Norman Macdonnell an anthology series they had done. Their boss at CBS, Harry Ackerman, and other network executives dismissed that title, preferring "Gunsmoke", a program heading that Ackerman himself was credited with conceiving. Once given permission to proceed with "Gunsmoke", Macdonnell began developing a detailed production schedule for the new series' 30-minute episodes and arranging auditions to cast its recurring characters. His and Meston’s "Jeff Spain" soon became United States Marshal Matt Dillon, and veteran voice actor William Conrad was chosen by Macdonnell, Meston, and two other CBS screeners to portray that lead character. Other seasoned actors soon filled the needed regular
Gunsmoke and any time." The television series ran for 20 seasons from 1955 to 1975, and lasted for 635 episodes. At the end of its run in 1975, "Los Angeles Times" columnist Cecil Smith wrote: ""Gunsmoke" was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the west. Our own "Iliad" and "Odyssey", created from standard elements of the dime novel and the pulp Western as romanticized by [Ned] Buntline, [Bret] Harte, and [Mark] Twain. It was ever the stuff of legend." In the late 1940s, CBS chairman William S. Paley, a fan of the "Philip Marlowe" radio serial, asked his programming