James Arness, who died Friday at age 88, was described in some obituaries as playing the same TV series role longer than any other performer in prime time -- until, goes the asterisk, Kelsey Grammer beat his record, though Grammer took two different series to do so. To which I say: Bah, humbug. Arness still owns that crown, and probably always will...
Yes, Grammer technically reached more seasons playing Frasier Crane, with 11 seasons on NBC's Cheers (1982-93) and an equal number on one of its spinoffs, Frasier (1993-2004). [For the other, less successful Cheers spinoff, see 1987's The Tortellis. If you can find it.]
But Arness' 20-season run as U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon in the CBS Gunsmoke series was an even bigger feat, and shouldn't be considered equal. Equating the two runs, much less giving the more modern star bragging rights, is worse than comparing apples and oranges. Pure and simple, it's bad Grammer.
First, a little history:
Gunsmoke began on CBS in 1955, proudly and effectively introduced by John Wayne. It was billed as the first "adult" Western, and lived up to that billing in the very first episode by having Arness, as the chief peacekeeper in Dodge City, forced into a gunfight with a hot-headed, belligerent, fast-draw fugitive who had come to town with another lawman in pursuit.
The bad guy killed that lawman -- and when Marshal Dillon, the hero of this new TV series, tried to bring him to justice, the bad guy shot him, too, and very nearly killed him.
Matt's friends -- Doc (Milburn Stone), Kitty (Amanda Blake) and Chester (Dennis Weaver) -- nursed him back to health, only to have Matt, more stubbornly than heroically, face the gunman again. The second time around, having figured out the secret to the villain's fast-draw speed and how to neutralize it, Matt won.
When Gunsmoke began, it was only 30 minutes long, the same length as a sitcom, so the Arness-Grammer duel started out as a fair fight. But not really, and it certainly didn't stay that way for long.
Consider:
-- For the first 11 years of Grammer's TV appearances, Frasier Crane was a supporting character, sometimes only in each Cheers episode for a scene or two. For the entire run of Gunsmoke, from start to finish, James Arness was the star.
-- Although both Gunsmoke and Cheers began as 30-minute programs, Gunsmoke, from 1961 on, was an hour, so Arness was clocking at least twice as much time in his role as was Grammer.
-- Even more tellingly, Gunsmoke began producion in an earlier TV era, when a season's worth of shows meant 39 episodes. Even when it ended, in 1975, its final season featured 24 episodes. When Cheers premiered in 1984, its first season had 22 episodes, the norm for that time.
-- From 1987 to 1994, Arness also starred in five two-hour Gunsmoke made-for-TV movies, reprising his Matt Dillon character in five different TV seasons. That ought to count for something, and break any last claims to Grammer's usurpation.
Put it this way: As the star of the show, James Arness played the same TV character for 20 years in a series, then five more times in two additional decades. He played Matt Dillon in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s and 90s -- a span starting in 1955 and ending in 1994.
Kelsey Grammer, by comparison, played Frasier Crane in the 1980s, '90s and 2000s, starting in 1984, and ending in 2004.
So give James Arness a break, please. And give him back the crown.
He deserves it -- now more than ever.
[The first four seasons of Gunsmoke are out on DVD, along with special "50th Anniversary" and "Directors Collection" compilations that span the series' two-decade run. Shop here.]