Matt Dillon (Gunsmoke) 1840) trying to take a bath in a wooden washtub without fully undressing left his soul a little warped. Anyway, there'd have to be something wrong with him or he wouldn't have hired on as a United States Marshal in the heyday of Dodge City, Kansas." Notwithstanding Meston's original vision, the character evolved considerably during "Gunsmoke"s nine-year run on CBS Radio and its 20-year run on CBS Television (Columbia Broadcasting System). On the radio series which ran from 1952 until 1961, Matt was portrayed by William Conrad, whose deep and resonant voice helped to project a larger than life presence.
Gunsmoke Dunning writes that Meston was especially disgusted by the archetypal Western hero and set out "to destroy [that type of] character he loathed". In Meston's view, "Dillon was almost as scarred as the homicidal psychopaths who drifted into Dodge from all directions." Chester was played by Parley Baer on radio, and by Dennis Weaver on television. Chester's character had no surname until Baer ad libbed "Proudfoot" during an early rehearsal. Initial "Gunsmoke" scripts gave him no name at all; his lines were simply slugged to be spoken by "Townsman". Again, Conrad's sense of what the program would be supervened, and