About this season
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
Episodes (39)
1. Cow Doctor
Aired 8 September 1956 • 26 min
After he is summoned unknowingly by Ben Pitcher to treat one of his cows, a human patient of Doc's dies. During a fight with Pitcher, Doc is knifed.
2. Brush at Elkader
8.0Aired 15 September 1956 • 26 min
After his friend Ben Williams is shot down by Lou Shippen, Matt travels to Elkader to bring him him. The only problem, he doesn't know what he looks like and the town is protecting Shippen.
3. Custer
8.0Aired 22 September 1956 • 26 min
Matt refuses to turn the rustler Joe Trimble over to Major Banker for court-martial.
4. The Round Up
Aired 29 September 1956 • 26 min
Matt closes up shops to a group of drunken cowboys, which causes trouble.
5. Young Man with a Gun
Aired 20 October 1956 • 26 min
After gunman, Sam Kercher is killed by Matt, his 16-year-old brother arrives to fight Matt.
6. Indian White
Aired 27 October 1956 • 26 min
At Fort Dodge, home of the third cavalry, Mrs. Mary Cullen tells the colonel that the twelve year old white boy they recovered from the Cheyenne is her son Dennis. The tribe had taken him when he was two years old.
7. How to Cure a Friend
Aired 10 November 1956 • 26 min
Matt is used by an old friend in a con game.
8. Legal Revenge
Aired 17 November 1956 • 26 min
Doc comes upon a homesteader with a busted leg—and a gun to protect himself from his wife.
9. The Mistake
Aired 24 November 1956 • 26 min
Matt leaves Dodge City unprotected when he sets out to find a killer (Mike Connors) (Bert Rumsey credited as 'Bartender', but referred to by Chester as 'Sam Noonan').
10. Greater Love
Aired 1 December 1956 • 26 min
An outlaw threatens to kill Doc if he does not help his wounded buddy.
11. No Indians
Aired 8 December 1956 • 26 min
Matt and Chester act as decoys to ambush outlaws (including Mickey Simpson) that are masking their crimes as those of renegade Indians (Fintan Meyler and Herbert Rudley appear).
12. Spring Term
Aired 15 December 1956 • 26 min
Matt discovers that he was the intended victim of a murder he is investigating.
13. Poor Pearl
Aired 22 December 1956 • 26 min
Matt helps a woman whose suitors are about to duel for her affections.
14. Cholera
Aired 29 December 1956 • 26 min
A landowner (Paul Fix) tries to terrorize homesteaders (Bartlett Robinson and Peg Hillias) off their land (Gordon Gebert, John Smith, and Stuart Whitman appear).
15. Pucket's New Year
Aired 5 January 1957 • 26 min
An old buffalo hunter (Edgar Stehli) swears revenge on the skinner (Grant Withers) that left him to die (Richard Deacon appears as banker Botkin, Bert Rumsey credited as 'Bartender').
16. The Cover Up
Aired 12 January 1957 • 26 min
Matt traps a cattleman (Tyler McVey) who shot two homesteaders (including Roy Engel) (Malcolm Atterbury and Vivi Janiss appear).
17. Sins of the Father
Aired 19 January 1957 • 26 min
An Indian woman (Angie Dickinson) faces prejudice for her father's raid on Dodge City (Peter Whitney and Paul Wexler appear).
18. Kick Me
Aired 26 January 1957 • 26 min
A bank robber (Robert H. Harris) murders his wife and frames Tobeel (Frank de Kova) for the crime (Paul Lambert appears).
19. Executioner
Aired 2 February 1957 • 26 min
A young gunfighter, Tom Clegg, forces farmer Abe Curry into a duel and kills him. Matt can't arrest Clegg since Abe drew first. However, Abe's brother Morgan plots revenge.
20. Gone Straight
Aired 9 February 1957 • 26 min
Townspeople protect an outlaw (Carl Betz) they believe has reformed (Tige Andrews, Joe De Santis, John Dierkes, Marianne Stewart, and Ward Wood appear).
21. Bloody Hands
Aired 16 February 1957 • 26 min
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 (Lawrence Dobkin, Russell Johnson, and Gloria Marshall appear).
22. Skid Row
Aired 23 February 1957 • 26 min
An Eastern girl makes the long trip to Dodge, only to find that her fiancé has lost his money and won't marry her.
23. Sweet and Sour
Aired 2 March 1957 • 26 min
Rena Decker, a new dance hall girl, purposely gets her admirers into fighting over her. Despite Kitty's negative opinion of her, Matt befreinds Rena and gets her a job at the Long Branch. Soon afterward, 4 men are dead and Rena is the cause.
24. Cain
Aired 9 March 1957 • 26 min
Ex-gunslinger Joel Adams' past is about to catch up with him.
25. Bureaucrat
Aired 16 March 1957 • 26 min
A Washington official is determined to tame Dodge City.
26. Last Fling
Aired 23 March 1957 • 26 min
Kitty gets annoyed by a pair of old farmers who are each trying to have a fling with her.
27. Chester's Murder
Aired 30 March 1957 • 26 min
Chester is drinking at the Long Branch and gets into an argument with a gambler over a girl. When the marshal breaks it up, he tells Chester to bring the man to jail. On the way there, the man is killed and everyone thinks Chester did it.
28. The Photographer
8.0Aired 6 April 1957 • 26 min
Dodge City meets a Photographer who shows the residents how a camera works. Jacoby wants to take pictures of how the Wild West looks. When Matt learns someone died, he thinks the photographer may have hired someone to kill Grubby for a picture of the west.
29. Wrong Man
7.0Aired 13 April 1957 • 26 min
A cowboy vows revenge for the shooting of his friend, who was mistaken for a criminal (Don Keefer and Catherine McLeod, real-life husband and wife, appear as a husband and wife).
30. Big Girl Lost
Aired 20 April 1957 • 26 min
Philip Locke is looking for Laura Simmons, a saloon girl, but she doesn't want him to know where she works. Laura tells Matt that she and Philip were previously engaged, and she asks him not to say anything about her job. Philip warns Matt that he will be killed if he doesn't tell the truth.
31. What the Whiskey Drummer Heard
Aired 27 April 1957 • 26 min
Matt fakes his death to lure a gunman (Vic Perrin) out in the open (Robert Karnes appears, Bert Rumsey credited as 'Sam').
32. Cheap Labor
Aired 4 May 1957 • 26 min
A former gunfighter has turned away from violence, but his fiancee's brother is determined to goad him into a gunfight.
33. Moon
Aired 11 May 1957 • 26 min
After Charlie Brewer is found dead, Jack Salter who was a friend of Charlie Brewer comes to Matt's office saying Vint killed Brewer. Matt then tries to find out if Jack is right.
34. Who Lives by the Sword
Aired 18 May 1957 • 26 min
Joe Delk causes trouble at The Long Branch after shooting two men who were unarmed.
35. Uncle Oliver
Aired 25 May 1957 • 26 min
Matt goes after an outlaw (Earle Hodgins) who shot Chester (Paul Wexler appears).
36. Daddy-O
Aired 1 June 1957 • 26 min
Kitty's father, Wayne Russell, arrives in Dodge to meet his daughter after abandoning her and her mother as a baby. He insists that saloon life is not fit for a proper lady and wants to take her back to New Orleans so he can pamper her and invest her savings in his freight business.
37. The Man Who Would Be Marshal
Aired 15 June 1957 • 26 min
A former Army Officer wants Matt Dillon's job. Matt then takes Mr. Egan on his rounds. Matt lets Egan try his brand of justice that almost costs Egan his life.
38. Liar from Blackhawk
Aired 22 June 1957 • 26 min
A braggart tries to provoke a gunfight with a harmless drunk.
39. Jealousy
Aired 6 July 1957 • 26 min
Jack Kelly plays a hot-tempered husband who thinks Matt is after his wife.