of that sentence come down to money, and only one of them is about cameras.

The numbers are lopsided. Across 635 episodes, 233 were half-hours and 402 ran an hour. Of the hour-longs, 176 were still black and white. That puts 409 episodes of Gunsmoke in monochrome against 226 in color — most of the most-broadcast Western in American television history was never shot for color at all.

CBS had no reason to spend the money

In 1955, color television barely existed in American homes. Sets cost a fortune, broadcasts were rare, and the economics behind them belonged to one company. RCA owned NBC and manufactured the receivers, which meant every color broadcast NBC aired was also a hardware advertisement. CBS made nothing on sets. Color stock and processing simply cost more per episode, and Gunsmoke was cranking out 39 episodes a season in its early years.

Read more: Gunsmoke: what happened to Thad? He was written in as insurance in case CBS lost Matt Dillon

Then there was the ratings argument, which didn't exist either. Gunsmoke was the number one program in the United States for seasons 3 through 6. Nobody at CBS needed to improve it.

Season 12 changed the film stock

The first color episode is "Snap Decision," broadcast 17 September 1966, opening season 12. CBS had moved to a nearly all-color schedule for the 1966–67 season, and Gunsmoke went with it. The production adjustments were cosmetic and immediate: Amanda Blake's hair was pushed brassier, Kitty Russell's crimson dresses gave way to jewel tones, and the opening sequence was reshot in color.

The switch to color did not produce a ratings turnaround. Season 12 ran 29 episodes from 17 September 1966 to 15 April 1967 and failed to make the Nielsen top 30.

The cancellation, and the reversal

On 23 February 1967, the New York Times reported that CBS intended to cancel Gunsmoke. The show was still pulling a substantial audience share, and the decision produced enough internal and external pushback to be reversed. William S. Paley, the CBS chairman who had greenlit the Gunsmoke radio version back in 1951, pushed to keep it, with reporting crediting pressure from his wife Babe. To clear the schedule, CBS dropped two other programs: Gilligan's Island, and a new comedy called Doc.

The survival came with a condition — a different night. For season 13, starting 11 September 1967, Gunsmoke moved from Saturdays at 10 p.m. to Mondays at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

The move worked immediately. Gunsmoke jumped to number 4 in the Nielsen ratings and stayed in the top ten for six more seasons.

What the color actually bought

Eight more seasons of it, running through 24- and 26-episode orders until the series ended on 31 March 1975 — cancelled that time without a reprieve, and without CBS telling the cast in advance.

For the record: the problem was never the film stock. CBS tried color first and it did nothing. What fixed the show was moving it two and a half hours earlier in the week.

Earlier we wrote: How did Festus from Gunsmoke die? Ken Curtis spent his last day at a rodeo