This was the ''secret weapon'' that made Gunsmoke so good
"They ask me when I'm going to quit and all I can keep on saying is that I'm in this saddle until it wears out."
To have one of the most successful shows over the last few decades is no easy feat. However, once you're on top, everyone wants to know what your secret is, and how easily they can replicate it.
Such was the life for Gunsmoke, a show that managed to linger in the favorites of fans everywhere.
John Meston, who helped develop the program for television, was aware that the series was often imitated. However, in an interview, he argued that the "secret sauce" to Gunsmoke wasn't in the writing or the sets - it was in the people.
"Everybody has tried to copy Gunsmoke," said John Meston during an interview with Florida Today. "But what they don't realize is that the honesty of these people - Jim Arness, Dennis Weaver, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone - is the key. That is Gunsmoke's secret weapon."
Working on a set like Gunsmoke was heaven for both cast and crew alike, and it was a series that everyone involved was equally devoted to.
In an interview with The Duluth News Tribune, James Arness was pressed about how he felt on the precipice of the show's eleventh season in 1965.
"About the same as the tenth season, the ninth, the eighth," said Arness. "They ask me when I'm going to quit and all I can keep on saying is that I'm in this saddle until it wears out - or until I wear out the public."