The music

It couldn't have been, because Gunsmoke predates Twilight Zone by four years.

CBS had a huge library of music cues, which Gene Feldman artfully mined for many series. He must have had an incredible memory. His selections often sound as if they'd been written for a specific scene.

If a cue sounds like Twilight Zone, it's probably by Bernard Herrmann.

I was just watching the Rawhide episode "Incident of the Coyote Weed". At about 10 minutes into the episode, then at about 36 minutes, we hear a Herrmann cue so obvious you'd recognize it in your sleep.

They did share a lot with Twilight Zone. Many of the same sets and I think much of the writing was very similar. I think the "Pork Sausages" episode could even have been a Twilight Zone.

When I was watching TZ DVD's, they have Gunsmoke promos too.

Fred

I just saw an episode where the whole score, other than the usual end-title theme, was by Jerome Moross, who also did the opening theme for "Wagon Train", and the great score for "The Big Country".