Popular television shows are powerful and elusive. Arguably, no sooner does any audience know that a show is destined for greatness than the actors who are starring in it, or even the networks putting it on. Still, sometimes you can have all the right ingredients for something great, and a series can still end up as a flop.
Such was the case when Dennis Weaver left Gunsmoke to star in his new series, Kentucky Jones. The series would be canceled after only one season, but Weaver had such faith in it at the beginning that he was willing to leave an already ridiculously popular series to start one anew.
Weaver discussed his departure from Gunsmoke in his autobiography, All the World’s a Stage. He wrote, “I felt at the time that if I didn’t break loose, I would never play anything else the rest of my acting career.”
Weaver also described his primary motivation for leaving the show, which was a desire to finally be at the forefront of his own series. He wrote, “If I was ever going to have an opportunity to do what I really got into the business to do — to play a leading man with the responsibility of the show on my own shoulders — I had to break loose.”
Weaver stressed that everything that the new series could do right, it did. He had complete faith in it as well, and wrote, “I thought it would be a winner…all the elements were there — but after we shot the twenty-four shows, they canceled it.”
Weaver described his mindset and said, “I was in shock. I just assumed the next series I did would be as successful as Gunsmoke, but it wasn’t.”
The experience served as a wake-up call for Weaver, who found himself asking, “Was I totally stupid to leave the security of Gunsmoke?” Obviously, we know that wasn’t the case, and that thankfully, Weaver was able to enjoy plentiful success as an actor, despite this small hiccup.
In hindsight, there was an important lesson to be learned throughout all of it, and Weaver was able to mature as a person. He summarized, “I realized there was life after Gunsmoke.”