Gunsmoke: The Complete Series

great price!

Love Gunsmoke. Every short episode is packed with drama, tightly written and beautifully acted. They don't make them like that any more!

Although we haven't watched all seasons yet...the quality of the film has totally blown me away! I think I am standing next to Matt or in the office with Chester-that is how HD these DVD's are. Now I don't know if it has something to do with my DVD player-but nevertheless-it is AMAZING! The retouching and re-doing of the films from 1955 are just AWESOME!!! A Great purchase! Also-it was an excellent price for all 20 seasons!

I promised myself I would not write a review until I finished watching the series. So after 166 days I have finished the 20 seasons, 143 discs and 635 episodes.I remember watching this with my father probably starting in 1960. My father was a big western buff and would be proud of my collection which includes shows like Have Gun Will Travel, Branded, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, Wanted: Dead or Alive and Rawhide and others. But Gunsmoke is the Crown Jewel of my Western collection.I have been wanting this series for years but the price was always hovering around $300-$400. I received this for my birthday when it was priced at $178.Gunsmoke was a series that aired between 1955-1975 starring James Arness as Matt Dillon, Milburn Stone as Doc, Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty, Dennis Weaver as Chester (1955-1964), Ken Curtis as Festus (1959-1975), Burt Reynolds as Quint (1962-1965) as well as a who's-who of hundreds of others who appeared as young actors who became stars throughout the 20 seasons.The first six seasons were 30 minutes episodes. Season Seven to Season Eleven became 60 minute episodes. And starting with Season Twelve the hour-long episodes were presented in Color.I have an 4K blu-ray player that I watched these with that upscale the picture and the picture looks outstanding, better than I remember. The current price at the time of this review is $148 which comes to about $7.40 a season. If purchased separately (that is if you could find individual seasons) would probably set you back about $400-$500.There are some special features which includes the characters doing commercials for sponsors of the series, breakdowns of the series by two authors of Gunsmoke books, photo galleries and previews of the upcoming episode (picture quality of these previews inferior...I guess that is where they saved money). The 5 Gunsmoke movies that were made between 1987-1993 are not included in this package.For any Western fan this is no-brainer. This is the Granddaddy of the western shows with a beautiful presentation. No problems with the big box it came in or the cases that store the discs. No scratches on the discs and everyone played perfectly ( a real accomplishment considering 143 discs.)P.S. I have purchased the 5 movies recently but have not watched them as of yet. Will review.

I started watching some of the hour-long episodes on a streaming channel and decided the show was so good that I wanted to go back to the beginning. I price-watched the complete series box set on Amazon and managed to get it for around $179, which was ultimately cheaper than trying to buy the show a few seasons at a time.It's a great set. The packaging is sturdy and all the discs are in good condition so far. I pulled out all the boxes and checked them on delivery and they were unbroken. I've watched through mid season four, and I've discovered that nearly every episode is a remake of one of the Gunsmoke radio episodes, so if you've heard those you'll often know how the plot is going to play out even if you've never seen the television version before. But it still feels different with the different cast, and the drama remains as gripping to watch as it was to listen to. I remain pleasantly surprised at just how good this show is. The writing and the acting are very strong, and though it's apparent that a number of scenes are in the studio while others are location shots, I'm used to that with older television shows and it doesn't take away from the enjoyment.Part of the fun of watching these for the first time is seeing so many familiar faces from television turning up in episode after episode. We're always playing "spot the actor" a few minutes after an episode begins. And many of them are younger than I'm used to.There's an episode missing from season 2, ""How to Cure a Friend", but I found it in the special features on one of the season four discs, so someone at CBS caught the omission. I haven't come across any other problems so far, but then I have a long way to go to watch this entire series. It's great to watch these episodes with no ads, in order, with great picture quality given the age of the material. I'd highly recommend this television series and recommend getting the full series if you can afford it.

Everythimg perfekt!

Nice high quality videos. I only have one beef with this item. The stupid numbering system used. Why not simply number them as they did on the first set of discs: Season 1 Disc 1, 2, 3, etc?For season two the discs are labeled differently, Season Two Disc One Volume One??? Huh??? Season one was not numbered like that. Dumb dumb dumb. And who ever thought that silver print on a silvery colored background would show up as readable by old eyes? The target audience for this series is probably 50 and over, I'm 77yo. And the cases these are 'stored' in is laughable. Why not paper sleeves in a small index type of box? It would be more compact and less likely to crack, which Season 1-4 has already.The audio and video quality exceeds that of any old TV's back in the day. Not many sound glitches yet, but I've only watched season 1 so far. On to season 2 and that bizarre numbering system they switched to after season 1. I just hope I can watch them in the right order.