How Good Was "Gunsmoke" *Creatively* After 1967?

[James28]

How good was Gunsmoke creatively after it was saved from cancellation and moved to Mondays in 1967?

Ordinarily, the longer a scripted broadcast TV show runs, the more tired it gets generally, both in the ratings and creatively. Gunsmoke had descended to the bottom end of the Year End Nielsen Top 30 by the mid-1960s, and even slipped to 34th place at its twelfth season in 1966-67. but widespread viewer reaction prevented its demise, including a mention in Congress and pressure from Babe Paley, the wife of CBS's longtime president William S. Paley.

The sitcom Gilligan's Island being cancelled after its third season opened up a slot for Gunsmoke, with the Western relocating to the Monday lead-off slot, where it would experience a ratings resurgence, its annual averages hovering around 25 and ranking in the Year-End Top Five for the next five broadcast seasons (reaching as high as #2 in 1969-70 and averaging a 26.0 in 1971-72, after the Rural Purge) After season 18, Gunsmoke began to slip out of the Nielsen Top Ten, and by the time of its cancellation in 1975 after its twentieth year, it had descended to 28th place, and that season's average rating was still barely above a 20.

But there are some people out there wondering how good Gunsmoke was creatively after season 13 and 1967-68, especially in its final two years on the air, after it had slipped from the Nielsen Top Ten.