TV and Movies

[Oznell]

I believe I had read the same source as @Highlands72 ,  that they morphed the character of Miss Kitty in the TV show to, simply, shrewd, capable saloon owner, a role Amanda Blake played with gusto!

[FLgardener]

There are clearly posters here who have a much more scholarly insight to Kitty's past than what I remembered from watching in my childhood and off and on to this day. I stand enlightened.

[skatting44]

I do  have a few memories of watching  the series when I was young . Those days they aired   Paladin ( 1957) " Have Gun will Travel "   , The Rifleman ( 1958) , and Bonanza ( 1959)  . I aslo watched the reruns they aired from the 1940's of Hopalong Cassidy .

My siblings & I wore our western outfits  of hats and holsters and boots . 

It's hard to find a good newly made  western themed movie now a days .

[MimiLouise]

Enjoyed Chester more than Festus..... Gunsmoke reruns still on and will watch.  The stories are good and the ensemble cast of James Arness, Amanda Blake, Milburn Stone, and Dennis Weaver is the best.  

[depglass]

As far as I'm concerned the whole bunch of them were asexual and I prefer to keep them that way.  

[sceniccoast]

@Love my grandkids 

Umm, tough call.  They both played their roles well & were both helpful & had Matt's "back" when he was up against foes.  

I do think Festus had more "action" type roles than Chester.  

In answer to your question, I guess I lean towards Festus a bit more.  But, I did/do appreciate both of them.

I watched Gunsmoke years ago & again these days in reruns.  There's barely a day that goes by that I don't see at least one a day.  We have different times/day that they're on. 

Oh, by the way, I love The Virginian also. 

[denisemb]

Neither.  I would have preferred a Ms. Festus.

After all, Matt really didn't hook up with Ms. Kitty after all those years...

[jellyBEAN]

This is a fun question.  For me, it is definitely Chester.  I much prefer Dennis Weaver over the actor who played Festus.  To me Festus was too much of a hick, I didn't care for the way he spoke, or would squint his eyes and the way he'd dress.

I did like Burt Reynolds when he played the strong half-breed shoeing the horses and fixing the wagons.  As far as Doc goes, he'd always rub his 'stache whenever he started his scenes.  Or wiped his face in some way. 

And didn't the townspeople and bad guys all look SO OLD to be doing what they were doing?  I only watched the show in reruns and wound up with a crush on Matt Dillon.  He was the perfect sheriff.

[spursfan2]

Chester

[GoneButNotForgotten]

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@Love my grandkids wrote:

I totally disagree about Miss Kitty. She owned the Long Branch, was the boss of Sam and the saloon girls who basically entertained men and got them to buy drinks!

If you recall the time period this show was made, there is no way the TV censors would have allowed anything that even implied prostitution.

Even as a young kid I could tell there was affection between Matt and Kitty and always wished they would share a kiss, but alas, never did.

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In a sense, every scene beween Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty was a love scene. And wasn't there some controversy about a scene in which Matt Dillion was shown in a room with Miss Kitty in which he was putting on his boots--the implication that they were "in a relationship"?

And I remember when it switched from black and white to color because someone joked that when it was in black and white and there was a scene with blood it in, they used to say "get out your spoons!" because chocolate syrup was used as blood.
 

Speaking of prostitution, I recently read that women were NEVER allowed in saloons--they had to hang out outside.