List of Gunsmoke television episodes

United States Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness)^[33] is critically wounded while attempting to arrest gunman Dan Grat (Paul Richards). Grat runs rampant in Dodge while Matt recovers, but is unpleasantly surprised when the recovered marshal challenges him again.

Guest Cast: Paul Richards, Robert Anderson, Malcolm Atterbury, and Howard Culver

Notes: The premiere episode was introduced by John Wayne.^[34] He also recommended his friend, James Arness for the role of Matt Dillon.

Matt is duty-bound to protect gunman Cope Borden (John Dehner) from being hanged by a group of normally law-abiding ranchers for a crime he didn't commit.

Guest Cast: John Dehner, James Westerfield, Marvin Bryan, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: John Dehner's first of 12 appearances, who also performed in approximately half of the 480 radio episodes of Gunsmoke.

Doc is sworn to secrecy by three kidnappers who end up killing a rancher's son.

Guest Cast: Robert Middleton, Claude Akins, Dick Paxton, Thom Carney, Ray Boyle and Will J. White

Matt attempts to save a rancher's life by amputating his gangrenous leg.

Guest Cast: Joe De Santis, Gloria Talbott, and Wright King

Notes: "Home Surgery" was presented as a radio broadcast before it aired on television. In the radio version, the daughter's name was "Tara Hantree."

Townspeople and outlaws want to know where an old prospector (Royal Dano) has hidden his gold.

Guest Cast: Royal Dano, Kathy Adams, Jon Shepodd, Pat Conway, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: First of thirteen guest appearances by Royal Dano.

First of four appearances by Pat Conway who is best remembered as Sheriff Clay Hollister in the 1957-60 series Tombstone Territory.

Matt is dubious of young Timmy Wyatt's (Peter J. Votrian) stories concerning nighttime robberies and assaults, but he agrees to investigate and is surprised by what he discovers.

Guest Cast: Robert Foulk, Amzie Strickland, Peter J. Votrian, Anne Warren, Lance Warren, Jeanne Bates, Lou Vernon, and Clyde Howdy (uncredited)

A rancher (John Larch) asks Matt to evict a couple (Ainslie Pryor & Jeanne Bates) from a home on part of his land but the couple insists they purchased it legally, and they're refusing to leave.

After a gunslinger (Adam Kennedy) kills a man in self-defense, Matt convinces him to give up his gun for a normal life. A decision that proves to be very costly.

Cast: Adam Kennedy, James Griffith, Herbert Lytton, George Selk, Jon Locke (as Joe Locke) and Chris Alcaide

Marshal Dillon has to keep bullying buffalo hunter Jase Murdock (Peter Whitney) from traveling south into Indian territory on a hunt for hides. Murdock's plan to trespass and wantonly massacre buffalo promises to spark an uprising.

Two men cut off a Chinese immigrant (Keye Luke)'s pigtail, and he tells Matt that he can return home to China only with the pigtail or by taking the lives of the men who stole it.

Cast: Keye Luke, Sebastian Cabot, Robert Gist, Dennis McCarthy (as Devlin McCarthy), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: This is the first of 11 episodes which Sam Peckinpah wrote for Gunsmoke. In the Long Branch, patrons are seen playing a mechanical poker machine, ahead of its time invention-wise.

Parsley Smith (Raymond Bailey), a teller of tall tales, claims the new town banker is plotting to make off with the depositors' money.

Cast: Raymond Bailey, James O'Rear, John Alderson, and Budd Knapp (as Wilfred Knapp)

Chester is concerned when his nomadic and "uncivilized" brother pays a Christmas visit to Dodge, but Magnus Goode (Robert Easton) proves worldlier and more adaptable to town life than anyone thought possible.

Cast: Robert Easton, James Anderson, Than Wyenn, Tim Graham, Dorothy Schuyler, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Booth Rider (James Drury) is being played for a sucker by the wife (Lola Albright) of the ranch owner (John Carradine) he works for, in the hopes that he will have to kill her husband in self-defense.

Cast: John Carradine, Lola Albright, James Drury, and Virginia Chapman (credit only)

Notes: First of two appearances of Virginia Chapman, wife of James Arness.

Professor Bone (John Abbott) is a well meaning medicine man who shows up in Dodge selling an elixir with potentially deadly side effects.

Cast: John Abbott, Jester Hairston, Gloria Castillo, Don Gardner, Strother Martin, and Sally Corner

Hank Springer (Vic Perrin) who claims the sheriff of Mingo framed him for murder, escapes from Matt's jail, wrongly believing he has killed a deputy (Mort Mills) in the process, and now has the intention of killing the corrupt sheriff (Charles H. Gray).

Cast: Vic Perrin, Mort Mills, Marjorie Owens, Herbert Lytton, Cyril Delevanti, and Charles H. Gray

A woman (Helen Wallace) puts a price on Matt's head after he shoots down her husband.

Cast: Helen Wallace, Paul Newlan, Val Dufour (as Val DuFour), Jean Inness, and John G. Lee

Holdup man John Henry Jordan (William Hopper) repeatedly escapes conviction by robbing only the wealthy and sparing poorer persons who are potential witnesses against him. His luck runs out when Matt's efforts force him to victimize ordinary citizens.

Cast: William Hopper, Barry Atwater, Nora Marlowe, James McCallion, Budd Knapp (as Wilfred Knapp), and S. John Launer

Notes: The title is based on the legend of Robin Hood and his Merry Men in 13th century England as they fought the injustice of King John and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Matt saves the life of a white boy (Jeffrey Silver) raised by Indians who was shot trying to retrieve horses stolen from his tribe.

Cast: Jeffrey Silver (as Jeff Silver), Howard Petrie, Dennis Cross, Malcolm Atterbury, and Mary Gregory

Troy Carver (Wilton Graff) is an aging ex-lawman with poor eyesight being chased by a dirt farmer who wants revenge for the killing of his brother 2 years before.

Cast: Wilton Graff, Martin Kingsley, Pitt Herbert, and George Selk

Long Branch hostess Belle Archer (Marion Brasch) sees Jerry Shand (Val Dufour) shoot a former Quantrill Raider dead in self-defense, but refuses to say so, and now he faces a murder trial.

Matt saves suspected 18-year-old cattle thief Steve Elser (Brett Halsey), from a would-be lynch group, and tries to help him find a job, but discovers he might be a hopeless case.

Cast: Brett Halsey, K.L. Smith (as Ken L. Smith), Russell Thorson (as Russ Thorson), Michael Granger, James Nusser (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

An old rancher (John Dehner) decides that he is going to marry Kitty.

Cast: John Dehner, John Patrick, Mary Adams, Charlene Brooks, Evelyn Scott, Dorothy Schuyler, John Patrick, George Selk (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

When an old Indian scout (Eduard Franz) murders a man (DeForest Kelley), Matt pursues him into Comanche territory.

Cast: Eduard Franz, DeForest Kelley (as DeForrest Kelley), William Vaughn, Harold 'Tommy' Hart (as Tommy Hart), Pat Hogan, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: This is one of the few episodes where James Arness and the other actors wear proper belt holsters for their pistols, instead of the usual anachronistic "buscadero" rigs.

Doc must find a way to thwart a typhoid epidemic in Dodge.

Cast: Howard McNear, Patrick O'Moore, Norbert Schiller, Evelyn Scott, Phil Rich, Gordon Mills, Lisa Golm, and Howard Culver

Notes: Howard McNear, who plays Bradley in this episode, played Doc Adams on radio's original "Gunsmoke." He also played Floyd the barber on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). This was actor Phil Rich's final role. Although this was originally telecast on April 14, 1956, Phil Rich had passed away (at the age of 57) on February 22, 1956 almost two months earlier.

Matt has to figure a way around a six-foot-tall, 200-pound woman with a six-gun.

Cast: Dee J. Thompson, Joel Ashley, Terry Becker, Howard Culver, Henry Brock (as Heinie Brock), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Far from Dodge and without a horse Matt Dillon still manages to bring in Lee Timble (Hal Baylor)...a man wanted for murder. Lee's brother Dolph (George Wallace) swears that he'll get him out. Meanwhile, an old friend of Dillon's, Hack Prine (Leo Gordon), has arrived in Dodge to take a job. Happy to see each other they reminisce about old times both unaware that the job Hack is in Dodge for is to kill Dillon.

Cast: Leo Gordon, George Wallace, Hal Baylor, and Wally Cassell

A dishonest gambler (Vinton Hayworth) uses a mentally challenged man (Strother Martin) in a plot against Matt.

Cast: Strother Martin, Vinton Hayworth, Brett King, Robert Vaughn, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Strother Martin was so in love with this story that he ordered a print for personal viewing. He would go on to play in many more features with Sam Peckinpah as writer and/or director. This is the first time Matt wears a "Buscadero" holster. This style of holster was invented in the 1920s and used by Hollywood cowboys. The holster and gun belt are a single piece instead of a holster that slides over a gun belt as Matt wears in previous episodes. The "Buscadero" gun belt/holster combination and the nickel-plated pistol Matt Dillon uses for the first time in the "Gunsmoke" series are the same gun belt/holster and pistol James Arness wears as the lead character in the 1956 feature film "Gun the Man Down."

Matt must go to extreme lengths to stop the killing spree of a psychopathic murderer (Charles Bronson) who provokes gunfights with cowboys, farmers, and others who he knows have no chance against him.

Cast: Charles Bronson, David Chapman, James Nusser, Dabbs Greer, Virginia Chapman (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Virginia Chapman, who is the gypsy, was married to James Arness when this episode aired. James Nusser makes his second appearance in this show. It will still be five more years before he is cast as the town drunk Louie Pheeters. Dabbs Greer makes his first credited appearance as 'Jonas'.

Doc has a change of heart about a man he hates and wants to kill face to face when the man is later shot in the back.

Cast: Chris Alcaide, Ainslie Pryor, Harry Bartell, and Bert Rumsey

Notes: Bert Rumsey makes his first credited appearance as 'Bartender'.

A preacher (Royal Dano) disgusted by violence is harassed by bully Sam Keeler (Chuck Connors) who despises his timid nature.

Cast: Royal Dano, Chuck Connors, Paul Dubov, James Hyland, George Selk, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Royal Dano, who played the title character in this episode, also played the title character earlier in the season in Gunsmoke: Obie Tater (1955).

Trail herder Howard Bulow (Mort Mills) swears to shoot Marshal Dillon in the back after he kills his drunken brother in self-defense.

Dutch George (Robert Middleton) runs a large horse theft operation. The law can't touch him because others take the risk. He makes a big mistake when he steals one horse for himself.

Matt tries to quell rumors of a planned Pawnee attack.

Cast: Robert Ellenstein, Dabbs Greer, Anne Barton, Budd Knapp (as Wilfrid Knapp), Tyler McVey, Bruce Holland, Jack Holland, Roy Engel (as Roy Engle), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

When Chester's mail-order bride arrives, neither she nor Chester are what the other is expecting.

Cast: Mary Carver, Joel Ashley, Russell Thorson (as Russ Thorson), William Hamel, and Bert Rumsey

Weed Pindle (Aaron Spelling) is a friendly guitar player in Dodge, but when certain cowboys find out he fought for a particular division of the Union Army, they become set on trying to hang him.

Cast: Aaron Spelling, Jacques Aubuchon, Charles H. Gray (as Charles Gray), Duane Grey (as Duane Thorsen), Bill Hale, Joseph Mell, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Matt discovers that an old girlfriend (Jorja Curtright) is working on the opposite side of the law.

A self-described religious prophet (Ainslie Pryor) makes life miserable for his sister (Gloria McGehee) and her husband (Paul Richards).

A distraught middle-aged woman (Helen Kleeb) becomes determined to aid a young murderer (Ron Hagerthy) in Matt's custody after she learns of her own son's violent death and unceremonious burial on Boot Hill.

Cast: Ron Hagerthy, Helen Kleeb, William Hopper, Than Wyenn, Joe Scudero, Boyd Stockman, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Boot Hill Intro returns for this episode and appears intermittently hereafter.

While on the way back to Dodge, Matt and Chester help homesteaders besieged by Indians.

A wounded Doc may be forced to save the life of the man who wounded him.

Matt tracks a murderer (Paul Lambert) to a strange town (Elkader) where the people are unwilling to cooperate.

Guest Cast: Gage Clarke, Paul Lambert, Malcolm Atterbury, Alfred Linder, Dennis Cross, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Gage Clarke makes his first appearance but in a role other than Dodge House clerk Dobie or bank manager Botkin.

"Rough justice" awaits cocksure Army deserter Joe Trimble (Brian G. Hutton) after a civilian jury acquits him of murder due to lack of evidence and the Army forgoes prosecution in favor of returning him to his unit.

Guest Cast: Brian G. Hutton, Richard Keith, Herbert Lytton, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Dodge City merchants celebrate the end of a round-up and Matt stands up for the law alone against any acts of violence.

Guest Cast: Jacques Aubuchon, Michael Hinn, John Dierkes, Barney Phillips, Mason Curry, and John Patrick

The brother of an outlaw (Fredd Wayne) Matt killed comes to Dodge seeking revenge.

A white boy (Peter J. Votrian) who has been raised by Cheyenne Indians is brought to Dodge and must decide his future.

Matt's old friend (Andrew Duggan) is now a gambler and he plans to con Dodge City.

Guest Cast: Andrew Duggan, Simon Oakland, Jess Kirkpatrick, Joseph Mell, Tex Holden (uncredited), and Earl Parker (uncredited)

Doc comes upon a homesteader (Philip Bourneuf) with a busted leg and a gun to protect himself from his wife (Cloris Leachman).

When a man (Mike Connors) suspected of murder can't establish his alibi, Matt arrests the man. After the prisoner draws a gun on Chester and escapes, evidence suggests he might not be guilty.

Guest Cast: Mike Connors (as Touch Connors), Gene O'Donnell, Cyril Delevanti, Robert Hinkle, and Bert Rumsey

Notes: Bert Rumsey credited as 'Bartender', but referred to by Chester as 'Sam Noonan'.

An outlaw (Claude Akins) threatens to kill Doc if he does not help his wounded buddy.

Guest Cast: Amzie Strickland, Claude Akins, Frank de Kova, Ray Bennett, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Matt strongly suspects that it is actually white men who are responsible for a murderous series of "Indian raids" that have terrorized prairie-dwelling families.

Guest Cast: Herbert Rudley, Dick Rich, Mickey Simpson, K.L. Smith, Fintan Meyler, and Joel Ashley

Notes: First onscreen performance of Fintan Meyler.

After a man is shot on the streets of Dodge, Matt learns that the bullet was actually meant for him.

A saloon gal (Constance Ford) is suddenly receives two marriage proposals, one from a sweet country bumpkin (Denver Pyle), one from a menacing dandy (Michael Emmet), but it's no embarrassment of riches: each suitor threatens violence if she selects his rival.

Guest Cast: Constance Ford, Denver Pyle, Michael Emmet, Jess Kirkpatrick, Bert Rumsey, Big John Hamilton (as John Hamilton), Johnny McGough, and Chick Hannan (uncredited)

Notes: This is Denver Pyle's first of fourteen appearances, scattered over the next sixteen seasons. This appearance came two years into the series run, and his final role occurred in season eighteen, two years before the program ended.

A landowner (Paul Fix) tries to terrorize homesteaders (Bartlett Robinson & Peg Hillias) off their land.

An old buffalo hunter (Edgar Stehli), abandoned and permanently crippled by the cold on the prairie, is rescued by Matt & Chester and struggles to find a purpose.

Matt jails the wife abusing Sam Baxton (Tyler McVey) on suspicion of murdering 2 squatters on his land, but after Baxton gets locked up, a 3rd squatter is murdered.

A white man (Peter Whitney) and his Indian wife (Angie Dickinson), passing through Dodge, become targets of violence after it is learned that the wife's father led deadly raids against white settlers.

Guest Cast: Angie Dickinson, Peter Whitney, Gage Clarke, and Paul Wexler

A bank robber (Robert H. Harris) murders his partner (Paul Lambert) and comes to Dodge with his terrified wife (Julie Van Zandt), hoping to keep a low profile, but the Indian Tobeel (Frank de Kova), he once humiliated won't let him be.

Grief-stricken rancher Morgan Curry (Michael Hinn) proves willing to go to any length necessary to get revenge after cocksure gunman Tom Clegg (Liam Sullivan) kills his brother Abe (Robert Keys) in a needlessly provoked gunfight.

When Matt serves a warrant in another town for a wanted man, two men answer the possible suspect's description, and they both have gone straight.

Guest Cast: Carl Betz, Joe De Santis (as Joe de Santis), Tige Andrews, Marianne Stewart, Ward Wood, and John Dierkes

The shooting of several members of an outlaw gang, though in self-defense, triggers an emotional crisis in Matt, haunted by memories of all the men he has killed.

Guest Cast: Russell Johnson, Lawrence Dobkin, Gloria Marshall, Harvey Grant, and David Saber

When a lady (Susan Morrow) comes to town looking for her betrothed (Joseph Sargent), Matt takes it upon himself to sober up the man, who, in his fiancée's absence, has become the town drunk.

Violence and tragedy result when Matt & Chester persuade a reluctant Kitty to hire flirtatious Rena Decker (Karen Sharpe) as a Long Branch hostess.

Guest Cast: Karen Sharpe, John Alderson, Walter Reed, John Mitchum, Ken Mayer, George Archambeault, Joseph Mell (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Told he has only two months to live, a man (Harry Bartell) is determined to avenge the suicide of a young woman by killing the womanizer (Mark Roberts) he blames for her death.

A government official (John Hoyt) from Washington warns Matt that he will relieve him of his duties if he does not start using a firmer hand in Dodge.

Kitty gets annoyed by a pair of old farmers (Florenz Ames & Frank de Kova) who are each trying to have a fling with her.

Guest Cast: Florenz Ames, Anne O'Neal, Frank de Kova, Susan Morrow, Charles King (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Character actor Frank DeKova appeared as Marshal Dillon's friend, Tobeel, a Kiowa Indian, in several previous shows.

When the drunkard (Tom Greenway) whom Chester escorts to jail is shot dead, Chester is suspected of the murder.

Guest Cast: Peggie Castle (as Peggy Castle), Murray Hamilton, Gage Clarke, Tom Greenway, Tim Graham, Charles J. Conrad (as Charles Conrad), Charles King (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Professor Jacoby (Sebastian Cabot) is a photographer from back East in Dodge, willing to do anything for a picture, even to the point of committing murder.

Guest Cast: Sebastian Cabot, Dean Fredericks, Ned Glass, Charles Horvath, Howard Culver, Dorothy Schuyler, Charles King (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Sam Rickers(Don Keefer) shot a man dead in the back to try and claim a $1,000 reward, but it turns out that the dead man was never wanted by the law.

Guest Cast: Don Keefer, Catherine McLeod (as Catherine McCleod), Robert Griffin, Charles King (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

A saloon gal's old beau (Michael Pate) is in town, and she expects trouble when he finds out where she is working.

A weird whiskey drummer named Wilbur Hawkins (Vic Perrin) claims to Matt that he overheard a man making an offer to pay 300 dollars to kill him, and shortly thereafter an attempt is made on Matt's life.

Guest Cast: Vic Perrin, Robert Burton, Robert Karnes, and Bert Rumsey

A former gunslinger (Andrew Duggan) wants to marry a woman (Peggy Webber) whose brother (Robert F. Simon) may be willing to resort to violence to keep her from leaving home.

Guest Cast: Andrew Duggan, Peggy Webber, Robert F. Simon, Susan Morrow, James Nusser, Charles King (uncredited), and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: Guest star Charles King died on May 7, 1957, three days after this episode aired.

Matt seeks evidence to convict a poker dealer (Phillip Pine) of murdering a gambler (Stafford Repp).

Despicable gunman Joe Delk (Harold J. Stone) provokes Lew and Billy Baxter and easily kills the inexperienced young men in gunfights, but Matt's swift and unexpected reaction soon has Delk experiencing nightmares and self-doubt.

Guest Cast: Harold J. Stone, Steven Terrell, Robert C. Ross, Harry Woods (as Harry Wood), Sheila Noonan, Hal Baylor, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Uncle Oliver (Earle Hodgins) arrives in town and believes his simpleton nephew (Paul Wexler) would be a good deputy for Matt, instead of Chester.

Kitty's long-lost father (John Dehner), who abandoned her when she was a baby, shows up in Dodge, eager to take her back to New Orleans with him.

Guest Cast: John Dehner, Judson Pratt, Cyril Delevanti, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Major Emmett Egan (Herbert Rudley), a retired Army officer has been approved for the job of marshal by the War Department. Matt agrees to let him have his job if Egan shadows him for a week to see if he can handle it.

Guest Cast: Herbert Rudley, Alex Sharp, Kelly Thordsen, Walt Barnes, Kirby Smith, Clancy Cooper, June Carter Cash (as June Carter), Ned Glass, George Selk, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

Notes: June Carter Cash's first credited acting role. Made some eleven years before her third and final marriage to music legend Johnny Cash.

Hank Shinn (Denver Pyle) is a newcomer in town bragging about his reputation as a gunman, but Marshal Dillon suspects he is nothing more than a liar.

Guest Cast: Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, Fred Graham, John Doucette, Fred Graham, Howard Culver, and Bert Rumsey (uncredited)

A card dealer (Jack Kelly), newly married, wants to kill his old friend, Marshal Dillon, when a crooked gambler (Than Wyenn) starts rumors that Dillon is courting the dealer's wife (Joan Tetzel).

Matt is determined to find out who hired gunman Nate Springer (John Dehner) and why he seems so jumpy, much different from his steel-nerved reputation.

Guest Cast: John Dehner, Jess Kirkpatrick, Howard Culver, Preston Hanson and Brick Sullivan

Notes: The fourth of John Dehner's twelve appearances.

Chester claims the new stranger in town is really there to kill him.

When Harry Speener (Vinton Hayworth) learns that the man who saved his life is wanted fugitive, he kills him for the reward.

Guest Cast: Vinton Hayworth, James Dobson, Lawrence Green, George Selk, Robert Nash and Allan Nixon

Kitty's old boyfriend, Cole Yankton (Ainslie Pryor) comes to town to rob the bank.

A desperate prairie family lures Matt and Chester out of town with a tale of murder.

Guest Cast: Robert F. Simon, Tom Pittman, Jeanette Nolan and Morgan Woodward

A young man (George Brenlin) seeks his father's unknown killer so he can avenge his death.

Guest Cast: Edward Binns, George Brenlin, James Maloney, Dabbs Greer and George Selk

Mavis McCloud (Fay Spain), fresh from the east comes to Dodge to get married and falls prey to frontier violence.

Guest Cast: Fay Spain, Max Showalter (credited as Casey Adams), Robert Cornthwaite, Kelly Thordsen, Howard Culver and Dan Sheridan

A drifter (Wright King), saved from lynching at the hands of two ranchers (Anthony Caruso and Ken Lynch) seeks revenge.

Inspired by the play Romeo and Juliet, the children (Barbara Eden and Robert Vaughn) of feuding family patriarchs (Barry Kelley and Tyler McVey) fall in love.

Matt hunts down two drifters (Buddy Baer and Tom Greenway), who dragged Chester behind their horses and left him for dead.

Guest Cast: Buddy Baer, Woodrow Chambliss, Tom Greenway, Paul Birch and Gary Vinson

Hank Luz (Karl Swenson) is suspicious of Jim Cobbett (John Larch) when his second wife (Virginia Christine) vanishes just like his first.

Matt and Chester keep watch for a killer (Pernell Roberts) who is murdering stagecoach passengers in cold blood.

Guest Cast: Barry Atwater, Pernell Roberts, Robert Brubaker, John Parrish, Jolene Brand and George Cisar

A hardworking woman's (Anne Barton) plan to adopt a baby are jeopardized when Matt discovers her husband (Val Avery) is involved in cattle rustling.

Doc confesses to murdering a man (Jack Lord) that shot his horse, but the man's brother seeks revenge.

Guest Cast: Jack Lord, Bruce Wendell, Netta Packer, Jean Fenwick and Brick Sullivan.

Kitty is abandoned by an Eastern suitor (Warren Stevens) on the plains.

Guest Cast: Warren Stevens, Gage Clarke, Brett King, Stephen Ellsworth and George Selk

Matt gets caught in the middle of an Ozark-mountain family feud when the two remaining survivors come to Dodge City.

Matt and Chester travel to the small town of Elkader to arrest a wanted man but find they must first expose a bogus U.S. Marshall (Paul Richards).

Guest Cast: Paul Richards, Morey Amsterdam, William Kendis, Jack Reitzen and Ken Becker

Matt and Chester ride out to a buffalo hunter's camp to investigate the death of a man Doc found.

Guest Cast: Patricia Smith, Jack Klugman, John Anderson and Abel Fernandez

Notes: The fight scene near the end of this episode serves as the basis for an educational film produced by the American Cinema Editors, called Film Editing: Interpretation & Values, used by film students all around the world.^[37][38]

Kitty is taken hostage during a bank robbery by the Gunther brothers (Pat Conway and Bruce Gordon) and they warn Matt not to follow.

Guest Cast: Bruce Gordon, Pat Conway, John Compton, William Keene and Charles Tannen

Two ranchers use unscrupulous methods to steal land.

A strong-willed woman frees her son from Matt's custody, but the Marshall is determined to bring him to justice.

"There's no law west of Dodge." Two writers (Werner Klemperer and Jack Weston) from New York want to see if it's true and unwittingly cause an Indian uprising.

Guest Cast: Werner Klemperer, Jack Weston, Theodore Newton, George Selk, Eddie Little Sky (as Eddie Little), K.L. Smith and David Whorf, (Kit Guard, Tex Holden, Ted Smile and Brick Sullivan appear uncredited)

Notes: During the scene at the Indian burial grounds, hammering can be heard off camera, but Matt and Chester show no interest.

Werner Klemperer is best known for playing the role of Colonel Wilhelm Klink on the television sitcom Hogan's Heros.

Matt meets a young boy (Paul Engle) who tells him his father was abducted the night before.

Matt seeks shelter from a blizzard in a cabin and encounters two psychopathic bank robbers (Claude Akins and Harry Dean Stanton).

Guest Cast: Claude Akins, Patricia Barry and Harry Dean Stanton (as Dean Stanton)

A newlywed man (Wayne Morris) is shot moments after his wedding.

Guest Cast: June Lockhart, Wayne Morris, Ian MacDonald, Gail Kobe and Barry McGuire

Matt sets out to clear Emmett Dooley (Strother Martin), who has been accused of murdering one of his hunting companions.

A man suspected of horse theft is hanged, but within minutes the perpetrators find out that he was innocent.

Guest Cast: Virginia Gregg, Bartlett Robinson, Weston Gavin (as James Kevin), Michael Hinn, Kevin Hagen, Herbert Lytton (as Herbert C. Lytton) and Craig Duncan

The town drunk (John Dehner) attacks the new Faro dealer (Ross Martin), who just arrived in Dodge.

Guest Cast: John Dehner, Peggy McCay, Ross Martin, Barney Phillips and Roxane Berard

Notes: Barney Phillips assumes the role of Bill Pence, half owner of the Long Branch.

The town bully is humiliated in a traveling show and seeks retribution.

Guest Cast: June Dayton, Val Benedict, Cyril Delevanti, Dean Harens and Jess Kirkpatrick

A Texas trail boss is determined to prevent Matt from learning which one of his men is responsible for murder.

Guest Cast: Allan Lane, Clarke Gordon (as Clark Gordon), Ned Glass, Stafford Repp and John Mitchum

A bitter old woman comes to Dodge to die and tells Matt, "You're going to kill me".

Guest Cast: Jeanette Nolan and Lou Krugman

Dodge merchants are committing suicide but Matt suspects something more nefarious.

Matt attempts to save a young girl from bad decisions but her boyfriend causes trouble for all of them.

Guest Cast: Ed Kemmer (as Edward Kemmer), Myrna Fahey, Aaron Saxon, Robert Brubaker and Joel Smith

Matt investigates three con artists who defraud the bank, but they flee taking Doc hostage.

Guest Cast: Raymond Bailey, Joseph Kearns, Alan Dexter, Gordon Mills and Perry Ivins

Notes: Doc tells Matt in this episode that he was a doctor on the Tennessee Belle, a Mississippi riverboat.

Raymond Bailey is best known for his role as banker Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies.

Matt is suspicious of a gentleman gambler, especially after he proposes to a recently widowed woman.

Matt arrests a wanted murderer, but his partner tries to break him out so both of them can avoid punishment.

An Army major threatens to put Dodge under martial law after soldiers transporting the Fort's payroll are killed in a robbery.

An outlaw (Peter Mamakos) has plans to hold up a stagecoach full of passengers including Matt and his prisoner (Simon Oakland).

Guest Cast: Simon Oakland, Peter Mamakos, Clem Bevans, James Gavin, Forrest Stanley, Jan Arvan, Jimmy Cross and Al Hopson

A gambler (Jack Cassidy) comes to Dodge and puts himself in the middle of a torrid relationship.

Matt is being framed for killing a man.

Guest Cast: Bruce Gordon, Robert J. Wilke, Elisha Cook Jr., Adam Howe, Martin Balk, Allen Kramer, Jess Kirkpatrick, Jack Lester, Dick Rich and Johnny Western

Notes: This episode helps to date the series. Wild Bill Hickok was Marshall of Abilene, Kansas from April to December of 1871.

Matt doubts the veracity of a Long Branch saloon girl who claims she saw a trail hand kill a man.

Matt investigates an Indian raid that wiped out a family.

An unscrupulous Eastern businessman (Harry Townes) is purchasing all the local freight lines.

Matt is reluctant in evicting a man and his expectant wife from their ranch.

Matt and Chester out riding the range are suspicious of a man (Ron Randell) with two beautiful horses who is in a hurry and very unfriendly.

Guest Cast: Ron Randell, Walt Barnes, Dan Blocker and George Selk

Masked gunmen hold up a stagecoach carrying Matt and Chester. Later back in Dodge, Matt recognizes one of the robber's voices.

Without more evidence, Matt is reluctant to arrest his friend who had an on-going feud with a man found shot in the back.

Matt is suspicious of a newcomer who asks for a deputy's badge and is leading immigrants to property outside of Dodge.

A rancher (George Macready) traumatized by a lynching in his past takes the law into his own hands which leads to disastrous results.

Guest Cast: George Macready, Bing Russell, Charles H. Gray, O.Z. Whitehead, Chuck Hayward, Michael Hinn, Robert Montgomery Jr., George Selk and Don Lloyd

Notes: Bing Russell is the father of actor Kurt Russell.

Two gamblers attempt to bribe Matt and when he tells them to get out of Dodge, they hire a gunman to intimidate him.

Guest Cast: Philip Abbott, Pat Conway, James Westerfield, Gregg Palmer and Charles Devin

A homesteader believes Indians are harassing him at night and after Matt tells him to get a rifle, he mistakingly shoots and kills a cowhand.

A farmer who doesn't trust doctors blames Doc for the death of his wife.

A girl engaged to be married refuses to testify against the stagecoach robber who kidnapped her.

An old frontier plainsman is wrongfully accused of murdering a man who shot his dog.

Guest Cast: Andy Clyde, Warren Oates and Charles Maxwell

Matt and Chester are caught in the middle of a bitter and bloody feud between two mountain families.

Guest Cast: William Schallert, Anne Barton, Hope Summers and Albert Linville

The widow of an aging cattleman is in love with one of the men who is suspected of killing her husband.

Chester's uncle comes to Dodge and based on letters from Chester believes him to be the Marshall.

Guest Cast: Dabbs Greer, Charles Fredericks, Earl Parker, Howard Culver and George Selk

An elderly sheepherder who opposes violence refuses to tell Matt the identity of the two cattlemen who are tormenting him.

A recently released convict breaks his parole when he comes to Dodge to kill Matt.

Matt helps a trail boss fend off Jayhawkers by escorting his cattle herd to Dodge.

Guest Cast: Jack Elam, Ken Curtis, Lane Bradford, Chuck Hayward, Earl Parker, Cliff Ketchum and Bradley Paine (as Brad Paine)

Notes: Jayhawkers were militant gangs who often clashed with pro-slavery factions. Today a Jayhawker is a nickname for anybody born in Kansas.

The brother of a family friend visits Kitty and is displeased to find her running a saloon and when trouble ensues, she objects to his efforts to save her honor.

Guest Cast: Barry McGuire, Addison Powell, Richard Rust, Robert Brubaker, Tom Greenway, Ben Wright and Howard Culver

Matt investigates the murder of an older saloon girl. The prime suspect, a young cowboy who fled the scene.

Guest Cast: Allen Case, Olive Blakeney, Roy Barcroft, Patricia Huston, Linda Watkins and Charles P. Thompson (as Charles Thompson)

Doc is resentful and feels sorry for himself when a new town doctor comes to town and makes off with his patients.

Guest Cast: Wendell Holmes, Bartlett Robinson, Jack Younger, Fiona Hale, Jack Grinnage and Bert Rumsey

A former saloon girl's upcoming marriage is put in jeopardy by her old boyfriend when he frames the bridegroom for murder.

Guest Cast: Grant Williams, Norma Crane, Denver Pyle, Russell Johnson and Guy Wilkerson

Matt and Chester's friend is mistaken for the Marshall and shot in the back by a coward.

Guest Cast: Barry Atwater, House Peters Jr., James Beck (as Jim Beck), William Phipps, Barney Phillips, George Selk, John Close and Sheldon Allman

Tobe Hostader (Harry Townes) who's lost his farm, gets a job in town with Chester's help, and takes up with a saloon gal (Mary LaRoche), not knowing she's on the run from a beau (Philip Abbott) who's a con man and a killer.

Cast: Harry Townes, Mary LaRoche, Philip Abbott, Susan Morrow, L.Q. Jones, Sarah Selby, Harry Dean Stanton, Bud Osborne, John Newton, and S. John Launer

Note: Final performance of Bud Osborne.

Elmo Sippy (Andrew Prine), a mild-looking cowboy discovers that it's easy to steal, and, soon thereafter, that it's easy to kill as well.

An ex-convict comes to Dodge with the intention of shooting Matt dead.

Matt must stop a killer (Lyle Bettger) from realizing his victim's daughter (Betsy Hale) was a witness.

Cast: Lyle Bettger, Michael Higgins, Allyson Ames, Betsy Hale, Sarah Selby, Burt Douglas, and Glenn Strange

A saloon girl (Shary Marshall) spurns a man's advances in Wichita and moves to Dodge, where she becomes a respectable married woman, only to be confronted with her past when she discovers that her rancher husband (Ed Nelson) is the nephew of the man (Robert F. Simon) she refused.

Guest Cast: Ed Nelson, Shary Marshall, Robert F. Simon, Anthony Caruso, Edith Evanson, Ben Wright, and Hick Hill (as Hickman Hill)

The only ones who believe Festus' girlfriend, April (Elizabeth MacRae) witnessed a murder that happened after Festus and April argue over a gift she received are the killers themselves.

Matt captures a young criminal named Billy (Bobby Crawford) after a robbery goes wrong, who must endure Matt's moralizing while waiting to be broken out of jail by his outlaw brother and hero Ed (Scott Marlowe).

Cast: Scott Marlowe, Robert L. Crawford Jr. (as Bobby Crawford), Eddie Firestone, Kathryn Harrow, Roy Roberts, James Nusser, Sailor Vincent (as William Sailor Vincent), Tom Reese, Warren Vanders, Edmund Hashim, Joseph Hoover, and Solomon Sturges (as Mark Sturges)

Notes: For this show only, to more easily film the jailhouse break-in/shoot-out, the back door of Matt's office is now directly on the back wall of the jail cell area. In the next show, the original cell is back in its place. Also in this episode, there is a cell across from the one Billy is in. Usually, it is a blank wall, on the other side of which is Matt's cot.

Despite his illiteracy, Festus becomes a reporter for Dodge's newspaper, The Dodge City Clarion.

Guest Cast: Chips Rafferty, Glenn Strange, Gertrude Flynn, Dorothy Neumann, Adrienne Marden, John Francis (as Johnny Francis), Fletcher Fist, Denver Pyle, Dabbs Greer, Ted de Corsia, Maudie Prickett, and Stefan Arngrim

Notes: The last of 27 appearances for George Sowards, all uncredited, mostly as a townsman.

John Walking Fox's (Leonard Nimoy) $50 gold piece starts gold fever in Dodge City, and makes the man a target of robbers.

Cast: Leonard Nimoy, Lloyd Gough, Richard Webb, Jim Davis, Ted Gehring, Tom McCauley, Glenn Strange, Kelton Garwood, and Howard Culver

Notes: The last of four appearances by Leonard Nimoy. The other three are Gunsmoke: A Man a Day (1961), Gunsmoke: I Call Him Wonder (1963), and Gunsmoke: The Search (1962). The last of five appearances of Ruth Foster, all as an uncredited townswoman.

Fast gunman Jim Barrett (Jack Elam) kills a man in self-defense. Now, the man's father and brothers are gunning for him, in addition to a young man who wants Barrett dead for a different reason.

Cast: Jack Elam, Lee Van Cleef, Teno Pollick, James Gammon, Zalman King, Del Monroe, Charles Kuenstle, Glenn Strange, James Nusser, John McLiam, Billy Halop, and Scott Hale

Notes: This is the last of 4 episodes for Lee Van Cleef. One of Jack Elam's 15 appearances on Gunsmoke. The character David Barrett appears much younger than the 37-year-old actor who plays him, Teno Pollick.

A fugitive learns that the man whose identity he is using is being brought in by Matt.