Nao Kanzaki: Sorry for the unannounced brief leave of absence....

 

 I don't get sick all that often, as a matter of fact had only called in sick to work one day this year up until last Friday. But when I do fall ill it'll usually be a tad severe and since last Thursday night have spent about 70% of my time moaning in bed.... think the moaning was because I couldn't get Maria out of my mind! Am still not fully recovered and of course someone can't announce an illness when it comes so unexpectedly, bet the weather has something to do with it. Officially it's not Winter but you wouldn't know that from the calendar as it's been so brutal since mid-November and there's not much of a reprieve coming up. So I'm thinking by Friday should be able to begin back on some posts, will either have one then and if not two on Saturday. Everything I had planned on doing will be done but just a week or so later, would be nice to finish up the countdown to this year's faves list by the 24th. So if you can just hang in there for another few days I should be back to normal though what normal is for me is debatable. Hmmmm, is there truly anyone here who can top the figure of Maria and to me the answer is no! You'll be seeing more of her as the final post of the year will feature her and have one other tidbit after some of her sweltering photos....

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 Don't think I'll be keeping that "My Current Watches" a regular series and just have them sporadically. Noticed it was starting to decide on what drams and films I would view and didn't want to see that continue. Want to view what I want to view and not because up next would be a post for dramas, it's more enjoyable deciding on movie to view at that moment instead of it already being chosen for you and does that make sense? So for the time being may just do a post here and there for what dramas I've been viewing, not recapping every episode but maybe two posts for an entire series but that wouldn't be until January. There is one truly iconic TV series I have never discussed here and when all is said and done it will be my #1 of all time by a country mile! You can see above the show I'm talking about is "Gunsmoke" and that's the DVD boxset I purchased fourteen months ago. It's the largest set I've ever seen and at $175 was also the most expensive one I'll ever end up buying!

 But it's well worth the price as there's 143 DVD's(!) and the episodes add up to be over 440 hours, that's not even including the special features! So while the price was quite the investment it was worth it, those 143 discs contain 635 episodes! I knew so little about the series which ran for twenty years, 1955 to 1975, but knew it was a Western and of course very popular. However I was always under the assumption it was a bit of a family drama with very little action, how wrong I was! So took a chance with this purchase and perhaps I should have played the lottery instead for it was my lucky day! While I've been ill just wrapped up season seven and while that may not sound like an achievement it certainly was as those seasons had 267 episodes.... only 368 more to go! TV episodes were much longer back in the 50's, 60's and to an extent the 70's. Episodes there days may only be 22/42 minutes long, back then they were 26/50 minutes in length! That decrease is due to there being so many commercials and I'm so glad I've never had cable with that being one of the main reasons. Below is Amanda Blake who played Miss Kitty on the show, she owned the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, Kansas. Things were much more conservative on TV sixty years ago but she was a bit of a vamp in this series and have to confess that she was such an attractive woman who did die a bit early at the age of sixty in 1989, at 66 inches she was a bit of a tallish woman. But you wouldn't know that for the main star Matt Dillon was played by James Arness who was 79 inches tall and back then that was the height of Basketball centers.

 Of course I will highly recommend this series but know it's not easy spending that kind of money on a DVD boxset. There is so much info out there on the series and sure you could stream it but I prefer hard copies of things. Did mention the series took place in Dodge City, Kansas which is a real city and back in the 1870's and 80's was known as a very rough city however the Marshal was even tougher! Marshal Dillon was a very fair man but wouldn't stand for any antics, in the 635 episodes he did kill 470 men(!) but they were all done in self defense or to save someone. For the first seven seasons his deputy has been Chester Goode, kind of inept at times but I like that character the best. Dennis Weaver played Chester and he left the show at the end of the eight season so that'll bum me out when I wrap up that season which I may start tonight.

 The first eleven seasons were in B&W, season twelve was the first in color and that began in September 1966. So that may be such a shock to me seeing everything with the biggest shocker perhaps being the color of Amanda Blake's hair which in real life was red. Considering how many killings there were in the show "Gunsmoke" was so popular yet it never had a lot of violence and what I enjoy immensely is how Good triumphs over Evil! It was #1 in the ratings seasons three through six, even by season fifteen it was still the second most viewed show of the year which was 1969/70. That's enough babbling from me about this historic series and glad I took such a gamble when I grabbed this massive boxset. This was the second Western series boxset I purchased, the first was "Have Gun, Will Travel" and that too is one I highly recommend. Not going to have a video but there are so many on YT, so many it's impossible to choose just one.