Gunsmoke Gunsmoke Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman Macdonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television. When aired in the UK, the television series was initially titled Gun Law, later reverting to "Gunsmoke". The radio series ran from 1952 to 1961. John Dunning wrote that among radio drama enthusiasts, ""Gunsmoke" is routinely placed among the best shows of any kind
John Meston later star as Marshal Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke"; and Howard McNear, who would be cast as "Doc" in that radio drama. It was at this time, at the turn of the 1950s, when Meston also began adapting stories, writing original scripts, and serving as an editorial supervisor for episodes of "Romance", another popular CBS radio drama that had been on the air since 1943. He contributed scripts as well to installments of "Suspense" and "Lux Radio Theater", yet two more of CBS Radio's lineup of notable programs during 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. In 1949 executives and programmers at CBS