Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1955)

in the United States alone. "In a weekly series, you have to have actors in the continuing roles who are real and natural. If anything, they must underplay, yet never become boring to the television viewer," Mr. Warren explained. "We spent a lot of money and exposed a lot of film, but we finally secured a group of motion picture actors with stage backgrounds who were 'naturals' for our series — James Arness as Marshal Dillon, Dennis Weaver as his assistant, Amanda Blake as his girl, and Milburn Stone as 'Doc,' the medico of Dodge City," he added. The Warren and Stabler team worked overtime to make the locale of Gunsmoke, a re-created Dodge City, as realistic as possible. They scouted today's Kansas community, then spent weeks searching for location sites in the vicinity of Hollywood. Settling on Placeritas Ranch for exterior street shooting, they signed art director Nikolai Remisoff to design an indoor set at California Studios which would match exactly the Placeritas street. The indoor set measured 12,000 sq. ft., one of the largest on the Coast. Result: a set costing $34,000, then believed the most expensive ever to be built for a television film series. An unusual departure is that the fronts and walls of buildings on the street are built on rollers so any wall can be removed to make room for the cameras. Although those connected with the Gunsmoke series would not reveal the cost of each weekly segment, a check of advertising agency and tv men in Hollywood estimates the average weekly cost to run about $38,500. Both Messrs. Warren and Stabler are sticklers for long-range planning and believers in the old "haste makes waste" adage. As a result, writers were put to work by Mr. Warren early in the project to permit script breakdowns to be prepared months in advance by Mr. Stabler's right-hand man and Filmaster's production manager, Glenn Cook. By June 20 of this year, actual start of continuous production, the first 26 scripts had been completed. All 39, the first year's stockpile, had been turned over to Filmaster by the time Gunsmoke went on the air. All told, $135,000 had been tallied on the Gunsmoke cost sheets in terms of production and writing charges before a single foot of raw film stock had been exposed on the actual series, again believed a new high for advance expenditures for a tv film project. The Gunsmoke series is not filmed in a hurry, either. Mr. Warren rehearses his actors and crew for the first two days of the week and shoots the next three. Saturdays are taken up with staff production meetings at which the next three segments are discussed in terms of script, wardrobe, sets and casting. Sunday is a day of rest for all except Mr. Warren, who rehearses his own producer-director's role on the stage all by himself for much of the day. The usual approach to westerns is not found in the Gunsmoke series for the very reason Producer-Director Warren and Production Chief Stabler see red when the series is called a "western." "Gunsmoke is a series of dramatic episodes set against the background of the ON LOCATION (I to r): Production manager Glenn Cook, producer-director Charles Marquis Warren and Filmaster president Robert Stabler. western frontier," Mr. Warren says. "Actually, with but minor changes, these stories could have taken place before or after their chronological locale and at many different areas than their geographic locales. "Chiefly, our series differs from the majority since it eliminates formula and cliche. Our protagonist, Marshal Dillon, isn't always the hero, nor is he always in the right. In one story, he is outdrawn and shot by a heavy. In another he tries to save a man's life by amputating his leg, but the man dies, notwithstanding. In still another, Dillon tracks down a man he suspects of a murder, is proven by the suspect to be mistaken, is forced to return to Dodge City minus shoes and gun to admit his mistakes. "Rather "unusual to find the hero in these predicaments? Yes. But the fact is that Dillon still remains a heroic figure as a believable human being, big enough on the one hand to retain authority through toughness and big enough on the other to admit his non-infallibility." WHAT'S IN A NAME? A SUCCESSFUL CAR BUSINESS, FOR ONE THING, IF YOU TIE IN WITH TV LIKE THESE TWO DID AMOS 'N' ANDY are in the car business in Maryville, Tenn. They're selling new Buicks and used cars . . . more of them than ever before, thanks to television. That's Amos and Andy Trotter, owners of Maryville's Amos 'n' Andy Buick Co. and sponsors of the filmed Amos 'n' Andy Show on WATE-TV Knoxville. The Trotters have used their given names in their business ventures since 1937, when they founded the Amos 'n' Andy Service Station in Maryville, a city of 8,000. They retained the name when they entered the car business, and when television came along, naturally considered the Amos 'n' Andy Show their best possible advertising vehicle. The firm now spends $16,000 annually on tv advertising. All of this goes into their Amos 'n' Andy Show on WATE-TV. What do Tennessee's Amos 'n' Andy think of television? "Tv is the most natural medium for new and used car advertising we have ever found", says Andy Trotter, president. Although less than half of Amos 'n' Andy Buick ad budget goes into television, look at the results. Says Mr. Trotter: "Day in and day out, tv delivers the most direct response to our sales message of any medium we have ever used. For example, we sold eight new Buicks the other day, and every single customer told us how much they enjoyed the Amos 'n' Andy program." The show has been on WATE-TV for the past 15 months and recently was renewed. Said Amos Trotter: "Tv has a permanent part of our advertising budget because for every dollar spent it sells more Buicks, more used cars and more good will, than any other medium we use." AMOS 'N' ANDY Trotter (r to I) before their place of business. Page 42 • September 26, 1955 Broadcasting • Telecasting