From the James Arness Web Site

[Maxwell]

In this month's greeting on his web site, http://www.jamesarness.com, James Arness talks about the upcoming 50th anniversary of Gunsmoke's premier episode. Here's a brief excerpt talking of the effect it had on TV:

"During the early 1960’s there were 31 Westerns on TV and for four years in a row Westerns claimed the top three spots in the ratings. Before that it was all comedies like “I Love Lucy”, “Jack Benny Show”, “George Gobel” and many others. When Gunsmoke came out it was considered the first adult western and it has been shown on TV ever since 1975."

Nice to see the Benny show get a mention. It is also notable that Jack outlasted all but a few of those westerns.