As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
We are in the process of reviewing all 20 years and movies of the CBS western, Gunsmoke. I tend to enjoy looking up actors and wonder how an early Brad Pitt in Glenn Corbitt never made it to super star status, while Pitt did. I enjoy the fate and direction of people's lives, as it seems cruel to most and not rewarding to enough.
I like studying who casts for movies and programs, as that is the gatekeeper of all careers, as you just do not end up on set, unless someone casts you in 99% of the cases.
The early Gunsmoke episodes revolved around a noted cast, which appeared in Have Gun Will Travel, which was the gold standard of acting. If you appeared with Richard Boone, you would appear in numbers of other programs, such as Hogan's Heroes, Gilligan's Island and Star Trek.
Gunsmoke was so much the gold standard that if you appeared there, chances are you would make people suffer for the next generation. The culprit for the modern torture of viewers was Pam Polifroni, who established a number of careers, some delightful and some not so delightful, but numbers of people got their start on Gunsmoke, and once there, the casting became a door that opened for others, even if some like Harrison Ford, somehow made it just standing around like a tree.
Nov 23, 2019 ... Pam Polifroni, a longtime casting director for “Gunsmoke” who gave early acting roles to Jodie Foster, Jon Voight, Loretta Swit and others, ...
Others to whom Polifroni provided early-career work included Genie Francis, Emilio Estevez, Meg Tilly, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Hopper, David Carradine, Sam Elliott, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfuss, Vic Morrow, Ted Danson and Bruce Boxleitner.
The early standard in casting was Lyn Stalmaster. This is the stable you witnessed appearing time and again on numerous programs. I think Gunsmoke had it 's best writing and acting in this period, although with the addition of Ken Curtis there were some very good episodes, as frankly Ken Curtis could pull of the horrendous task of acting with children and animals. Whether Curtis just had a talent for turning worthless children into actors, is a mystery, but some children like Clay O'Brien would set the standard on performances in showing his presence in the company with Jack Elam to John Wayne to George Kennedy. That kid could act times 10.
Series Casting By
| Lynn Stalmaster | ... | (318 episodes, 1955-1964) |
| Pam Polifroni | ... | (188 episodes, 1966-1975) |
| James Lister | ... | (154 episodes, 1958-1966) |
| Marilyn Howard | ... | (1 episode, 1974) |
Perhaps that is why some people never were able to break out, and yet they had platforms as Glenn Corbitt would star with John Wayne, appear on Gunsmoke and was a guest star on Star Trek, and yet he was never a Brad Pitt, when he was every bit the presence of those who became icons in the 1970's in movies. He certainly was better than Paul Newman and Robert Redford who pussies just gushed over.
Paliforni though was to blame for a number of major projects which did not work. It was her "red haired obnoxious Norman Rockwell children" which produced the worst episodes on Gunsmoke. Namely Ron Howard, as she did cast the two Howards who could act in Vance and Rance with success.
Opie was her choice on John Wayne's last movie which was The Shootist. The cast was big, Lauren Bacall and Jimmy Stewart, but they never fit the roles. The heavies were all Gunsmoke light and then she threw in that whining prick of Ron Howard, who everyone wanted to have a gun blow up in his face the first moment so he died, as nothing in that movie was typical of the John Wayne masterpieces for a decade.
So when bad casting is that, the horse comes trotting home but no one mentions that. Bad casting also ruined some very good actor's careers in holding them back, as she was quite lazy in the middle years of Gunsmoke when you were seeing the same actor as a heavy or a dope in every other episode. That got hard to watch as some actors made unlikable too much and you never stopped not liking them from the previous bad show.
I do believe numbers of casting directors on programs were lazy. They would see someone had been on Gunsmoke and so they got cast. The Producer would want this actor or actress to bed, and they would be cast in not fitting the role. Sometimes though Gunsmoke just ran out of ink, as far too often Steve Forest was raping Miss Kitty, Miss Kitty was in a stage coach crash or the other standby, some criminal was shot, Doc was kidnapped and a rescue takes place.
Gunsmoke was also one of the strangest series where the stars disappeared, and the program was taken over by guests. Sometimes Matt Dillon does not appear until the final 3 minutes. You never see that in any other program.
It is a reality that the Star not cast Falls.
Nuff Said
agtG
