Gunsmoke was an adult western and was the creation of writer, John Meston, and producer, Norman Macdonnell. With CBS Chairman William S. Paley in their camp, Macdonnell and Meston had a strong ally in creating their version of a gritty, authentic Western that eschewed the established Western pathos that had been set forth in such “juvenile” Western adventure radio programs like The Lone Ranger, Straight Arrow, Hopalong Cassidy, and The Cisco Kid that featured neat and tidy resolutions at the end of each half-hour show. While an argument can be made that The Cisco Kid was more “adult” in nature since almost every episode featured Cisco giving a passionate kiss to the damsel in distress of the moment, once all the action had settled down after the bad guys had been soundly defeated; neither Macdonnell and Meston wanted the stories they told to end with a neat and tidy happy ending with a near perfect hero. They also wanted their edgy — for the era &mdsah; program to center around a flawed hero who made numerous mistakes and negatively impacted the lives he became involved with. Listen to the Sparkling Audio Quality in Radio Archives restoration of Gunsmoke, Volume 5
