By Larry LeMasters
As westerns go, Gunsmoke is, probably, the most collected television western ever filmed. Gunsmoke’s radio show ignited a passion, but it took the hour-long television show to truly capture the hearts and imaginations of millions of Americans. At the end of Gunsmoke’s run in 1975, Los Angeles Times columnist Cecil Smith wrote: "Gunsmoke was the dramatization of the American epic legend of the west.