Put Down the Badge and Have a Rest, Matthew

James Arness, best-known as Marshal Matt Dillon on the historic TV Western Gunsmoke, passed away earlier today at the age of 88.

Whenever our stay at my grandparents' home ran into the weekdays, we watched Gunsmoke, a regular on their TV schedule, almost as religiously as we did Hee Haw and Wild Kingdom on Saturday nights. Ken Curtis just had to open his mouth in order to get my grandpa to laugh, and sometimes he and grandma squabbled like Curtis's Festus and Milburn Stone's Doc Adams. Its cancellation in 1975 and replacement with two Mary Tyler Moore Show spinoffs, Rhoda and Phyllis, was not well-received in at least one household in the Kansas City suburbs.

The LA Times blog notes that even though Arness played other characters, he will probably always be Marshal Dillon. He began playing the character when he was in his 30s, which is difficult to believe even when you see the reruns -- he pretty much always looked like he was around 50 and shouldn't be trifled with. Arness carried the show throughout its 20-year history, with only one season -- 1967-1968 -- out of the top 30 in the ratings and only four out of the top 20.

Arness's death leaves Walter "Buck" Taylor III as the sole surviving longterm cast member. Taylor played Newly O'Brien, a gunsmith who later became an ally of Matt's and replaced him as the marshal of Dodge City when Matt retired, in some reunion movies filmed in the late 1980s and early 1990s.