In 1955 when I first started working at CBS in the radio mimeo department, I was a lowly typist cutting stencils for CBS radio shows. I never directed a GUNSMOKE, but I too had a connection to it, although an earlier version. Later I was aware that this Playhouse alumnus was the producer of GUNSMOKE for ten of its twenty years on the air. He was a very fine actor and, more importantly, noted for being a second cousin of Mary Pickford. Thirty-one years earlier in 1947 when I entered the Pasadena Playhouse, John Mantley was one of the renowned students in the graduate class. In fact it was the first time I met him, but far from the first time I was aware of him. That was the first time I worked with executive producer John Mantley.
Frankly it was a romantic Gothic tale set in the post-Civil War period. THE SCAVENGERS was a good script, but it had little to do with the taming of the west. I would have cherished an opportunity to work on an Indian story in that earlier pioneer period. By this time in my career I had directed a couple of Indian stories (THE WARRIOR on THE WALTONS and THE INDIANS on LOU GRANT) set in the twentieth century. In my maturity when I read BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE, I remember that as I finished each chapter of that magnificent tome, I had to stop and recover emotionally before continuing.
#Gunsmoke the scavengers movie#
The movie westerns that I grew up viewing were far different. I was even more moved with the sensitive approach to the treatment of the Indians. I was very impressed with the feature film quality that had been produced on a television budget. In preparing this post, I viewed the original 2-hour pilot, THE MACAHANS, and the entire second season of HOW THE WEST WAS WON. Each episode was ninety minutes with a self-contained story.
#Gunsmoke the scavengers series#
When the series was renewed for its third season, the format changed. Interestingly HOW THE WEST WAS WON in its first two years as a regular series had a continuing story in its one-hour episodes. Aunt Molly was coming for a visit to help out the family in their time of need, but of course with the series’ renewals continuing to occur, she stayed on permanently. When the series was renewed for a second season, a major change took place Eva Marie Saint, playing Kate Macahan, the mother of four children, bowed out, and Fionnula Flanagan, playing Kate’s sister, Molly, arrived by stagecoach from Chicago. It too was a huge ratings success, and ABC scheduled a continuation of the saga as a regular series for the following season. Its airing was a ratings success, and ABC scheduled a mini-series featuring the Macahan family for the following year, but reverted to its original title - HOW THE WEST WAS WON. It was so successful that in 1976 MGM, continuing the story of the taming of the west, produced a 2-hour pilot for ABC, THE MACAHANS.
Filmed in Cinerama, it took three major Hollywood directors to guide the twenty-two stars headlining its five episodes. In 1962 MGM produced an epic-Western for theatrical release suggested by the LIFE magazine series, “How the West Was Won”. The series had a fascinating gestation history. Late in 1978 I was booked to direct an episode of HOW THE WEST WAS WON, a 90-minute weekly series produced at my old stomping grounds in Culver City, MGM.
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