In that position, Meston monitored shows for any on-air comments by radio hosts or guest performers that the listening public, station owners, or program sponsors might deem profane, too sexually suggestive, slanderous, or overtly meanspirited.
[14] Meston in early September 1947 made front-page news in the entertainment trade paper Variety when he confronted and reprimanded national celebrity Arthur Godfrey for his "breach of good taste" on his popular weekday program.
"Censor John Meston", reported Variety, "served notice on CBS in New York that [Godfrey's] transcribed repeats on his daytime show would be monitored and the needle raised whenever there was a question of propriety in his off-the-cuff remarks.
[14] Beyond the challenges he faced as a network censor and in carrying out his related duties in "'continuity acceptance'", Meston in his position enjoyed immediate and full access to scripts for every program being aired or in development at CBS.
The installment, originally broadcast on CBS on August 5, 1950, features Jay Novello; William Conrad, who later starred as Marshal Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke; and Howard McNear, who was cast as "Doc" in that radio drama.
[16] At this time, at the turn of the 1950s, Meston also began adapting stories, writing original scripts, and serving as an editorial supervisor for episodes of Romance, another popular CBS radio drama that had been on the air since 1943.
Macdonnell and Meston two years later discovered the proposal while developing their own concept for a Western, but one they envisioned—unlike Straight Arrow, The Lone Ranger, and The Cisco Kid—being targeted predominantly at an adult audience.
[20] Once given the go-ahead to continue preproduction and begin casting, Meston added details to several projected storylines and refined the main characters who would populate Macdonnell and his radio portrayal of Dodge.
Jeff Spain soon became United States Marshal Matt Dillon, and veteran voice actor William Conrad was chosen by Meston, Macdonnell, and two other network audition judges to be the lawman and the series' central figure.
[23] Nevertheless, Meston's extensive personal research into the "Old West", his intimate knowledge of the fictional characters in Dodge, and his past exploits on horseback with "real" Colorado cowboys effectively cast him in the position of editorial supervisor of that first show.
The critic for Variety praised the first episode's story, acting, and Macdonnell's direction, describing the new series as "a blazing radioater...with top thesping and scripting values that pull it way ahead of the pack of AM Westerns.
"[24] The growing number of fan letters received by CBS appeared to confirm Variety's assessment and to reflect the type of audience that Meston and Macdonnell intended to attract, for much of the complimentary mail arriving at the network "came from a highly educated section of the population".
[11] Following the successful beginning of Gunsmoke, Meston's scripts dominated the radio series' presentations for years and were frequently complimented in reviews for their high quality in both content and style.
Commenting on the episode "Hack Prine", which aired on July 5, 1954, the influential trade paper noted, "John Meston, while maintaining terseness in his script, endowed it with flashes of humor that gave it the character of maturity.
As producer and director for Gunsmoke, Norman Macdonnell's contributions to the now-classic Western were numerous and profound, but Meston's "enormous" talents as head writer set exceptionally high standards for the series' story content throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.
According to the comprehensive 1990 reference Gunsmoke: A Complete History and Analysis of the Legendary Broadcast Series by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas, Meston wrote 183 (44%) of the radio version's entire catalog of 413 episodes and 196 (31%) of the television show’s 635 installments.
[36] His fellow screenwriters and he were also nominated in 1958 for their work on Frontiers of Faith and on the sitcoms Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best lost to Paul Monash, who received the Emmy that year for "The Lonely Wizard", an episode presented on the CBS anthology series Schlitz Playhouse of Stars.
That film, which was originally broadcast on January 10, 1992, is dedicated to Meston and stars James Arness, who reprised his role as Matt Dillon, although portrayed as a cattleman after his retirement as marshal of Dodge City.