After fifty-something years, I just realized...

[TerryMiller]

Supposedly Mat Dillon (James Arness) had never been on a horse before that casting and Ms. Kitty had been a real life hooker in Hollywood before that series. Lots of real stuff in the background world of make believe.

Actually, I need to check the dates, but a younger James Arness appeared in the John Wayne movie, "Hondo." Although, I can't actually recall if he was ever on a horse in Hondo. I'll have to go watch it. He might have been in one small period of the movie.

OK, I just checked. Hondo was filmed in 1953 and Gunsmoke started as a TV show in 1955. Gunsmoke actually started as a radio show ran from 1952 to 1961. William Conrad played Matt Dillon on the radio show.

 

[GnometownHero]

Otis T Bass at Mrs. Wylie's social gathering was pure comic genius.

"He's a nut"

 

[2busy]

Otis T Bass at Mrs. Wylie's social gathering was pure comic genius.

"He's a nut"

Earnest

 

[thor447]

I watched countless episodes of mash before someone told me about radar's gimp hand... Then I noticed they hid it well by using a clipboard, phone, etc.

James Doohan (a.k.a. - Scotty), the engineer in the original Star Trek is missing a finger. He lost it on Juno beach during the invasion of Normandy. He was an artilleryman in the Canadian army, and was accicentally hit with a Canadian machine gun after he took out two German snipers. He was hit four times in the leg, once in the finger, and once in a cigarette case, which spared him an otherwise fatal chest wound. After his recovery he became a pilot, flying light aircraft for the remainder of the war.

They do a good job of deliberately trying to hide his right hand on the series.