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About the time Gunsmoke's Milburn Stone got into a brawl with his vaudeville act ''Stone and Strain''
"I’m not very proud of that. But it sure was a brawl," Stone said.
In 1967, Gunsmoke moved to a new time—a shift the cast and crew initially considered much worse, but a change nonetheless.
The move aimed to attract a larger audience, including younger viewers who were watching The Monkees, which aired just before Gunsmoke on Mondays at 7 p.m.
The move made sense in some ways, but for Milburn Stone, who played Doc Adams on Gunsmoke, the new time just didn’t click.
In a 1967 interview with the Democrat and Chronicle, Stone called it "silly" to try to compete with heartthrobs like The Monkees. At the time, The Monkees were one of the biggest music sensations, and their fan base rarely overlapped with that of Gunsmoke.
"I think it would be the most colossal mistake ever made," Stone said. "A Monkees audience wouldn’t watch a replay of the Crucifixion—that’s the kind of audience they are. All that would be accomplished by changing Gunsmoke would be the loss of the regular audience."
Despite his reservations about the schedule, Gunsmoke thrived... and survived, becoming one of the longest-running Westerns in TV history with 20 seasons.
Stone had nothing against musicians—or even The Monkees themselves. His issue was with the time slot. A music lover and musician himself, he appreciated good music when he heard it.
In fact, Stone played in a vaudeville group called "Stone and Strain." In the interview, he remembered a performance in a speakeasy, packed with drunks, flowing drinks... and a few punches.
"I went out to the bar and was holding my first drink when this little runt walked up," Stone said. "He didn’t say a word. He reached into a jar on the bar, grabbed a big handful of pretzels, and threw them right in my face."
"I asked him politely—well, almost politely—why he did it, and with that, he belted me right in the mouth," Stone continued. "Boy, what we did to that bar... what they did to me... I’m not very proud of that. But it sure was a brawl."
Stone’s vaudeville career enjoyed success despite moments like this. He was skilled at standing up for himself and for the projects he loved. While he enjoyed performing with Stone and Strain, he may have loved performing with the Gunsmoke cast even more.
"We all work together smoothly," Stone said. "We work hard to come up with just the right lines, spoken the way the characters themselves would say them."
Even if The Monkees were a tough act to follow, the loyalty of Gunsmoke’s audience and its cast, helped the series enjoy a long and successful run.
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