In its final season of 1974-1975, Gunsmoke was still rated in the top 30. Just two seasons before, it was in the top 10. So there had to be reasons besides ratings it was cancelled. What accounts have you heard why it got cancelled, and was there any push to give it a 21st season.

I'd say either the actors didn't want to continue or the network simply decided to end it on a high note plus by 1975 westerns were on the outs in favor of police shows and urban based sitcoms.

In its final season of 1974-1975, Gunsmoke was still rated in the top 30. Just two seasons before, it was in the top 10. So there had to be reasons besides ratings it was cancelled. What accounts have you heard why it got cancelled, and was there any push to give it a 21st season.

I can tell you exactly why Gunsmoke was cancelled:

It was reaching the wrong demographic group by the 1974-1975 season, its last.

Older viewers were watching it, not the younger ones CBS was wanting to
attract. It was decided to end it after an astounding 20 year run, which for
a drama only Law And Order (NBC) came close to reaching (sorry The
Simpsons and 60 Minutes doesn't count, they weren't dramas).
Incidentally, Murder She Wrote (CBS) starring Angela Lansbury was
cancelled after 10 years for a similar reason in the 80's, as was
Gene Barry's 1994-1995 revival of his 60's crime drama Burke's Law
(created by Aaron Spelling).

Trivia: CBS almost cancelled Gunsmoke in 1967. However then President
Lyndon B. Johnson stated that he liked it so CBS decided to cancel
Gilligan's Island after 3 seasons so Gunsmoke could replace it in its
night and time slot. Much to the disappointment of Gilligan's Island
fans, no doubt.

Gunsmoke was also a victim of the anti-TV violence crusade of the
60's along with shows like Wild Wild West (my personal favorite BTW)
and Rat Patrol which ended up cancelled because they were deemed
by certain special-interest groups "too violent" (waah....). The most
obvious change was the elimination of James Arness as Marshal Matt
Dillon's fast-draw against an unseen opponent sequence prior to the
opening credits that was in the majority of the seasons before the
late 60's (don't remember exactly when they did that). It was then
replaced in the remaining seasons by footage of Matt riding his horse.
Also, when Matt had to defend himself against an outlaw in those
episodes, instead of shooting in self-defense he would say, "Hold it!"
or "Drop it!" (which was silly to me) then shoot his antagonist if the
aforementioned bad guy refused to cooperate. One of the dumbest
things in network television besides making James West an unarmed
secret agent taking away his six-shooter in Season 4 of that series
in my opinion. Big WWW fan here (and Black Sheep Squadron).

^^I think this implies that the younger demographic must have gotten bored with Gunsmoke and wanted something fresh and new.

Also, that same season (1974-75), Mannix ranked 20th for the season, and was cancelled after that same season. To this day, I still couldn't find a verified reason why Mannix was cancelled.

I can tell you exactly why Gunsmoke was cancelled:

It was reaching the wrong demographic group by the 1974-1975 season, its last.

Older viewers were watching it, not the younger ones CBS was wanting to
attract. It was decided to end it after an astounding 20 year run, which for
a drama only Law And Order (NBC) came close to reaching (sorry The
Simpsons and 60 Minutes doesn't count, they weren't dramas).
Incidentally, Murder She Wrote (CBS) starring Angela Lansbury was
cancelled after 10 years for a similar reason in the 80's, as was
Gene Barry's 1994-1995 revival of his 60's crime drama Burke's Law
(created by Aaron Spelling).

Trivia: CBS almost cancelled Gunsmoke in 1967. However then President
Lyndon B. Johnson stated that he liked it so CBS decided to cancel
Gilligan's Island after 3 seasons so Gunsmoke could replace it in its
night and time slot. Much to the disappointment of Gilligan's Island
fans, no doubt.

Gunsmoke was also a victim of the anti-TV violence crusade of the
60's along with shows like Wild Wild West (my personal favorite BTW)
and Rat Patrol which ended up cancelled because they were deemed
by certain special-interest groups "too violent" (waah....). The most
obvious change was the elimination of James Arness as Marshal Matt
Dillon's fast-draw against an unseen opponent sequence prior to the
opening credits that was in the majority of the seasons before the
late 60's (don't remember exactly when they did that). It was then
replaced in the remaining seasons by footage of Matt riding his horse.
Also, when Matt had to defend himself against an outlaw in those
episodes, instead of shooting in self-defense he would say, "Hold it!"
or "Drop it!" (which was silly to me) then shoot his antagonist if the
aforementioned bad guy refused to cooperate. One of the dumbest
things in network television besides making James West an unarmed
secret agent taking away his six-shooter in Season 4 of that series
in my opinion. Big WWW fan here (and Black Sheep Squadron).
it was CBS president William S. Paley who liked GUNSMOKE and had CBS renew it in 1967, not President Lyndon Johnson. And they canceled GILLIGANS ISLAND and the sitcom RUN BUDDY RUN in it's place.

Well I was born in 1969 so I was a very young boy when Gunsmoke was on in its last few seasons and I loved watching it and was very sad when it was taken off the air! Even though I was the "wrong" demographic to be watching it LOL. But at that age I loved anything to do with westerns and cowboys and horses.

But hey, the show had run for 20 seasons and I'm sure they were probably about out of stories for episodes most likely too.

Ed.

I'd say either the actors didn't want to continue or the network simply decided to end it on a high note plus by 1975 westerns were on the outs in favor of police shows and urban based sitcoms.

Amanda Blake had already quit the show.

And by that time the quality of the writing was slipping.

Also, that same season (1974-75), Mannix ranked 20th for the season, and was cancelled after that same season. To this day, I still couldn't find a verified reason why Mannix was cancelled.

Mannix was cancelled because Paramount Television, the producer, made a deal with ABC to air reruns of the show in late night while CBS was still airing new episodes. CBS was pissed and cancelled the show in retaliation.

Jim Arness claimed that he was surprised by the cancellation; that he was expecting Gunsmoke to run for three more seasons.

The mid and late 70's was the era of cop/ detective shows, science fiction, sitcoms with a least one cute adorable kid or teen heartthrob, and good old boy shows getting canceled when it did was a good thing.

I think once Amanda Blake left it wasn’t the same gunsmoke, I didn’t like when Chester left

I think Gunsmoke is the best western series of all time, and in my opinion it's not even close.

A danger sign for an older series is a slow and steady decline in viewership. With respect to this point, Gunsmoke lost about five and a half million viewers over three years. That danger sign coupled with the fact that other programming was ready to go left Gunsmoke vulnerable. In addition, Arness had reduced his workload over the years so in many of the episodes he had either a small part or didn't appear at all.

Gunsmoke was my mom's favorite western and a great show but its cancellation was a sign of changing times. It started when I Love Lucy was still on, Rock and Roll was "dangerous" and Elvis hadn't made his national appearance yet. It ended when Disco was prevalent and family comedies were making way for more controversial shows.

Gunsmoke was my mom's favorite western and a great show but its cancellation was a sign of changing times. It started when I Love Lucy was still on, Rock and Roll was "dangerous" and Elvis hadn't made his national appearance yet. It ended when Disco was prevalent and family comedies were making way for more controversial shows.
also, when it started westerns were a big ratings grabber and by 1975, they weren't anymore.

also, when it started westerns were a big ratings grabber and by 1975, they weren't anymore.

True they had seen the best of times by the time it was canceled. Were any westerns still on by them? I know Little House on the Prairie was but that to me wasn't a western really.

True they had seen the best of times by the time it was canceled. Were any westerns still on by them? I know Little House on the Prairie was but that to me wasn't a western really.

there was the syndicated show "DUSTYS TRAIL "but I don't know if that counts since it was a sitcom. And I also don't consider "LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRARIE" to be a western.

Jim Arness claimed that he was surprised by the cancellation; that he was expecting Gunsmoke to run for three more seasons.

Really? Could anyone have imagined Gunsmoke continuing to air first-run in 1980? I know I can't. Also, anyone think it was a mistake to continue Gunsmoke past 1967, ratings aside?

The show would've had to jump the shark of Happy Days proportions for it to have lasted any longer.

James Arness was pretty much over it by the time it ended. In his autobiography, he said there were weeks where he wouldn't show up at work and they'd have to constantly re-write scripts because they didn't know when he would want to work. He used to go surfing at the beach a lot. He also said if he didn't appear in an episode he wouldn't get paid. He used to skip the entire week and show up on Friday afternoon to make sure he got in the episode. A lot of times, he didn't even have a line to say. He just randomly walked through a scene to make sure he was in the episode and got paid.

Was he burned out or just got lazy.

The series was cancelled because it ran for 20 years and had already lost Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) as a main character and the writing was not as good in the later years as it was during the early years. I think it finished its natural course, and by the mid 70s Westerns were no longer the popular type of show. During the mid 70s the popular dramas were the Crime Dramas like Barretta, Starsky and Hutch, The Rockford Files, Police Woman, The Rookies, Columbo etc., the era of the Westerns were gone. I grew up during the 70s and saw Westerns lose their popularity in favor of Crime Dramas.

Yep they replaced the shoot'em up brawl a minute westerns with shoot'em up brawl a minute car chase per episode crime dramas ironic isnt it.

I want to ask this right now: What if Gunsmoke had stayed cancelled after season 12? That would have meant Gilligan's Island sticking around for another couple of seasons. After that, there would have to be a sitcom that ran on CBS between 1969 and 1975. Plus, would the Rural Purge be any different with Gunsmoke gone?

I want to ask this right now: What if Gunsmoke had stayed cancelled after season 12? That would have meant Gilligan's Island sticking around for another couple of seasons. After that, there would have to be a sitcom that ran on CBS between 1969 and 1975. Plus, would the Rural Purge be any different with Gunsmoke gone?

I don't think Gunsmoke had much effect on the Rural Purge. It was originally cancelled before it and then after. In general, the rural purge happened because CBS didn't want a lot of rural viewers, they wanted city folks mainly. Not just that but they wanted younger viewers and these shows also skewed older. This is why the Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres for example begat All In The Family and Mash. The whole rural purge was a bit misleading because for one many of the shows weren't rural by any means (such as Family Affair and the Ed SUllivan Show). Also, many of these shows were losing steam when they were cancelled. True some were still hits but it's not as clear as it seems.

Was there any consideration of rumors of Gunsmoke moving to another network upon its near-cancellation by CBS in 1967? If that's true, it probably would have had to be ABC, because I don't see Gunsmoke airing on the same network as Bonanza (NBC). There'd probably have to be a change in the production company if that happened, since Gunsmoke was an in-house production of CBS. And how long would Gunsmoke have lasted on its new network if it went ahead with such a change?

In its final season of 1974-1975, Gunsmoke was still rated in the top 30. Just two seasons before, it was in the top 10. So there had to be reasons besides ratings it was cancelled. What accounts have you heard why it got cancelled, and was there any push to give it a 21st season.

Look up "Rural Purge", and you will find all the answers.

In a nutshell it was determined that these shows were popular among the older demographics because the shows tended to isolate themselves from contemporary problems.

While it was determined that 26-35 year olds were the age group most likely to be buying new refrigerators, and the like.

So, despite the ratings enjoyed by the old rural shows, they were axed in favor of chasing the spending power of urban young adults.

As a side note, I guess that explains all the commercials pumping medications, protective undergarments, and reverse mortgages on the shows that I like. :D

'Gunsmoke' Ending Explained: Does the Classic TV Western Go Out With a Bang? (https://collider.com/gunsmoke-ending-explained/)

The Emmy-winning Western starring James Arness, Milburn Stone, and Amanda Blake lasted for over 600 episodes.

An editor for ''Gunsmoke'' had this fiery opinion to share about the show's cancellation (https://www.metv.com/stories/an-editor-for-gunsmoke-had-this-to-say-about-the-shows-cancellation)

This screen editor was heated.

The Gunsmoke cast discovered that their show was cancelled in the trades (https://www.metv.com/stories/the-gunsmoke-cast-discovered-that-their-show-was-cancelled-in-the-trades)

"We didn't do a final, wrap-up show."

I want to ask this right now: What if Gunsmoke had stayed cancelled after season 12? That would have meant Gilligan's Island sticking around for another couple of seasons. After that, there would have to be a sitcom that ran on CBS between 1969 and 1975. Plus, would the Rural Purge be any different with Gunsmoke gone?

TV's Longest-Running Western Was Almost Canceled - But This Iconic Sitcom Bit The Bullet Instead (https://screenrant.com/gunsmoke-almost-canceled-gilligans-island-controversy/)

There was a time when Gunsmoke (https://screenrant.com/db/tv-show/gunsmoke/) was almost cancelled earlier than anticipated, but an iconic sitcom ended up being the one to get the axe instead.