I promised myself I would not write a review until I finished watching the series. So after 166 days I have finished the 20 seasons, 143 discs and 635 episodes.I remember watching this with my father probably starting in 1960. My father was a big western buff and would be proud of my collection which includes shows like Have Gun Will Travel, Branded, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, Wanted: Dead or Alive and Rawhide and others. But Gunsmoke is the Crown Jewel of my Western collection.I have been wanting this series for years but the price was always hovering around $300-$400. I received this for my birthday when it was priced at $178.Gunsmoke was a series that aired between 1955-1975 starring James Arness as Matt Dillon, Milburn Stone as Doc, Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty, Dennis Weaver as Chester (1955-1964), Ken Curtis as Festus (1959-1975), Burt Reynolds as Quint (1962-1965) as well as a who's-who of hundreds of others who appeared as young actors who became stars throughout the 20 seasons.The first six seasons were 30 minutes episodes. Season Seven to Season Eleven became 60 minute episodes. And starting with Season Twelve the hour-long episodes were presented in Color.I have an 4K blu-ray player that I watched these with that upscale the picture and the picture looks outstanding, better than I remember. The current price at the time of this review is $148 which comes to about $7.40 a season. If purchased separately (that is if you could find individual seasons) would probably set you back about $400-$500.There are some special features which includes the characters doing commercials for sponsors of the series, breakdowns of the series by two authors of Gunsmoke books, photo galleries and previews of the upcoming episode (picture quality of these previews inferior...I guess that is where they saved money). The 5 Gunsmoke movies that were made between 1987-1993 are not included in this package.For any Western fan this is no-brainer. This is the Granddaddy of the western shows with a beautiful presentation. No problems with the big box it came in or the cases that store the discs. No scratches on the discs and everyone played perfectly ( a real accomplishment considering 143 discs.)P.S. I have purchased the 5 movies recently but have not watched them as of yet. Will review.YAY! Every episode..we're going to be watching a LOT of tv. This is a handsome set, and very well packaged. Each season is wrapped separately. Perfect audio and video quality. When each episode ends, you can watch James in some commercials. The next episode will be marked with the icon of his badge. What's so nice too, is that you can turn off your DVD player, and when you turn it back on it picks right up from where you left off. Thank you Lord! No more having to scroll to find your place. I'm not sure if that's dependent on your player, or the way the disc was recorded, but it's a really nice feature. This set is worth every penny, and highly recommended if you like Gunsmoke. Next, is getting the Gunsmoke movies. Yep, we're fans of what we consider the best Western program ever to grace a TV screen!GreatThe price was worth it...LOVE GUNSMOKE. Now can watch it whenever I'm in the mood for Matt Dillon justice!!Wonderful set. Great value.Everything was fabulous except for the writing on the disc. It was so hard to read, you had to have the light hit it just right or it wasn’t readable at all. But when you put the disc in it was completely legible.I enjoy watching westernsLike the series a lot also Amazon is okay with the price, maybe a tad high but, if you need anything they have it ?Oh yes, the real deal. Arrived early and well packaged. As regards the content, what is there to say, the best western series ever and I didn’t mind the extra cost of the MR DVD player to watch the series. Should get me through to Christmas.Just what I wantedWas hesitant about the Cost But we bit the bullet and the 65th Anniversary Ed. is More than worth the price. Very Well packaged ie. Sturdy, attractive main case housing all the seasons; DVDs nicely finished/labeled + THE PICTURE QUALITY IS SO CLEAR!; Plastic seasons case have Titles Index and ez to flip through the discs. It's Great to watch the full evolution of Gunsmoke and the development of the storys and story writers and main characters and even how they age, Right from show 1. We're still in Seasons 1-4; enjoyed the commercials of the day and the stars doing the promos; we've also enjoyed seeing All the Great actors who appeared on GS. Another Great feature is that we get to see the FULL Episode of the orig series not the Truncated version we get fr cable tv ie. approx 26 min vs 21 min! for the 30 min. episode ( Have not watched GS hr version yet ). We like GS mainly because of the main characters and their relationships with each other and how the script of that time reflects issues that the producers/directors thought would interest and keep viewers watching. *We know that GS would not be produced/presented Today as it was 65yrs ago.*Gunsmoke was the best western on television during the 1950'a & 1960's and into the first half of the 1970's and the longest. Matt kept the peace in Dodge for 20 years with help from his great friends Miss Kitty, Doc, Chester, Festus, the many towns people and so many guest stars,The writing, directing and storylines were always top class and filled with plenty of action. The stories covered a wide range of themes and were always well written and acted.To now have the entire series of 635 episodes on DVD is amazing. I am doing the first two series at the moment and the memories are terrific and remind me when muma and dad and I used to watch Gunsmoke on Chanel Seven here in Perth, Western Australia along with the other favourite TV series of those days.An absolute great buy for fans of gunsmoke.the cost only deserves 5 stars after I paid over $200 for series 1-6 individually. I was disappointed with the packaging of the one of the protective cases which was broken in half allowing a few of the DVDs to come out of their holders and slide around. I found that the scratch's did not impair the DVDs from working but did cost the loss of a 5 star rating. It is still far to early to judge the quality of so many episodes on multiple DVDs