Episode List

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Season 20

Sep. 9, 1974
Matt Dillon Must Die
Since the mob killing of his wife years ago, old man Wakefield has gone on murderous rampages with his sons. Now the Wakefields are trying to run down and kill Matt in the freezing mountains.
 
Sep. 16, 1974
A Town in Chains
Five ex-Confederate soldiers have robbed the bank in Dodge City and are on the run through Indian territory, followed by Matt Dillon. The outlaws find abandoned Union military uniforms and disguise themselves as Union soldiers. At the next town, they declare martial law under the guise of an Indian uprising. The outlaws inveigle the townspeople into loading all their valuables on a wagon, which will then be stolen. When Matt catches up to the outlaws, things come to a head.
 
Sep. 23, 1974
The Guns of Cibola Blanca: Part 1
At Cibola Blanca, a hideout for ex-Confederate soldiers and Comancheros, Evans steals jewels and seriously wounds Ben Shindrow, son of Colonel Lucius Shindrow, leader of the outlaws. Major Coltrain sends a search party, led by Ivors, to capture and return Evans. In Santa Fe the outlaws kidnap Doc Adams and his medical colleague, Lyla, on their way home from a convention in San Francisco. At Cibola Blanca, Doc encounters a Dr. Rhodes, a junkie who has addicted the paralyzed Ben to laudanum. Doc takes over Ben's treatment. Ivors attacks Lyla, and Doc swears vengeance. ...
 
Sep. 30, 1974
The Guns of Cibola Blanca: Part 2
Contination of Episode #20.3. Dr. Rhodes dies and Doc Adams takes over treatment. Ben Shindrow is in such misery he wishes to die. Matt Dillon pretends not to know Lyla, but takes her away from Ivers, leading to a nasty knife fight. As Ivers is about to plunge his knife into Matt, Doc kills him with a rifle shot. Matt has a daring plan of escape, which Ben overhears. He tries to bargain with Doc to trade a lethal dose of laudanum for his silence. Doc is conflicted but refuses. The climax reveals unexpected character development.
 
Oct. 7, 1974
Thirty a Month and Found
The coming of the railroads vastly altered the cattle business, soon rendering cross-country trail drives unnecessary. Three cowboys, led by Will Parmalee, find the new West inhospitable to itinerant cattle drovers. Trouble seeks them out, and Matt Dillon finds himself on the opposite side of the law from his longtime friend Will.
 
Oct. 14, 1974
The Wiving
A seriocomic (and uneasy) episode where a overmodulated farmer (Harry Morgan with a huge fake beard) decides his three sons all need wives. So he orders them to go get some, and bring one back for himself. The boys swing on down into Dodge City to find women -- and stop at the Long Branch. Not only do they "rustle" three saloon girls (including one right out of bed in long-john underwear), but they take the Long Branch's new owner, Hannah Cobb (Fran Ryan in her first appearance) with them. Then the boys (and the man, who's Hannah's age) try to "court" their unwilling ...
 
Oct. 21, 1974
The Iron Men
Ex-lawman Chauncey Demon, an old friend of Matt Dillon, has fallen on hard times. He has become an alcoholic who can no longer ride or shoot the way he once did. He renews his acquaintance with the widow and son of another lawman who was a close friend, Kathy and Johnny Carter. Demon runs afoul of wealthy cattle baron Carl Ryker and must face Ryker's gunslinger Kane, as well as deal with his feelings for Kathy and Johnny. Matt comes to the rescue at the crucial moment.
 
Nov. 4, 1974
The Fourth Victim
Dillon has to find and stop a serial sniper in Dodge who has been killing one man per night with a silencer equipped .30 caliber rifle.
 
Nov. 11, 1974
The Tarnished Badge
Matt has to stop his old friend, the sheriff of a nearby town, who has become so dominant, brutal and power hungry with it's people, that he thinks he can commit murder and get away with it.
 
Nov. 18, 1974
In Performance of Duty
An elderly circuit judge comes to Dodge to take care of its court docket, only to run into a group of old enemies -- outlaws who rob and kill people in their paths. No one has ever lived to give eyewitness testimony against the family. The judge soon learns that he himself is near death from a heart condition. When the gang goes free after still another set of murders, the judge contrives an ironclad way to get the entire group hanged.
 
Dec. 2, 1974
Island in the Desert: Part 1
Festus is shot by the killer he is pursuing in the blazing desert, only to be helped by a crazed hermit and forced to tote water to try and get him to a town 80 miles away.
 
Dec. 9, 1974
Island in the Desert: Part 2
Festus and the hermit come upon killer Gard Dixon dying in the desert, and when Festus helps him recover, the hermit forces both of them to tote water and gold dust.
 
Dec. 16, 1974
The Colonel
Colonel Josiah Johnson, the town drunk, promises to watch Carl's general store while the young man goes to fetch his bride-to-be, Anne Johnson. Unknown to Carl, the young lady is the Colonel's estranged daughter. Through the Colonel's careless oversight, Carl's store is badly damaged by fire. The old man decides to leave Dodge City before his daughter's wedding, so her true identity may remain secret. The Colonel overhears a plot to rob the local bank and shoot up the town, and proves to be a true hero.
 
Jan. 6, 1975
The Squaw
Matt, in pursuit of three bank robbers, inadvertently catches a fourth one -- their bagman, who swiped the loot and took off. The thieves learn what's happened and go in pursuit of both Matt and the thief. While stopped at a water hole, Matt and the thief meet a group of Indians who are about to leave a squaw in the desert to die. The startled thief asks why and is told the woman is a bad-luck omen, having outlived both of her husbands. To his own surprise, the thief bargains to take the squaw with him and Matt. He doesn't have any regard for the woman, but she proves...
 
Jan. 13, 1975
The Hiders
 
Jan. 20, 1975
Larkin
Gunfighter Clay Larkin is wanted dead or alive with a reward of $5,000. He kills a bounty hunter and takes off. Newly O'Brien, on his way to Dodge City, stops at a restaurant where Larkin is having lunch. Bounty hunter Lon Toomes and two henchmen spot Larkin and try to capture him, but the outlaw is rescued by Newly, who takes him into custody. Newly, seriously wounded, struggles to reach Dodge City with his prisoner while the three bounty hunters are hot on their trail.
 
Jan. 27, 1975
The Fires of Ignorance
An inflexible father believes that his son is needed more on the farm than attending school. The local schoolteacher believes different and after being assaulted by the father will try to force the need for mandatory education in court.
 
Feb. 3, 1975
The Angry Land
In the next-to-last episode where Matt Dillon is the lead ("Hard Labor" aired three weeks later), Matt comes upon the site where thieves ambushed a wagon train and killed everyone on board except for one little girl. The girl is able to point Matt to the home of an aunt who lives nearby, but the aunt -- who fell out with her family long ago -- refuses to take her in. Matt persuades the aunt to at least put them up for a few days, but her "husband" (actually one of the robber-killers) has different ideas and tries to kill Matt when he becomes suspicious.
 
Feb. 10, 1975
Brides and Grooms
In a hurried, all-comic sequel to "The Wiving," the sons of a loony farmer have all finally found women willing to marry them (the farmer makes a play for Hannah Cobb, in her second appearance, and is turned down again). But finding wives was easy by comparison to actually marrying them!
 
Feb. 24, 1975
Hard Labor
Dillon is sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor by Judge Flood (Colicos), who uses an illegally constituted court to staff his private silver mine.
 
Mar. 3, 1975
I Have Promises to Keep
An aging pastor is determined to erect a church for the Indians on the reservation but is met with bigotry from the citizens of a nearby town.
 
Mar. 10, 1975
The Busters
Harve tries to ride a wild horse until it settles down but instead it throws him and kicks him in the head. He seems to be okay and he and his partner go to Dodge to seek help in getting paid for the attempt. But Harve starts having dizzy spells, and the partner takes him to Doc Adams for evaluation. Doc tells the partner that he has a "subdural hemotoma," - uncontrollable bleeding into the brain and will die soon. The partner keeps this a secret and invites Harve to go celebrate them finally getting their wages, after which they will get on a train to Montana. ...
 
Mar. 17, 1975
Manolo
Viewers got a double dip of watching "S.W.A.T." costars Robert Urich and Mark Shera on the same night on different networks, as this episode teams them as brothers. They are the sons of a Basque sheep herder who's part of a community near Dodge. According to the script, a Basque boy's manhood ritual is to defeat his father in a fist fight. The older son (Urich) had beaten a schoolyard rival to death in a fight while a boy in the old country, and wants nothing to do with the ritual. The younger son (Shera) has no such qualms, and wins the fight with his father in a ...
 
Mar. 31, 1975
The Sharecroppers
 

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