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Milburn Stone believed that Miss Kitty was the glue that held the Gunsmoke characters together
"If ever a show had all the ingredients for trouble, it's ours," said the actor.
They say teamwork makes the dream work, and nowhere is that truer than in the Gunsmoke cast. Think about it: someone had to have done something right along the way for a show to last as long as Gunsmoke did.
As it turns out, the makings of the Gunsmoke cast seem comparable to the stars aligning. Viewers were somehow gifted with a seemingly never-ending supply of talented actors to play their favorite Western characters. From Festus Hagan to the man himself, Marshall Matt Dillon, you could scarcely get a bad word out about the acting on Gunsmoke before you'd be shouted down.
Milburn Stone, who played Doc Adams on the hit series, had his theories about why the show was so successful. For Stone, it had nothing to do with how much viewers loved the characters on screen. He believed that when watching the series, fans could see how genuine the actors were, and latched onto it.
"The public senses it and they respond," said Stone during an interview with the Belvidere Daily Republican. "Jim Arness is the most honest, least hypocritical man I've ever met. Sure, he's quiet, he's a loner. That's his right. Sure, he's lazy. On Jim, it looks good."
But perhaps even more important than Arness was Amanda Blake, who played Miss Kitty. The sole woman in a room full of men, Miss Kitty often acted as a grounding force.
"If ever a show had all the ingredients for trouble, it's ours," said Stone. "Here's one gal with three tough characters. And let me tell you, she's a master at pulling in the reins before any rough stuff or any rough talk can get out of hand...Sure, we get into our ruckus. But, somehow, it's always Miss Kitty who eases the tension by finding something humorous in the situation and breaking into that marvelous lumberman's laugh of hers."
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