I realize the focus should be on 'The Rifleman', but since John Wayne was invoked yesterday for our tribute to Lucille Ball's 100th birthday, proper respect should be given to a TV Western in which he was involved. (Plus there's another good reason coming up later today.....)
First up, the televersion of John Wayne proved to be a tele-cognizant serlinguist, meaning that not only could he talk directly to the people in the Trueniverse (like Rod Serling, George Burns, and Garry Shandling), but he actually knew he was living in a TV-based universe........
And here are the opening credits from the premiere season of 'Gunsmoke':
BCnU!
Ah, the light bulb clicks on...I now understand your term 'the serlinguist'! Very clever...
ReplyDeleteI somehow think that Wayne's career as Dillon wouldn't have been as long as that of James Arness...but we wouldn't have had so many good films by Mr. Wayne, either.
I know what you are saying about being 'a few months older' than Gunsmoke. I'm 'a few months older' than Star Trek myself...
Gordon Long