Prosperity Gospel, False Dialogue, Historical Analysis & Literature, 5

1948 was key to spreading the myth of the “old west” – Although there already were radio westerns for children, the first western series targeted at adults was conceived that year – Gunsmoke. The series, which started on the radio (Its hero was meant to be a “Philip Marlowe of the Old West,”¹) holds the record of longest-running US live-action show on US television.² In a JSTOR³ article I found, “Shots in the Dark: Television and the Western Myth,” historian Elliott West writes that, on …

...September 6, 1955, television fans saw the first episode of "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp," starring Hugh O'Brian. Four nights later John Wayne introduced the first half hour of "Gunsmoke," with James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon. Within two years, westerns dominated television to a degree never matched by any other type of program. By 1957, thirty-three westerns consumed one-third of all evening viewing time.

West’s article, in fact, says everything I had wanted to say in this entry, so I’ll quote it extensively.

All the easily-accessible content I can find praises Gunsmoke for its complex hero and other fairly adult characteristics. I think, however, that what “Shots in the Dark” says about all westerns applies to this series. It “… remained at heart an expression of the traditional frontier myth – that of the conquering march of pioneers across the new country.” Even if the praise of the series is warranted, it seems to have had the same effect as Alan Moore’s brilliant graphic novels that had, against his wishes, been adapted for the movies – As Watchmen and V for Vendetta granted artistic legitimacy to the domination of the silver screen by comic-book superheroes, so Gunsmoke granted it for the Western genre to propagandize the virtue of this “march” and the four “ideals” listed in the article:

1. [T]he televised frontier was a man’s world. Men were not just in control; they were responsible for all accomplishments and, indeed, all significant actions. … Even Miss Kitty of “Gunsmoke,” easily the least traditional woman in any western series, served Marshal Dillon mainly as conversationalist, nurse, and rescuee;
2. [P]ioneers of the picture tube were almost entirely of Anglo-Saxon origin. When other elements were allowed, they usually were used as dashes of color in the writers’ desperate search for something-anything-to make a plot different. … If sturdy pioneers had to grapple with many challenges, learning to live with a diversity of cultures and beliefs was not one of them;
3. [The necessity of violence in conflict-resolution.] The typical hero was a decent, compassionate, levelheaded, well-behaved sort who, when confronted with an unavoidable conflict, resolved it with violent and often fatal action; and
4. [Most basically,] In the West of t.v., problems were simple dichotomies solved through straightforward acts taken with absolute confidence. In this sense, talk of characters’ intricate motives was beside the point, for in that final, culminating moment, the hero brushed aside all complexities and settled the villain’s hash.

These days, Television is less important for propaganda than it was, although it is still the main way to access competitive sports – at least in a social setting – an access which serves some of the functions of Westerns.

Anyway, I found the below scene from The Apartment (1960) in the blog, Movies in Other Movies, and I thought it was an amusing way to put across the Western genre’s dominance at the time.

¹The reference from Wikipedia is (as of 10/29/23, 1:02PM EST): “Horwitz, Murray (March 31, 2019). ‘The Big Broadcast (radio show)’. WAMU. At exactly one hour into the four hour show. At one hour and thirty minutes host Horwitz cites interviews conducted on The Big Broadcast by former host John Hickman as his source for this information. Retrieved April 5, 2019.”

Following these instructions, I was not able to access this show, although I got this page — Every Google result that I found for the quote, “Philip Marlowe of the Old West” gave the same information without an original source. I have no reason to doubt its veracity, but if any of my readers finds something, please let me know. – Viola

²Some Law & Order series have had more seasons, but, the first time I checked, the Wikipedia page for Gunsmoke had said those series had fewer total episodes. As I started to write this post, on 10/29/23 at 2:02PM EST, it said that Law & Order SVU has more. Looking at the Law & Order SVU entry, it indicates that the SVU series has been continued, so has a good chance of catching up. – Viola

³This subject is apparently so controversial that the Wikipedia entry will likely be edited daily. I am therefore using JSTOR for most of my information. The quote is from “Shots in the Dark: Television and the Western Myth” in Montana The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Spring, 1988), pp. 72-76 (5 pages)