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It's curious how few people talk about "Gunsmoke" in the 2020s, seeing as it was the biggest show of all time for decades. Indeed, until 2019, "Gunsmoke" held a record for being the longest-running scripted primetime American TV series ever. (It's since been beaten by "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.") The "Gunsmoke" TV series debuted in 1955 and ran strong for 635 episodes over the course of 20 full seasons. It finally drew to a close in 1975, but even then, the franchise wasn't done. Five additional "Gunsmoke" TV movies were produced from 1987 to 1994, with James Arness playing the stalwart Marshal Matt Dillon pretty much throughout the property's televised run.

And that's nothing to say of the nine seasons of "Gunsmoke" that ran as a radio serial. The radio show aired from 1952 to 1961 and starred William Conrad as Dillon. The show's creators Norman Macdonnell and John Meston couldn't have possibly predicted the success of their Western,...

In the 1950s and '60s, television Westerns were all the rage. Each of the Big Three networks had their fair share of horse operas, with one of the biggest being Gunsmoke. The highly-popular Western program ran for a total of 20 seasons on CBS and eventually wrapped up in 1975. However, considering how long the show lasted on the network, it isn't surprising that a spin-off spawned from the original series. Titled Dirty Sally, this program starred Jeanette Nolan as "Dirty" Sally Fergus (called so her for her vagabond appearance) and Dack Rambo as Cyrus Pike, two characters who first appeared in the aforementioned Western.

Dallas actors have largely avoided tragic deaths, allowing fans to remember the original show fondly. Unlike other soap operas, Dallas has a manageable cast, making it easier for viewers to keep track of characters. Dallas characters, like J.R. Ewing played by Larry Hagman, have left a lasting impact on viewers.

Though the show premiered over four decades ago, there have thankfully not been a significant number of Dallas actors who have died. Dallas, the CBS prime-time soap opera, first premiered in 1978 and lasted until 1991 with 14 seasons centering on the Texas-set rivalry between sworn enemies the Ewing and Barnes families. As the series progresses, oil tycoon J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) becomes the focal point of the story, but each character has plenty of screen time to make an impact.

Dallas was rebooted in 2012 for three seasons, but it's the original show that is so fondly remembered. Unlike similar soap operas,...

1957: As the World Turns' Edith considered leaving Oakdale.

1985: Finola Hughes debuted as Anna Devane on General Hospital.

1987: Jack Deveraux first appeared on Days of our Lives.

2008: All My Children's Jesse remembered his late friend Jenny."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1957: On As the World Turns, Chris (Don MacLaughlin) and Pa (Santos Ortega) discussed John Hughes, who ran away from the Hughes farm 18 years earlier. Meanwhile, Edith (Ruth Warrick) didn't want to rehash the past with Jim. Later, Pa encouraged Edith to...

1956: As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiered on CBS.

1971: ABC aired the final episode of Dark Shadows.

1978: Primetime soap opera Dallas premiered on CBS."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1951: Hawkins Falls, a primetime dramedy in 1950 returned as 15-minute five-days-a-week daytime soap opera on NBC titled Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel, created by Roy Winsor and Doug Johnson. Its large cast of "townspeople" included Frank Dane, Bernadine Flynn, Ros Twohey, Hope Summers and Barbara Berjer. Produced and directed by Ben Park, it ran four years.

1979: Guiding Light's Jackie wanted Alan to keep her secret.

1980: J.R. Ewing was shot on the third season finale of Dallas.

2005: Amelia Heinle debuted as Victoria on Young and the Restless.

2011: Jake Spencer died on General Hospital."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into d ifferent and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1952: On Search for Tomorrow, Irene wanted to visit her son, Keith Barron (John Sylvester White), who was in critical condition at the hospital. But her husband, Victor (Cliff Hall), felt that Irene had better not see Keith just yet.

World AIDS Day takes place on December 1st each year. It's an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Founded in 1988, World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day. Globally, there are an estimated 36.7 million people who have the virus. Despite the virus only being identified in 1984, more than 35 million people have died of HIV or AIDS, making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.

Today, scientific advances have been made in HIV treatment, there are laws to protect people living with HIV and we understand so much more about the condition. World AIDS Day is important because it reminds the public and government that HIV has not gone away – there is still a vital need to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education.

1965: Four new daytime soap operas premiered: Morning

Star and Paradise Bay on NBC, along with The Nurses and

Never Too Young on ABC."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1962: Primetime serial The Nurses premiered on CBS. The was titled was changed to The Doctors and The Nurses a year later.

1965: Two new Ted Corday daytime soap operas, Morning Star and Paradise Bay, premiered on NBC. Both shows lasted less than a year, with the final episodes airing on July 1, 1966.

1965: The Nurses premiered on ABC. The show, set at Alden General Hospital, was a daytime continuation...

1978: Gary and Valene Ewing returned to Dallas.

1984: Primetime soap Paper Dolls premiered on ABC.

1986: One Life to Live's Jessica Buchanan was born.

2011: All My Children aired for the final time on ABC."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1942: On radio soap opera Clara, Lu & Em, Clara (Fran Allison) was sick.

1969: On The Doctors, Mike Powers (Peter Burnell) picked up Julie Forrest (Ginger Gerlach) at the train station, and brought her to his parent's home. Julie told Matt (James Pritchett) and Maggie (Lydia Bruce) about her upbringing.

1975: On Ryan's Hope, Jillian Coleridge (Nancy...

2009: CBS aired the final episode of Guiding Light."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1967: Love is a Many Splendored Thing premiered on CBS. The network, which hadn't premiered a soap in seven years, enlisted Irna Phillips in adapting a serial very loosely from a famous novel and movie. Love is a Many Splendored Thing concerned the in-laws of the book's protagonist Mark Elliot, who intermarried with other surrounding families in San Francisco. A stylish and refreshing story, it was a fabulous stepping stone for David Birney, Donna Mills and Leslie Charleson, all beautiful and talented young performers.

Tab Hunter, the 1950s epitome of the blond Hollywood heartthrob and teen icon pin-up, whose career included early A-list fare like Damn Yankees! and Battle Cry to later (much later) cult classics Polyester, Lust in the Dust, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and authorship of a memoir in part describing his life as a closeted gay movie star, has died. He was 86.

Hunter came out as gay with his 2005 autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star – later the basis for Jeffrey Schwarz’ 2015 Netflix documentary Tab Hunter Confidential – clearing up longstanding Hollywood rumors that. Since his ’80s resurgence in the John Waters and Paul Bartel films costarring Divine, Hunter had relaxed into a more self-amused, even self-deprecating attitude about the vast chasm between the man born Arthur Gelien in 1931 and the teen idol manufactured and rechristened Tab Hunter by Henry Willson, the agent behind such creatively named Hollywood hunks as Rock Hudson,...

1951: A daytime version of Hawkins Falls premiered.

1956: As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiered

on CBS. 1971: ABC aired the final episode of Dark Shadows."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1951: Hawkins Falls, a primetime dramedy in 1950 returned as 15-minute five-days-a-week daytime soap opera on NBC titled Hawkins Falls: A Television Novel, created by Roy Winsor and Doug Johnson. Its large cast of "townspeople" included Frank Dane,...

1957: As the World Turns' Edith considered leaving Oakdale.

1985: Finola Hughes debuted as Anna Devane on General Hospital.

1987: Jack Deveraux first appeared on Days of our Lives.

2008: All My Children's Jesse remembered his late friend Jenny."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1957: On As the World Turns, Chris (Don MacLaughlin) and Pa (Santos Ortega) discussed John Hughes, who ran away from the Hughes farm 18 years earlier.

1979: Guiding Light's Jackie wanted Alan to keep her secret.

1980: J.R. Ewing was shot on the third season finale of Dallas.

2005: Amelia Heinle debuted as Victoria on Young and the Restless.

2011: Jake Spencer died on General Hospital."Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they are produced by men who ever have been, and ever shall be, animated by the same passions, and thus they necessarily have the same results."

― Machiavelli

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1952: On Search for Tomorrow, Irene wanted to visit her son,...

Once upon a time, Peru was the Mecca for some international film production companies that wanted to shoot their films in our supposedly “exotic” locations. During the late 80s and early 90s, that honor belonged to legendary schlock producer Roger Corman who, coincidentally, returned to my home country last year to shoot his latest —and probably bloodiest and corniest— Death Race movie. But that’s a story for another time. Ultra Warrior is the movie I’m focusing on this time. Starring awesomely-named Dack Rambo (who sadly passed away from AIDS in 1994), Clare Beresford, and a significant number of well-known Peruvian actors (well, at least they’re famous to us Peruvians) such as Orlando Sacha, Ramon Garcia (fans of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Young Pope might be familiar with him), Diego Bertie, Carlos Cano (a great actor who unfortunately passed away...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Lucille LeSueur, Leroy Harold Scherer, Jr. Frances Gumm. You'll be forgiven if you don't immediately recognize the birth names of Joan Crawford, Rock Hudson, and Judy Garland respectively. It's not unusual for people to reinvent themselves when they reach Hollywood. In fact, Hudson's agent Henry Willson had a factory of actors in the '50s who came to Hollywood with small-town names and ended up with larger-than-life personas like Tab Hunter, Guy Madison, and Dack Rambo. Which is why it doesn't come as a surprise that in THR's latest vanilla round table, when potential Oscar nominee Brie Larson (for Room) talks about what led her to become an actress, she glosses over her 2005 pop album Finally Out of P.E.: I had started acting when I was 7, and I was always wrong. I would always get to the very end [of the audition process], but I wasn't a perfect package of...

By Lee Pfeiffer

If it's remembered at all, the 1970 WWII comedy Which Way to the Front? is generally attributed as being the film that ended Jerry Lewis' career as a leading man - at least for quite some time.  During the 1950s, Lewis' partnership with Dean Martin made them the kind of pop culture idols that would only be rivaled by The Beatles and Michael Jackson. If that sounds absurd, search out newsreel footage of the thousands of people that stormed their hotel in Times Square, causing police to close the vicinity as Dean and Jerry merrily tossed autographed photos to the crowd below. When Martin left the act, thus bringing about one of the longest feuds in show biz history, both men went on to enjoy a successful careers on their own. Martin's friendship with Frank Sinatra did much to keep him in the public eye until he...