I've been watching this on Encore Westerns (wish they'd put it on later; 7:00 is when we're having dinner and I can only see it when my brother cooks and my DVR can't record that channel):( and I'm wondering: when did Dennis Weaver leave the show?

...after nine seasons of being "Chester", Dennis wanted out. He didn't want to be typecast as the guy with the limp who kept calling out, "Mr. Dillon! Mr. Dillon!" every Saturday night [this is why he guest-starred in that May 1961 "TWILIGHT ZONE" episode "Shadow Play"- to prove he could portray another character different from "Chester"...and he did]. He left "GUNSMOKE" to star in his own NBC series, "KENTUCKY JONES", in the fall of 1964. Unfortunately, it lasted one season on early Saturday evenings (replaced by "I DREAM OF JEANNIE" in the fall of '65), and it was another five years before he finally established himself in a role all his own- "Marshal Sam McCloud".

:tv:

TV KNOWLEDGE FAN I'm CONSTANTLY amazed at all this information you have about TV!

So, he left in 1964?:confused:

...and yes, Dennis left "GUNSMOKE" after the 1963-'64 season. That's when Ken Curtis "succeeded" him as "Festus Haggen".


:typing:

TV KNOWLEDGE FAN I'm CONSTANTLY amazed at all this information you have about TV!

Likewise but I sometimes wish he would let us know what sources he gets the info from. :)

Likewise but I sometimes wish he would let us know what sources he gets the info from. :)
I e-mailed him a couple times and asked him; he claims he reads and surfs the web a lot, but I have a sucpision that that's not all and he's getting some info. from somewhere else but doesn't want to tell us.

Dennis Weaver starred on Gentle Ben before McCloud and although it only ran for 2 seasons, it was syndicated quite a bit in the late 1960's and 1970's. That's where I first became a fan of his. I was a regular watcher of McCloud too. I actually never saw him in any episode of Gunsmoke until the last decade because his episodes were never syndicated where I lived.