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Original Air Date—10 September 1955
Matt is critically wounded while attempting to arrest super-fast gunman Dan Grat. Grat runs rampant in Dodge while Matt recovers, but is unpleasantly surprised when the recovered marshal challenges him again. |
Season 1, Episode 2: Hot SpellOriginal Air Date—17 September 1955
Temperatures are high, tempers are short, and Matt is unenviably duty-bound to protect despicable gunman Cope Borden from being lynched by a group of normally law-abiding and hard-working ranchers and cowhands. |
Original Air Date—1 October 1955
Doc is sworn to secrecy to protect a cruel gang guilty of murder. |
Original Air Date—8 October 1955
The frightened teenage daughter of a rancher enlists Matt to attempt to save her father's life by amputating his gangrenous leg. |
Season 1, Episode 5: Obie TaterOriginal Air Date—15 October 1955
A old prospector marries a saloon girl, who like others wants to know where his gold from his prospecting days is hidden. |
Original Air Date—29 October 1955
Matt is dubious of young Timmy Wyatt's stories concerning nighttime robberies and assaults, but he agrees to investigate and is surprised by what he discovers. |
Original Air Date—5 November 1955
Matt has the unpleasant task of evicting some squatters from a rancher's land, but the squatters claim the rancher sold the land to them legally. |
Original Air Date—12 November 1955
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Season 1, Episode 9: The HunterOriginal Air Date—26 November 1955
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Season 1, Episode 10: The QueueOriginal Air Date—3 December 1955
A Chinese visitor is not welcomed by most citizens in Dodge. |
Original Air Date—10 December 1955
An inveterate liar is loudly insistent that Dodge City's new banker is a swindler who will abscond with the townspeople's savings at his earliest opportunity. |
Season 1, Episode 12: MagnusOriginal Air Date—24 December 1955
Chester is concerned when his nomadic and "uncivilized" brother pays a Christmas visit to Dodge, but Magnus Goode proves worldlier and more adaptable to town life than anyone thought possible. |
Original Air Date—31 December 1955
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Original Air Date—7 January 1956
Doc Adams complains vehemently to Matt when a medicine man's opium-laden "cure-all" nearly kills an infant girl. Matt initially finds himself unable to intervene legally, but he is finally able to do so when abuse of the elixir results in the death of an elderly man. |
Original Air Date—21 January 1956
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Original Air Date—28 January 1956
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Season 1, Episode 17: Robin HoodOriginal Air Date—4 February 1956
Holdup man John Henry Jordan 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. |
Season 1, Episode 18: YorkyOriginal Air Date—18 February 1956
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Season 1, Episode 19: 20-20Original Air Date—25 February 1956
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Original Air Date—3 March 1956
Jerry Shand finds himself facing a hangman's noose after killing jovial hardware drummer Andy Culley, but Matt learns that Culley was a former Quantrill raider and senses that reticent Long Branch hostess Belle Archer is the key to proving Jerry's claim of self-defense. |
Original Air Date—17 March 1956
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Original Air Date—24 March 1956
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Original Air Date—31 March 1956
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Original Air Date—14 April 1956
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Original Air Date—28 April 1956
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Season 1, Episode 26: Hack PrineOriginal Air Date—12 May 1956
Far from Dodge and without a horse Matt Dillon still manages to bring in Lee Trimble...a man wanted for murder. Lee's brother Dolph swears that he'll get him out. Meanwhile, an old friend of Dillon's, Hack Prine, 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 killing Dillon. |
Season 1, Episode 27: CooterOriginal Air Date—19 May 1956
After Matt exposes gambler Ben Sissle as a cheat, Sissle attempts to extract revenge by giving brain-damaged Cooter Smith a gun and telling the marshal that Cooter plans to challenge him to a gunfight. |
Season 1, Episode 28: The KillerOriginal Air Date—26 May 1956
A brutal killer named Crego is in Dodge. His game is to goad slower men into drawing first and then gunning them down and claiming self defense. Each time Dillon confronts him he backs down. If Matt can't rely on the law to provide a solution to this problem he may be forced to resort to Crego's tactics to mete out justice. |
Original Air Date—9 June 1956
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Original Air Date—16 June 1956
The stage coach arrives in Dodge carrying two distinct personalities. Sam Keeler, a loud braggart of a man who boasts he can beat any man with his fists and Seth Tandy a quiet, meek man who refuses to raise his hands in violence. Keeler tries to provoke Tandy into a fight and Dillon is forced to intervene to prevent Tandy's beating. Soon Keeler has a grudge against Tandy and Dillon which will lead to an inevitable confrontation between Keeler and Dillon. |
Original Air Date—23 June 1956
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Original Air Date—30 June 1956
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Original Air Date—7 July 1956
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Original Air Date—14 July 1956
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Season 1, Episode 35: The GuitarOriginal Air Date—21 July 1956
Weed Pindle is a rather mild mannered wandering guitar player who is in Dodge. A couple of the rowdier cowboys have started having fun at his expense getting him drunk. When they find out he fought for the Union in the 3rd Illinois Cavalry their fun turns serious and they are set on hanging the peaceful player. Chester and some of the other citizens are just as determined to prevent it. |
Season 1, Episode 36: CaraOriginal Air Date—28 July 1956
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Original Air Date—4 August 1956
A struggling prairie couple endures harassment and torment at the hands of the wife's self-righteous brother. |
Original Air Date—18 August 1956
A distraught middle-aged woman becomes determined to aid a young murderer in Matt's custody after she learns of her own son's violent death and unceremonious burial on Boot Hill. |
Original Air Date—25 August 1956
While on the way back to Dodge, Matt and Chester help homesteaders besieged by Indians. |
Season 2, Episode 1: Cow DoctorOriginal Air Date—8 September 1956
Doc is called to a farm to treat a sick farmer, who has always hated doctors. |
Original Air Date—15 September 1956
Matt must resort to trickery after he and Chester trail psychopathic killer Lou Shippen to a small town whose citizenry is so frightened of Shippen that they refuse to even point him out. |
Season 2, Episode 3: CusterOriginal Air Date—22 September 1956
"Rough justice" awaits cocksure Army deserter Joe Trimble after a civilian jury wrongly acquits him of murder and the Army forgoes prosecution in favor of returning him to his unit. |
Original Air Date—29 September 1956
Matt goes on a rampage to close down Front Street after he accidentally shoots and kills his old friend (and temporary deputy) while trying to defend himself from a sneak attack by a murderous saloonkeeper. |
Original Air Date—20 October 1956
After Matt unceremoniously kills despicable gunman Sam Kircher, teen-age brother Peyt Kircher arrives in Dodge and announces that he plans to practice drawing and shooting until he is good enough to face Matt and avenge his brother's death. |
Original Air Date—27 October 1956
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Original Air Date—10 November 1956
Matt is put in a difficult position by the arrival of Nick Search, an old friend who has since become a gambler with a fast draw and a reputation for dishonesty. |
Original Air Date—17 November 1956
Doc rides out to a small farm to greet newcomers and let them know a doctor is available if needed. He is rudely met by Flory Tibbs who claims her husband is out working. Someone calls from inside the cabin and Doc finds him lying in bed with a wounded leg. It's obvious she doesn't want Doc around so fearing for the man's life Doc tells Matt about the strange behavior and Matt and Chester ride out to investigate. |
Original Air Date—24 November 1956
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Original Air Date—1 December 1956
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Season 2, Episode 11: No IndiansOriginal Air Date—8 December 1956
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. |
Original Air Date—15 December 1956
A man is shot on the streets of Dodge, and Matt realizes that shot was meant for him. |
Season 2, Episode 13: Poor PearlOriginal Air Date—22 December 1956
Tragedy results when Long Branch hostess Pearl Bender finds herself compelled to choose between the marriage proposals of an honest farmer and a callous-seeming gambler. |
Season 2, Episode 14: CholeraOriginal Air Date—29 December 1956
A landowner's attempt to evict homesteaders is helped by a cholera outbreak. |
Original Air Date—5 January 1957
A man, abandoned and permanently crippled by the cold on the prairie, is rescued by Matt and Chester and struggles to find a purpose. |
Original Air Date—12 January 1957
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Original Air Date—19 January 1957
Big Dan Taggitt, a mountain man, signs up for a room at the Dodge House for he and his wife. Everything is fine until Mr. Dobie finds out his wife is an Indian. Not just any Indian...she is the daughter of Yellow Horse an Indian raider who had killed many settlers. Dobie riles the town up against them while Matt tries to keep the peace. Dobie's ranting eventually leads to violence. |
Season 2, Episode 18: Kick MeOriginal Air Date—26 January 1957
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Original Air Date—2 February 1957
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Original Air Date—9 February 1957
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Original Air Date—16 February 1957
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Season 2, Episode 22: Skid RowOriginal Air Date—23 February 1957
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Original Air Date—2 March 1957
Violence and tragedy result when Matt and Chester persuade a reluctant Kitty to hire flirtatious Rena Decker as a Long Branch hostess. |
Season 2, Episode 24: CainOriginal Air Date—9 March 1957
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Season 2, Episode 25: BureaucratOriginal Air Date—16 March 1957
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Season 2, Episode 26: Last FlingOriginal Air Date—23 March 1957
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Original Air Date—30 March 1957
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Original Air Date—6 April 1957
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Season 2, Episode 29: Wrong ManOriginal Air Date—13 April 1957
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Original Air Date—20 April 1957
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Original Air Date—27 April 1957
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Original Air Date—4 May 1957
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Season 2, Episode 33: MoonOriginal Air Date—11 May 1957
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Original Air Date—18 May 1957
Despicable gunman Joe Delk 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. |
Original Air Date—25 May 1957
Uncle Oliver arrives in town and believes his simpleton nephew would be a good deputy for Matt, instead of Chester. |
Season 2, Episode 36: Daddy-OOriginal Air Date—1 June 1957
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Original Air Date—15 June 1957
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Original Air Date—22 June 1957
Hank Shinn arrives in Dodge from the Dakota territory and is given a wide berth because of his reputation as a killer with a fast draw. However, Shinn's curious behavior leads Matt to suspect that he may not be the gunman that everyone believes him to be. |
Season 2, Episode 39: JealousyOriginal Air Date—6 July 1957
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Season 3, Episode 1: Crack-UpOriginal Air Date—14 September 1957
Gunman Nate Springer arrives in Dodge with the obvious intention of committing murder, but his nervousness and unpredictability make Matt determined to find out who hired him and why he seems so different from his steel-nerved reputation. |
Original Air Date—21 September 1957
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Original Air Date—28 September 1957
In order to collect a reward of $500, Harry Speener kills Joe Harpe even though Harpe had recently saved his life on the prairie. Matt grudgingly pays the reward, but unwittingly sends Speener to an ironic fate when he orders the opportunistic ex-bartender out of Dodge. |
Original Air Date—5 October 1957
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Original Air Date—12 October 1957
An addled and desperate prairie family lures Matt and Chester out of town as a preliminary part of their plan for attempting a violent robbery of the Dodge City bank. |
Season 3, Episode 6: JesseOriginal Air Date—19 October 1957
Young and likable Jesse Pruett teams up with an unlikely "partner" in the person of Bill Stapp, a murderous former Quantrill raider. Stapp has promised to lead Jesse to the man who killed his father so he can avenge his death, but the young man is tragically unaware of Stapp's true intentions |
Original Air Date—26 October 1957
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Original Air Date—2 November 1957
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Season 3, Episode 9: RomeoOriginal Air Date—9 November 1957
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Original Air Date—16 November 1957
Matt sets out with a vengeance to capture two trouble-making Texas cowhands who dragged Chester and left him near death. |
Season 3, Episode 11: FingeredOriginal Air Date—23 November 1957
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Original Air Date—30 November 1957
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Original Air Date—7 December 1957
An impoverished but hardworking woman's plans to adopt an orphan baby are jeopardized when Matt discovers that her improvident husband is involved in cattle rustling. |
Original Air Date—14 December 1957
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Season 3, Episode 15: Kitty LostOriginal Air Date—21 December 1957
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Original Air Date—28 December 1957
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Season 3, Episode 17: Joe PhyOriginal Air Date—4 January 1958
Matt and Chester travel to the small town of Elkader to arrest would-be killer Kerry Post, but find they must first expose a bogus U.S. Marshal in order to lure him into town. |
Original Air Date—11 January 1958
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Original Air Date—18 January 1958
The Gunter brothers rob the Dodge City Bank and take Kitty as a hostage. Matt and Chester follow at a discreet distance waiting for a chance to save her, knowing all the while that the sadistic Jed Gunter would readily make good on his threat to kill Kitty and leave her laying in the trail. |
Original Air Date—25 January 1958
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Season 3, Episode 21: Ma TennisOriginal Air Date—1 February 1958
A strong-willed, shotgun-wielding matriarch helps her son escape from Matt's custody, but the Marshal is equally determined to see the young man tried and sentenced for killing an unarmed man. |
Original Air Date—8 February 1958
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Season 3, Episode 23: Wild WestOriginal Air Date—15 February 1958
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Season 3, Episode 24: The CabinOriginal Air Date—22 February 1958
To escape a potentially lethal blizzard, Matt seeks shelter in a cabin in which two psychopathic bandits have enslaved and repeatedly molested a young woman after murdering her father. |
Season 3, Episode 25: DirtOriginal Air Date—1 March 1958
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Original Air Date—8 March 1958
Addled hide skinner Emmett Dooley believes that he killed a man and demands to be put in jail. Matt is convinced that Dooley was not the culprit and tries to lure the real killer into giving himself away. |
Original Air Date—15 March 1958
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Season 3, Episode 28: BottlemanOriginal Air Date—22 March 1958
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Original Air Date—29 March 1958
When town bully Cloud Marsh experiences public humiliation during a laughing gas show, he and his surly brothers assault proprietor Earle Stafford and attempt to molest his kind-hearted wife. |
Original Air Date—5 April 1958
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Original Air Date—12 April 1958
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Original Air Date—19 April 1958
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Original Air Date—26 April 1958
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Original Air Date—3 May 1958
The Dodge City Bank's acting manager loses $20,000 of the bank's money when he imprudently makes a loan secured by a seemingly "can't lose" poker hand. Matt makes it apparent to the three "players" that he believes they actually worked together to defraud the bank, so they flee Dodge with Doc as a hostage. |
Original Air Date—10 May 1958
Matt is strongly suspicious of the character and the intentions of gentleman gambler Leach Fields, especially when he proposes marriage to a recently-widowed woman who may know the location of $10,000 in stolen money. |
Original Air Date—17 May 1958
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Season 3, Episode 37: CarmenOriginal Air Date—24 May 1958
When an Army payroll is stolen, the commanding officer of Fort Dodge threatens to put Dodge City under martial law unless Matt can capture the perpetrators within 48 hours. |
Original Air Date—31 May 1958
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Original Air Date—7 June 1958
Suave and enigmatic gambler Marcus France falls in love with Long Branch hostess Boni Damon. France is curiously unwilling to marry Boni, though he is willing to risk death to protect her from the unwanted advances of vicious Tiller Evans. |
Original Air Date—13 September 1958
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Season 4, Episode 2: The PatsyOriginal Air Date—20 September 1958
Matt doubts the veracity of Long Branch hostess Holly Fanshaw's claim that she saw trail drover Fly Hoyt murder young Dave Thorp. His suspicions increase further when Hoyt voluntarily returns to Dodge in order to clear his name. |
Original Air Date—27 September 1958
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Season 4, Episode 4: MonopolyOriginal Air Date—4 October 1958
Two murders result when an unscrupulous Eastern businessman named Ivy hires a psychotic killer to help him establish undisputed control of Dodge City's freight shipment business. |
Original Air Date—11 October 1958
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Original Air Date—18 October 1958
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Original Air Date—25 October 1958
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Season 4, Episode 8: Lost RifleOriginal Air Date—1 November 1958
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Season 4, Episode 9: Land DealOriginal Air Date—8 November 1958
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Original Air Date—15 November 1958
After mild-mannered Hank Blenis is "lynched" by the two men who stole his horse, self-righteous Charlie Drain decides to take the law into his own hands and is led tragically astray by the culprits. |
Original Air Date—22 November 1958
Two gamblers find Matt incorruptible and attempt to intimidate him by hiring gunman Toque Morlan. The two are ironically unaware that Morlan was Matt's close friend until a long-ago attack by a mob left Morlan scarred and harboring a bitter grudge against lawmen. |
Season 4, Episode 12: GrassOriginal Air Date—29 November 1958
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Season 4, Episode 13: The CastOriginal Air Date—6 December 1958
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Original Air Date—13 December 1958
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Season 4, Episode 15: SnakebiteOriginal Air Date—20 December 1958
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Original Air Date—27 December 1958
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Season 4, Episode 17: Young LoveOriginal Air Date—3 January 1959
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Original Air Date—10 January 1959
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Original Air Date—17 January 1959
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Original Air Date—24 January 1959
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Season 4, Episode 21: JayhawkersOriginal Air Date—31 January 1959
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Original Air Date—7 February 1959
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Season 4, Episode 23: SkyOriginal Air Date—14 February 1959
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Season 4, Episode 24: Doc QuitsOriginal Air Date—21 February 1959
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Season 4, Episode 25: The BearOriginal Air Date—28 February 1959
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Season 4, Episode 26: The CowardOriginal Air Date—7 March 1959
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Season 4, Episode 27: The F.U.Original Air Date—14 March 1959
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Season 4, Episode 28: WindOriginal Air Date—21 March 1959
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Season 4, Episode 29: FawnOriginal Air Date—4 April 1959
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Original Air Date—11 April 1959
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Original Air Date—18 April 1959
Matt and Dodge City's businessmen employ an unusual tactic to save ambush victim Lee Prentice from being taken to corrupt Baker City to face certain hanging on a trumped-up murder charge. |
Original Air Date—25 April 1959
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Original Air Date—2 May 1959
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Season 4, Episode 34: The ChoiceOriginal Air Date—9 May 1959
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Original Air Date—16 May 1959
Gunman Kin Creed arrives in Dodge determined to enhance his reputation by outdrawing Matt in a gunfight. He goes to great lengths to force Matt into a confrontation and is able to wound him, but it proves to be a pyrrhic victory. |
Original Air Date—23 May 1959
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Original Air Date—30 May 1959
Dodge City's businessmen learn a hard lesson when they reject Matt's advice and hire a meek constable to handle a gang of rowdy but free-spending trail cowboys. |
Season 4, Episode 38: Blue HorseOriginal Air Date—6 June 1959
Seriously injured Matt faces a moral dilemma when Blue Horse saves his life and prevents the escape of a prisoner. The Marshal knows that Blue Horse is being sought by the Cavalry as a fugitive from a reservation, and he is well aware that he is duty-bound to assist their search in any way possible. |
Season 4, Episode 39: CheyennesOriginal Air Date—13 June 1959
Matt seeks the help of wise Chief Long Robe to track down gunrunners who are supplying renegade Cheyenne braves with rifles used to murder prairie-dwelling families. Long Robe provides Matt with the needed information, but warns him that the death of even a single brave could lead to a violent uprising. |
Season 5, Episode 1: TargetOriginal Air Date—5 September 1959
Ironic tragedy results when Danny Kader stubbornly disregards his father's predispositions (and Matt's pragmatic advice) in order to attempt an elopement with a young gypsy woman. |
Original Air Date—19 September 1959
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Season 5, Episode 3: Horse DealOriginal Air Date—26 September 1959
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Season 5, Episode 4: Johnny RedOriginal Air Date—3 October 1959
A man suddenly turns up in Dodge City claiming to be Billy Crale, the long-lost son of a well-to-do local widow. Matt knows that Billy Crale was reported dead during the Civil War and he becomes highly concerned for Mrs. Crale's safety when he confirms that the man is actually a onetime outlaw known as Johnny Red. |
Season 5, Episode 5: KangarooOriginal Air Date—10 October 1959
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Original Air Date—17 October 1959
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Original Air Date—24 October 1959
Attention-starved Kate Kinsman claims that her husband Jeff was murdered by their handsome (and unattached) neighbor Ed Dolliver. The physical evidence points to Dolliver's guilt, but Matt is unconvinced and sets a trap to expose the killer. |
Season 5, Episode 8: SaludosOriginal Air Date—31 October 1959
Matt rounds up three men (Steed, Foss, and Pegger) knowing that one of them is guilty of murdering a Pawnee brave while attempting to rape his wife Sochi. The Marshal tells the three that Sochi can identify her attacker, but he hopes that the guilty man will give himself away during the tense ride back to Dodge. |
Original Air Date—7 November 1959
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Season 5, Episode 10: The BootsOriginal Air Date—14 November 1959
Onetime gunman Zeno Smith faces an unenviable choice. If he does not help would-be gambler Hank Fergus rob Mr. Jonas's general store, Fergus will tell 12-year old orphan Tommy the full story of how Zeno's descent into deprivation and alcoholism dates to the day he backed down from facing Fergus in a gunfight. |
Original Air Date—21 November 1959
Matt is uncertain what to make of Cyrus Tucker's confused claim that his wife of 32 years "just ran off", especially when a homesteader claims that he saw the old man digging a large hole just behind his house. |
Original Air Date—28 November 1959
Drifters Ab Cole and Rusk Davis repeatedly bother virtuous Chavela Ramirez and their actions eventually cause serious injury to the young woman. Matt takes Cole into custody and warns Chavela's proud father Miguel that there will be serious consequences if he defends his daughter's "honor" by going after Davis himself. |
Original Air Date—5 December 1959
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Original Air Date—12 December 1959
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Original Air Date—19 December 1959
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Original Air Date—26 December 1959
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Original Air Date—2 January 1960
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Season 5, Episode 18: Big TomOriginal Air Date—9 January 1960
Despite a serious heart condition, onetime prizefighter Tom Burr is determined to go through with his plans to fight vicious Hob Creel. The only way Matt can stop the mismatch and save Burr's life is to fight Creel himself. |
Original Air Date—16 January 1960
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Original Air Date—23 January 1960
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Season 5, Episode 21: Hinka DoOriginal Air Date—30 January 1960
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Season 5, Episode 22: Doc JudgeOriginal Air Date—6 February 1960
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Original Air Date—13 February 1960
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Original Air Date—20 February 1960
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Original Air Date—27 February 1960
Matt arrests Dan, Jerry, and Janet Everly after they rob a train of $50,000 and kill the baggage clerk. However, he is sympathetic to the hard-pressed family's claim that they are entitled to compensation from the railroad, and he resents the implications of an obnoxious railroad agent who accuses the Marshal of having "eyes" for the spunky teen-aged Janet. |
Original Air Date—5 March 1960
Determined to avenge his murderous brother's hanging, Vince Walsh begins a self-serving campaign of unofficially helping to keep the peace in Dodge City over Matt's objections. Walsh is certain that his actions and his taunts will eventually goad the Marshal into a gunfight. |
Original Air Date—12 March 1960
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Original Air Date—26 March 1960
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Original Air Date—2 April 1960
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Original Air Date—9 April 1960
Far from Dodge, Chester finds himself in the uncomfortable position of trying to extract a bullet in order to save Doc's life after the two are ambushed by a pair of savage prairie wolfers. |
Season 5, Episode 31: I Thee WedOriginal Air Date—16 April 1960
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Original Air Date—23 April 1960
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Original Air Date—30 April 1960
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Original Air Date—7 May 1960
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Original Air Date—14 May 1960
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Original Air Date—21 May 1960
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Season 5, Episode 37: Old FlameOriginal Air Date—28 May 1960
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Original Air Date—4 June 1960
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Season 5, Episode 39: Cherry RedOriginal Air Date—11 June 1960
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Original Air Date—3 September 1960
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Original Air Date—17 September 1960
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Original Air Date—24 September 1960
Matt arrests Finn Pickett based on a circular that indicates he is wanted for murder in Oklahoma Territory. Pickett repeatedly proclaims his innocence and vows that his prairie-savvy sons will do whatever is necessary to free him. |
Season 6, Episode 4: Say UncleOriginal Air Date—1 October 1960
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Original Air Date—8 October 1960
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Original Air Date—15 October 1960
Matt strips the badge from crooked Tascosa sheriff Clegg Rawlins, but knows he will likely face an ambush attempt during his return trip to Dodge City. He gets unexpected assistance from Rawlins' jilted girlfriend Stella, who meets the Marshal on horseback in an attempt to escape Rawlins and begin life anew in Dodge. |
Season 6, Episode 7: Don MatteoOriginal Air Date—22 October 1960
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Season 6, Episode 8: The WormOriginal Air Date—29 October 1960
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Original Air Date—12 November 1960
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Original Air Date—19 November 1960
Two roughnecks (Sloat and Grade) cruelly harass Raffie Bly, a confused and defenseless young man who suffered a serious head trauma while serving as a drummer in the Civil War. |
Original Air Date—26 November 1960
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Season 6, Episode 12: No ChipOriginal Air Date—3 December 1960
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Season 6, Episode 13: The WakeOriginal Air Date—10 December 1960
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Season 6, Episode 14: The CookOriginal Air Date—17 December 1960
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Season 6, Episode 15: Old FoolOriginal Air Date—24 December 1960
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Original Air Date—31 December 1960
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Original Air Date—7 January 1961
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Original Air Date—14 January 1961
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Original Air Date—21 January 1961
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Original Air Date—28 January 1961
The theft of a sack of potatoes leads to increasingly violent hostilities between the Scooper and Galloway families. |
Season 6, Episode 21: Bad SeedOriginal Air Date—4 February 1961
Matt rescues teen-aged Trudy Trent from a life of isolated poverty with her incestuous and alcoholic father, but he subsequently learns that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" when he rejects her misguided romantic overtures toward him. |
Season 6, Episode 22: Kitty ShotOriginal Air Date—11 February 1961
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Original Air Date—25 February 1961
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Season 6, Episode 24: HarrietOriginal Air Date—4 March 1961
After witnessing the callous murder of her kindly father, Harriet Horne disregards Matt's advice and unwisely attempts to extract revenge from the perpetrators by making them jealous rivals for her attention. |
Season 6, Episode 25: PotshotOriginal Air Date—11 March 1961
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Season 6, Episode 26: Old FacesOriginal Air Date—18 March 1961
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Season 6, Episode 27: Big ManOriginal Air Date—25 March 1961
To protect Kitty, Matt is forced to physically (and publicly) subdue fractious troublemaker Pat Swarner. When Swarner is subsequently found murdered, oft-inebriated Jud Sloan's claim that the Marshal was the killer seems uncomfortably credible. |
Original Air Date—1 April 1961
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Original Air Date—8 April 1961
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Season 6, Episode 30: MinnieOriginal Air Date—15 April 1961
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Original Air Date—22 April 1961
Vengeful former convict Nate Bush sets off a tragic series of events when he informs Matt that well-liked new arrival Cole Treadwell is actually Cole Trankin, an escapee from the Arizona Territorial Prison. |
Original Air Date—29 April 1961
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Original Air Date—6 May 1961
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Original Air Date—13 May 1961
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Original Air Date—20 May 1961
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Original Air Date—27 May 1961
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Original Air Date—3 June 1961
When Roy Tayloe is murdered following a poker game, quick-tempered Harry Miles is certain that daughter Melinda's suitor Tom Potter is the killer. Miles quickly becomes impatient with Matt's methodical investigation of the crime and threatens to kill Potter himself unless he stays away from Melinda. |
Original Air Date—17 June 1961
Matt and Chester find Rod Ellison shot and paralyzed on the prairie and return him to Dodge for surgery. Ben Witter abrasively advises Matt that he is a deputy sheriff from Pueblo who has come to Dodge to arrest Ellison for robbery, but Matt is suspicious of Witter's refusal to produce a valid arrest warrant. |
Season 7, Episode 1: PerceOriginal Air Date—30 September 1961
After helping Matt prevail in a confrontation with three outlaws, ex-convict Perce McCall settles in Dodge City with $500 and apparently promising future prospects. His good fortune changes abruptly when he tries to quickly amass enough money to win the favor of hard-hearted Long Branch hostess Ida Poe. |
Original Air Date—7 October 1961
After killing an old trapper for his meager savings, Frank Cassidy drifts into Dodge and finds a job on the farm of siblings Beulah and Leroy Parker. Cassidy and Beulah soon find themselves strongly attracted to each other and it turns out that they have much in common. |
Season 7, Episode 3: Miss KittyOriginal Air Date—14 October 1961
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Original Air Date—21 October 1961
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Season 7, Episode 5: All ThatOriginal Air Date—28 October 1961
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Original Air Date—4 November 1961
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Season 7, Episode 7: The SquawOriginal Air Date—11 November 1961
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Original Air Date—18 November 1961
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Season 7, Episode 9: MillyOriginal Air Date—25 November 1961
Seventeen year old Milly Glover and her little brother Joey live in needless poverty because of the indolence of their drunkard father. Seeing how a happy marriage saved her friend Laura from penury, Milly sets about courting three nearby bachelors, with unintended consequences. |
Original Air Date—2 December 1961
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Original Air Date—9 December 1961
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Original Air Date—16 December 1961
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Season 7, Episode 13: Marry MeOriginal Air Date—23 December 1961
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Original Air Date—30 December 1961
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Original Air Date—6 January 1962
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Season 7, Episode 16: LaceyOriginal Air Date—13 January 1962
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Original Air Date—20 January 1962
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Season 7, Episode 18: Old DanOriginal Air Date—27 January 1962
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Season 7, Episode 19: CatawomperOriginal Air Date—10 February 1962
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Original Air Date—17 February 1962
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Original Air Date—24 February 1962
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Original Air Date—3 March 1962
Footloose but honest Pruitt Dover saves Matt's life while being returned to Dodge to stand trial for killing a man during a drunken argument. Matt's faith in the law and even his devotion to duty are severely shaken when vindictive Judge Henry disregards the lack of credible witnesses or hard evidence against Dover and sentences him to hang. |
Season 7, Episode 23: ReprisalOriginal Air Date—10 March 1962
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Season 7, Episode 24: CoventryOriginal Air Date—17 March 1962
Land-grabbing Dean Beard is wrongly acquitted after he murders popular feed store owner Jessie Ott to prevent Ott from exposing his land swindles. Beard is eventually forced to leave Dodge when no one will do business with him or even acknowledge his presence, but an ironic fate awaits him. |
Season 7, Episode 25: The WidowOriginal Air Date—24 March 1962
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Original Air Date—31 March 1962
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Original Air Date—7 April 1962
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Season 7, Episode 28: The DealerOriginal Air Date—14 April 1962
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Original Air Date—21 April 1962
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Original Air Date—28 April 1962
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Season 7, Episode 31: CaleOriginal Air Date—5 May 1962
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Original Air Date—12 May 1962
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Original Air Date—19 May 1962
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Season 7, Episode 34: The BoysOriginal Air Date—26 May 1962
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Season 8, Episode 1: The SearchOriginal Air Date—15 September 1962
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Original Air Date—22 September 1962
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Original Air Date—29 September 1962
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Season 8, Episode 4: Root DownOriginal Air Date—6 October 1962
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Season 8, Episode 5: JennyOriginal Air Date—13 October 1962
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Original Air Date—20 October 1962
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Season 8, Episode 7: The DitchOriginal Air Date—27 October 1962
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Original Air Date—3 November 1962
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Original Air Date—10 November 1962
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Season 8, Episode 10: The HungerOriginal Air Date—17 November 1962
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Original Air Date—24 November 1962
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Original Air Date—1 December 1962
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Season 8, Episode 13: Us HaggensOriginal Air Date—8 December 1962
To avenge the death of his twin brother Fergus, savvy plainsman Festus Haggen forms an initially uneasy alliance with Matt to track down his murderous uncle "Black Jack" Haggen. |
Original Air Date—15 December 1962
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Original Air Date—22 December 1962
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Original Air Date—29 December 1962
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Original Air Date—5 January 1963
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Original Air Date—12 January 1963
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Original Air Date—19 January 1963
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Original Air Date—26 January 1963
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Season 8, Episode 21: The CousinOriginal Air Date—2 February 1963
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Season 8, Episode 22: ShonaOriginal Air Date—9 February 1963
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Season 8, Episode 23: AshOriginal Air Date—16 February 1963
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Original Air Date—23 February 1963
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Original Air Date—2 March 1963
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Original Air Date—9 March 1963
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Original Air Date—16 March 1963
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Original Air Date—23 March 1963
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Original Air Date—30 March 1963
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Original Air Date—6 April 1963
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Original Air Date—13 April 1963
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Original Air Date—20 April 1963
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Original Air Date—27 April 1963
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Season 8, Episode 34: Old YorkOriginal Air Date—4 May 1963
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Original Air Date—11 May 1963
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Original Air Date—18 May 1963
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Season 8, Episode 37: JebOriginal Air Date—25 May 1963
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Original Air Date—1 June 1963
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Original Air Date—28 September 1963
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Season 9, Episode 2: Lover BoyOriginal Air Date—5 October 1963
Lothario Kyle Kelly arrives in Dodge City. Behind him is a trail of broken hearts -- and dead rivals. |
Original Air Date—12 October 1963
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Season 9, Episode 4: TobeOriginal Air Date—19 October 1963
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Season 9, Episode 5: Easy ComeOriginal Air Date—26 October 1963
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Original Air Date—2 November 1963
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Original Air Date—9 November 1963
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Original Air Date—16 November 1963
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Season 9, Episode 9: Ex-ConOriginal Air Date—30 November 1963
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Original Air Date—7 December 1963
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Original Air Date—14 December 1963
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Original Air Date—21 December 1963
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Original Air Date—28 December 1963
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Original Air Date—4 January 1964
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Season 9, Episode 15: Dry WellOriginal Air Date—11 January 1964
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Original Air Date—18 January 1964
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Season 9, Episode 17: FriendOriginal Air Date—25 January 1964
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Original Air Date—1 February 1964
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Season 9, Episode 19: No HandsOriginal Air Date—8 February 1964
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Original Air Date—15 February 1964
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Original Air Date—22 February 1964
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Season 9, Episode 22: The KiteOriginal Air Date—29 February 1964
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Original Air Date—7 March 1964
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Original Air Date—14 March 1964
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Original Air Date—21 March 1964
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Season 9, Episode 26: CalebOriginal Air Date—28 March 1964
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Original Air Date—4 April 1964
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Season 9, Episode 28: BentlyOriginal Air Date—11 April 1964
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Original Air Date—18 April 1964
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Original Air Date—25 April 1964
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Season 9, Episode 31: Trip WestOriginal Air Date—2 May 1964
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Season 9, Episode 32: Scot FreeOriginal Air Date—9 May 1964
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Season 9, Episode 33: The WardenOriginal Air Date—16 May 1964
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Season 9, Episode 34: HomecomingOriginal Air Date—23 May 1964
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Original Air Date—30 May 1964
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Original Air Date—6 June 1964
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Original Air Date—26 September 1964
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Original Air Date—3 October 1964
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Season 10, Episode 3: Old ManOriginal Air Date—10 October 1964
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Original Air Date—17 October 1964
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Original Air Date—24 October 1964
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Original Air Date—31 October 1964
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Original Air Date—7 November 1964
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Season 10, Episode 8: Hung HighOriginal Air Date—14 November 1964
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Original Air Date—21 November 1964
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Original Air Date—28 November 1964
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Season 10, Episode 11: ChickenOriginal Air Date—5 December 1964
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Season 10, Episode 12: InnocenceOriginal Air Date—12 December 1964
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Season 10, Episode 13: Aunt ThedeOriginal Air Date—19 December 1964
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Season 10, Episode 14: HammerheadOriginal Air Date—26 December 1964
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Original Air Date—2 January 1965
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Original Air Date—9 January 1965
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Original Air Date—16 January 1965
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Original Air Date—23 January 1965
Anderson, a stylish bounty hunter, rides into Dodge City. He informs Matt that his partner has a wanted criminal at an ice house. The locale is a two-day ride from Dodge; Anderson wants Matt's help to bring the criminal in. The outlaw's brother intends to go gunning for Matt and Anderson. There's also a twist: Matt finds out Anderson didn't tell him the truth about what happened. Both Anderson's partner and the outlaw lie dead at the ice house. |
Original Air Date—30 January 1965
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Original Air Date—6 February 1965
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Original Air Date—13 February 1965
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Original Air Date—20 February 1965
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Season 10, Episode 23: Eliab's AimOriginal Air Date—27 February 1965
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Original Air Date—6 March 1965
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Original Air Date—13 March 1965
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Season 10, Episode 26: Bank BabyOriginal Air Date—20 March 1965
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Season 10, Episode 27: The LadyOriginal Air Date—27 March 1965
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Original Air Date—3 April 1965
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Original Air Date—10 April 1965
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Season 10, Episode 30: The PariahOriginal Air Date—17 April 1965
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Season 10, Episode 31: Gilt GuiltOriginal Air Date—24 April 1965
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Original Air Date—1 May 1965
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Original Air Date—8 May 1965
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Season 10, Episode 34: Honey PotOriginal Air Date—15 May 1965
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Original Air Date—22 May 1965
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Original Air Date—29 May 1965
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Original Air Date—18 September 1965
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Season 11, Episode 2: The StormOriginal Air Date—25 September 1965
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Original Air Date—2 October 1965
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Original Air Date—9 October 1965
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Original Air Date—16 October 1965
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Season 11, Episode 6: KiogaOriginal Air Date—23 October 1965
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Original Air Date—30 October 1965
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Season 11, Episode 8: The RewardOriginal Air Date—6 November 1965
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Season 11, Episode 9: MalachiOriginal Air Date—13 November 1965
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Original Air Date—20 November 1965
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Season 11, Episode 11: South WindOriginal Air Date—27 November 1965
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Season 11, Episode 12: The HostageOriginal Air Date—4 December 1965
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Original Air Date—11 December 1965
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Original Air Date—18 December 1965
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Season 11, Episode 15: Gold MineOriginal Air Date—25 December 1965
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Season 11, Episode 16: Death WatchOriginal Air Date—8 January 1966
Two bounty hunters bring seriously injured murderer Johnny Drago into Dodge for treatment prior to traveling to Mexico to collect a $30,000 reward, but Matt refuses to let them move Drago until he recovers. They decide to try to kill Drago and remove him by force after an unscrupulous newspaperman convinces them that they will not collect the reward if Drago dies from his injuries rather than from his captors' gunshots. |
Original Air Date—15 January 1966
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Original Air Date—22 January 1966
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Original Air Date—29 January 1966
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Original Air Date—5 February 1966
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Original Air Date—12 February 1966
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Season 11, Episode 22: WishboneOriginal Air Date—19 February 1966
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Season 11, Episode 23: SanctuaryOriginal Air Date—26 February 1966
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Original Air Date—5 March 1966
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Original Air Date—12 March 1966
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Season 11, Episode 26: Which Dr.Original Air Date—19 March 1966
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Season 11, Episode 27: HarvestOriginal Air Date—26 March 1966
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Season 11, Episode 28: By LineOriginal Air Date—9 April 1966
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Original Air Date—16 April 1966
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Original Air Date—23 April 1966
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Original Air Date—30 April 1966
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Original Air Date—7 May 1966
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Original Air Date—17 September 1966
Matt has the unhappy task of tracking down Gilcher, a long-ago friend of his, who fell on hard times and turned to horse theft and attempted murder. Matt surprises Gilcher at his mountain camp, and the two men sadly reminisce over old times. Suddenly, Gilcher sees a man up on the next hill holding a rifle. Gilcher warns Matt that the man (whom Matt can't see because his back is to the hill) is about to throw down on them both. Matt thinks Gilcher is bluffing. Gilcher makes a lunge for his discarded rifle -- and Matt -- thinking Gilcher is about to shoot him -- fires. An instant later, a rifle slug whizzing past Matt's ear confirms Gilcher's story. Matt promises to the dying Gilcher that he will give up law enforcement, which he does. He takes a room in Dodge while the new marshal tries to deal with a bounty hunter who shows up in town. Soon afterward, a young man shows up in town, seeking out Matt and claiming to be Gilcher's son. Matt tries to befriend the young man and get him out of scrapes. The bounty hunter, hearing of this and knowing a secret nobody else does, soon corners the young man and hires him as a hired gun. The two of them bushwhack a wanted man in the Long Branch, accidentally shooting a saloon girl in the process. The incident convinces Matt that he needs to resume his marshal's job and purge Dodge of the bounty hunter -- and find out why the young man took up with him. |
Original Air Date—24 September 1966
A murderous band of outlaws bushwhacks an Army pay train and murders every man among them for the $200,000 in gold they are carrying. They throw open the pay chest and find -- lead. The leader scratches the lead with a knife and uncovers a gold streak, and realizes that the Army had amalgamated the two metals together before the pay train started to try to prevent just such an occurrence. So the leader and his men strip the dead soldiers of their uniforms and head for the nearest blacksmith's shop, which happens to be in Dodge. There they will melt down the alloy into pieces of gold, which they plan to distribute amongst themselves after leaving. Matt, who was off fishing, returns in time to catch the thieves in the act -- but is taken hostage and forced to help them. Features a rare view of Dodge City's outdoor back lot set for the final gunfight (in fact, the main characters watch the outlaws ride off the sound stage and onto the outdoor street!) |
Season 12, Episode 3: The JailerOriginal Air Date—1 October 1966
In an episode that made TV Guide's list of "Top 50 Dramatic Episodes of All Time" (and quite high on the list at that), Etta Stone is the matriarch of a crime family, whose husband was hanged and three sons imprisoned six years earlier at Matt's instigation. Now the sons have gotten out of jail and their first order of business is to kidnap Kitty, forcing Matt to come alone to rescue her. He gets a dire welcome when he sees a do-it-yourself working gallows right in the Stone front yard, and he is quickly seized and locked in the barn (Kitty is locked in the house). Etta Stone, with the help of the three imprisoned sons, tells Matt that he will be hanged from the gallows "on the morning of the second day." The only honest people around are the youngest son and the wife of another son, who have developed a romance of their own. One of the other sons can be bought, but he comes to a bad end -- Etta catches him helping Kitty try to escape and blows her own son away with the rifle she always carries. Now Kitty will also hang for "murder" immediately after Matt does, unless somehow Matt and Kitty can outwit the remaining crooks (which is hard; Matt survives a second botched escape attempt only because Etta demands that he be hanged rather than shot when cornered) and escape Etta herself. |
Original Air Date—8 October 1966
Matt travels to Mexico to pick up an outlaw (Jim Davis) wanted for murder in Kansas. The outlaw is truly a nasty piece of work, which makes him good company for two drifters (Steve Ihnat, Warren Oates) who bushwhack Matt and steal his identity papers and the extradition warrant. After "arresting" the outlaw leader, the two men form a gang with him. The three killers are soon joined by a fourth, Reb (Bob Random), the son of a Confederate colonel who fled to Mexico rather than acknowledge the war was over. Matt soon meets the colonel, who apologizes for his son's helping steal from Matt but refuses help of any other kind to a Yankee. The sergeant who was the colonel's aide and is now his ranch foreman is more sympathetic, but refuses to abandon his boss. Meanwhile, Reb is caught up in a robbery and murder spree led by the other three outlaws, who knock over a small-town bank and kill numerous citizens. A deputy sheriff who survived the massacre (thanks to Reb firing at him and intentionally missing) joins Matt on the deadly hunt, which climaxes at the colonel's house when Reb and the first outlaw hide out in the barn. Every major character except Matt and the sergeant gets killed, along with numerous extras. |
Original Air Date—15 October 1966
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Original Air Date—22 October 1966
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Original Air Date—29 October 1966
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Original Air Date—12 November 1966
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Season 12, Episode 9: The WellOriginal Air Date—19 November 1966
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Season 12, Episode 10: Stage StopOriginal Air Date—26 November 1966
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Original Air Date—3 December 1966
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Season 12, Episode 12: Quaker GirlOriginal Air Date—10 December 1966
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Original Air Date—17 December 1966
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Original Air Date—24 December 1966
Bull Bannock, ex world heavyweight champion, tries to make a place for himself in Dodge City. |
Season 12, Episode 15: The HangingOriginal Air Date—31 December 1966
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Original Air Date—7 January 1967
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Season 12, Episode 17: Mad DogOriginal Air Date—14 January 1967
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Season 12, Episode 18: MuleyOriginal Air Date—21 January 1967
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Season 12, Episode 19: Mail DropOriginal Air Date—28 January 1967
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Season 12, Episode 20: Old FriendOriginal Air Date—4 February 1967
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Season 12, Episode 21: FandangoOriginal Air Date—11 February 1967
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Original Air Date—18 February 1967
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Season 12, Episode 23: The LureOriginal Air Date—25 February 1967
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Original Air Date—4 March 1967
An attorney general uses Matt's friendship with an outlaw for political gain. |
Season 12, Episode 25: The FavorOriginal Air Date—11 March 1967
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Original Air Date—18 March 1967
Mal Gates, a traveler, stops by a river to get a drink -- and a rattler chomps onto his face. His screams and his gunshots at the escaping snake are heard by Ed Carstairs, coming to the same watering hole from a different direction. But Carstairs is in no charitable mood. He's wanted in another town for killing a sheriff during a poker game, and justice in that town is notoriously corrupt (Matt later asks two sheriff's deputies snidely: "Was the town boss shot in the hip? Well, isn't that where he keeps the sheriff, isn't it ... in his hip pocket?"). So Carstairs tries to finish what the snake started by kicking Gates unconscious and switching identity papers with him. The ruse seems to work, but shortly after Carstairs arrives in Dodge he spots Gates being dragged unconscious on a litter behind Matt's horse -- Matt, making his rounds, also heard the commotion and found Gates still alive. Carstairs sneaks into Doc Adams' office and tries to smother Gates in his sleep, but jerks the pillow back when he hears Matt and Doc coming. Shortly thereafter, Gates wakes up. He's on the road to recovery, but he has completely lost his memory. This gives Carstairs (posing as Gates) a new opportunity. He befriends Gates on the one hand, and the two corrupt sheriff's deputies (who weren't on the scene and don't know Carstairs by sight) on the other. Carstairs tells Gates that he (as Carstairs) is wanted for a shooting he can't even remember, and offers to hide him and help him get out of Dodge, while he tells the deputies when and how "Carstairs" will make a break for it. And that's just to start with! |
Original Air Date—25 March 1967
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Original Air Date—8 April 1967
Two smooth thugs and their trigger-happy partner (the actor is given significantly lower billing than Tom Reese and Eddie Firestone, who play the sharpies) extract nitroglycerin from dynamite by boiling it until the nitro floats "like an oil" on the water's surface and skimming it off. It's fully as dangerous as it sounds, so they have hired men to do it for huge sums of money which they get from burglarizing banks and blowing up their safes. The first one goes up in an gigantic explosion which shatters windows miles away, so they turn to a young ex-cowboy with no prospects except his saloon-girl girlfriend. The young man reluctantly agrees, hoping to make a fresh start by investing in petroleum development (Buck Taylor's dad Dub plays the developer). But when a cougar spooks the thugs' horse and causes horse and buggy to be strewn all over the landscape, the thugs must regroup. They have accidentally knocked over the bank where the Kansas Petoleum Development Company's money was stored, so they have to try and play nice to the young man and get him to mix more nitro. |
Original Air Date—15 April 1967
To get the young man back to extracting nitroglycerin for them, the bank robbers offer him a straight-up deal of $5,000 per batch, with the understanding that they will soon leave the area and he can go in peace. The young man agrees, but soon finds that his nerves are shot. He recruits town drunk Louie Pheeters (James Nusser, who gets "And Featuring" billing) to do the job for him, but then stops it before it starts and tries to make the batch himself. But the trigger-happy thug murders a man, which finally leads Matt to capture the robbers. Meanwhile, unaware of what's going on, the young man is mixing the last batch ... |
Original Air Date—11 September 1967
Matt Dillon and Kitty Russell are escorting a notorious outlaw back to Dodge City to stand trial. A member of another outlaw gang sees them traveling by stagecoach and switches out cotter pins on the yoke that keeps the stage tied to the horses. The pin obligingly breaks on a mountain road, causing a spectacular crash. Kitty crawls out unscathed and checks on Matt, who's unconscious but will be okay, and the outlaw -- who's comatose and dying. When she hears the outlaw gang approach, she takes Matt's Marshal's badge off his shirt and puts it on the outlaw, then spins a deceptive web for the gang, who believes her until the outlaw awakens and uses his last breaths to tell the gang what really happened. Most of the occasional-player cast of Dodge City is on hand for Kitty's later speech asking the citizens of Dodge to ransom Matt. |
Original Air Date—18 September 1967
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Original Air Date—25 September 1967
A notorious outlaw was shot in the back, fatally, before Matt could arrest him. The large bounty on the man's head was never collected. Now a "crusading" newspaper reporter (Lamont Johnson) is trying to goad the dead man's two young sons into a showdown with Matt Dillon, who would have been legally enjoined from getting the bounty money because of his lawman status and thus is the main suspect in the shooting. Lamont Johnson's final acting role is directed by Vincent NcEveety, who also directed Robert Totten in five shows. |
Original Air Date—2 October 1967
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Original Air Date—9 October 1967
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Season 13, Episode 6: A HatOriginal Air Date—16 October 1967
Clint Sorils (Gene Evans), a notorious gunman, is minding his own business when a stray bullet ruins his hat. In trying to obtain payment, Clint runs afoul of Red Conniston (Chill Wills), a powerful rancher. The ensuing clash leaves men dead and gravely wounded, all because of a hat. |
Original Air Date—23 October 1967
Hard-Luck Henry Haggens (John Astin) comes to Dodge City to persuade his cousin Festus (Ken Curtis) to return home on an important mission. Festus, as the wisest of the Haggenses, is to act as Solomon and divide a chest of Confederate gold pieces among the Haggens clan. Henry's constant mishaps thwart Festus's efforts in one of the funniest episodes of the series. |
Original Air Date—30 October 1967
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Original Air Date—6 November 1967
Buck Taylor joins the cast as Newly O'Brien when Newly and Kitty are kidnapped by a gang who mistakenly believe he is a doctor. His skills as a gunsmith are central to their escape. |
Original Air Date—13 November 1967
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Original Air Date—20 November 1967
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Season 13, Episode 12: Death TrainOriginal Air Date—27 November 1967
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Season 13, Episode 13: Rope FeverOriginal Air Date—4 December 1967
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Season 13, Episode 14: WonderOriginal Air Date—18 December 1967
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Original Air Date—25 December 1967
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Season 13, Episode 16: The VictimOriginal Air Date—1 January 1968
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Original Air Date—8 January 1968
Matt's horse shows up riderless in Dodge City, and there is blood on the saddle. While Festus and Newly search for Matt, ruthless vigilantes take over. |
Original Air Date—15 January 1968
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Original Air Date—22 January 1968
The father of a young gunfighter tries to end his son's career by wounding his gun hand. |
Season 13, Episode 20: Hill GirlOriginal Air Date—29 January 1968
Newly rescues an ignorant hill girl, Merry Florene from her uncivilized half-brothers, Roland and Elbert. He brings her to Dodge City and arranges for a job at Jonas' general store. The two ruffians find her and try to force her to help them rob the store. |
Original Air Date—5 February 1968
Jubal Gray (Jim Davis) and his gang of renegade ex-soldiers steal a cache of rifles and gunpowder to sell to a band of marauding Indians. In a chance encounter they seriously injure Tahrohon (Dan Ferrone), an Indian friend of buffalo-man Noah Meek (Michael Constantine). Noah vows revenge for his friend's wounds. |
Season 13, Episode 22: The JackalsOriginal Air Date—12 February 1968
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Original Air Date—19 February 1968
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Season 13, Episode 24: Mr. Sam'lOriginal Air Date—26 February 1968
Almost nobody believes traveling medicine man Mr. Sam'l is really a "water witch" who can detect water underground with his divining rod. The exception is a ruthless land grabber who has capitalized on a prolonged drought and all the known wells drying up. The land grabber, secretly, hired professional geologists to locate hidden springs on farmland that the owners are about to abandon and sell -- for a song -- to him. Realizing that Mr. Sam'l could find the water through blind luck if nothing else, and that even if he doesn't he will inspire Dodge City to renew digging before the land grabber can secure the property, the land grabber hires a gunman ... |
Original Air Date—4 March 1968
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Season 14, Episode 1: Lyle's KidOriginal Air Date—23 September 1968
Before a notorious outlaw was sent to prison, he captured lawman Grant Lyle and used a blacksmith's hammer and anvil to ceremoniously crush Lyle's hands. The hands are now frozen claws encased permanently in black gloves. Lyle learns that the outlaw is set to get out of jail, and schemes to kill him in a gunfight. At first Lyle tries to train his son to be a surrogate killer, but Matt interferes and the son balks. Lyle then commissions Newly to make a "fanning" gun, a triggerless weapon that can be cocked and fired by pushing the hammer back and letting it fall onto the firing pin. You can't hit the broad side of a barn when you're fanning a gun, but Lyle tries to teach himself to shoot the weapon anyway. When the stage containing the convict reaches Dodge, he thinks he's ready. |
Original Air Date—30 September 1968
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Season 14, Episode 3: ZavalaOriginal Air Date—7 October 1968
Matt pursues the Rawlins gang into Mexico to the village of Zavala. Here he meets Paco (Manuel Padilla Jr.) and his widowed mother. Paco's father had been killed when he stood up to outlaws intimidating the people of Zavala. In his whole life, the only strong willed people Paco had ever seen were outlaws. He first thinks of Matt as such a person, until Matt tells him that he not here to kill the Rawlins' but to arrest them. "But only outlaws ever come to Zavala." Paco is fascinated with the fact that Matt is a US Marshall. In an unusual episode of Gunsmoke an unlikely relationship develops amongst the trio, Paco, his mother, and Matt. Paul Savage later adapted this episode into made for TV movie "Cutter's Trail" where Manuel Padilla Jr. reprises his role as Paco. |
Original Air Date—14 October 1968
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Season 14, Episode 5: SlocumOriginal Air Date—21 October 1968
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Season 14, Episode 6: O'QuillianOriginal Air Date—28 October 1968
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Original Air Date—11 November 1968
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Season 14, Episode 8: AbeliaOriginal Air Date—18 November 1968
The ward gang is on the run after a bank robbery. The gang loses one of the ward brothers, shot in the stomach, while Abelia and another gang member go to Dodge for a painkiller. While in town Festus and Newly have a run-in with the pair. Festus has a tracking job which leads him to Abelia's home where the gang has already taken off south bound. One of Abelia's children is bitten by a snake and Festus stays on to help heal the girl. |
Season 14, Episode 9: RailroadOriginal Air Date—25 November 1968
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Original Air Date—2 December 1968
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Season 14, Episode 11: WacoOriginal Air Date—9 December 1968
Matt Dillon (James Arness) and his prisoner, Waco Thompson (Victor French), begin the trek to Dodge City, where Waco is wanted for robbery. Along the way they find a young Kiowa woman, One Moon (Pat Thompson), who is about to have a baby in the wilderness. Matt and Waco must help her while eluding four ex-henchmen of Waco who are bent on revenge for his duplicity. Harry Carey Jr. and Louise Latham play important roles in the action. |
Season 14, Episode 12: LoboOriginal Air Date—16 December 1968
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Original Air Date—23 December 1968
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Original Air Date—30 December 1968
Down on his luck, a widowed farmer is unable to get a loan from his brother-in-law, a banker in Dodge City. The two briefly argue. The farmer's son and daughter, however, go back to the bank, cause a commotion and steal an envelope full of money. Marshal Matt Dillon is out of town, leaving Festus in charge of investigating the incident. The farmer is arrested for the robbery. Upon hearing from his children that they took the money, he forbids them from telling the law; he feels he'll only be using his children as scapegoats. A short time later, the children run away and encounter Matt. |
Original Air Date—6 January 1969
On her way back to Dodge after a short trip, Kitty shares a stagecoach ride with Blaine Copperton, a gentlemanly but uncertain man who seems to be far less mature than his age. Suddenly, two armed bandits attack the stage, killing the driver and seriously wounding Copperton. Copperton manages to grab a shotgun and kill the bandits, but then collapses unconscious. Kitty drives the stage to Copperton's ranch, where she finds a family of squatters living in a shack. The squatters, who have a long-running feud with the powerful Copperton family, refuse to give any help. When Kitty gets to the ranch headquarters and finds Copperton's mother, she finds a powerful matriarch who treats her son like a child, her granddaughter (copperton's daughter) as barely legitimate and everyone else like so many servants. The mother soon finds out about the squatters. She goes to their shack, burns it to the ground, and shoots a squatter in the leg. Kitty calls for help before things get way out of hand, but before Matt can get there, the squatters kidnap Kitty and demand that Copperton show up to rescue her and get shot in the leg himself. Copperton defies his mother and shows up at an old mine where the squatters have hidden out, but will the feud turn deadly? |
Original Air Date—13 January 1969
Matt and Festus shoot it out with an outlaw who was a member of the infamous Jess Trevor gang, particularly notorious for murder and mayhem. Matt finally kicks in the outlaw's door and shoots him. The outlaw lives for a few minutes, and Matt asks him why he deserted the Trevor gang. The dying outlaw reveals that he left at the request of Trevor's girlfriend, who was also shocked by his cruelty and wishes to leave. The woman is then shown lying in a corner, having accidentally been shot by Matt. To his horror, Matt recognizes the woman as Leona, a woman he knew and loved before he came to Dodge City. Guilt-ridden, he brings Leona back to Dodge and learns her story: she had drifted after leaving Matt, turning to prostitution and hooking up with various gang members, closing with Trevor himself. Trevor has learned of Leona's defection and puts out a murder contract on her. While Matt searches for Trevor (and Trevor orders a hit on Matt), Kitty (who is nursing Leona) struggles with her feelings toward her boyfriend's past girlfriend, finally making an uneasy alliance with Leona. When Matt gets to Trevor first and takes him in, Trevor warns "there will be twenty shotguns pointed at your head" when Matt sends Trevor off to court for trial. Matt warns Trevor that "there's going to be one aimed at yours" in return. The extradition trip to the train station begins in an atmosphere of the highest tension, as Leona watches from a sidewalk. |
Season 14, Episode 17: MannonOriginal Air Date—20 January 1969
Mannon (Steve Forrest), arguably the fastest gun in the West, terrorizes Dodge City while he waits for Matt Dillon (James Arness) to return. A cruel, violent encounter with Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake) sets up the inevitable showdown. |
Season 14, Episode 18: Gold TownOriginal Air Date—27 January 1969
This episode is a follow-up to "Hill Girl" (#13:20). Merry Florene is back, along with her remaining half-brother Elbert Moses and cousin Smiley. Merry Florene pesters Newly while the boys scam Dodge City with a salted gold mine. |
Original Air Date—3 February 1969
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Original Air Date—10 February 1969
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Original Air Date—17 February 1969
After surviving (barely) a bounty hunter's attempt to assassinate him, an outlaw tries to turn himself in to Matt Dillon. But Matt's out of town, and the bounty hunters' companions get to the outlaw first. They aren't so much interested in the outlaw as they are in killing Matt, so they take over the Long Branch and hold everyone hostage. They also get word out to a land baron whose wife the outlaw accidentally killed: come here and pick up the prisoner in return for your gunmen to waste the marshal. The land baron accepts the deal, but the outlaw's girlfriend shoots him as he's about to take the outlaw away. While Doc performs an emergency operation, the land baron's hirelings are torn between their promise to punish the outlaw and their revulsion at the bounty hunters' sadistic leader, who forces town drunk Louie Pheeters to crawl on his hands and knees the length of the saloon to get a drink (which he then refuses in a dramatic sequence). This episode's production number indicates it was actually filmed at the end of the previous season and held up for reasons unknown (it's shown in broadcast order in syndication). |
Original Air Date—24 February 1969
The Civil War isn't over -- not nearly -- for Judge Proctor, a respected Missouri man who was on the losing side and had his home devastated by a guerrilla band led by a Kansas man. Now the judge has formed a gang of his own and sweeps through Kansas seeking the guerrilla leader. A tip-off tells the group that the man is in or near Dodge, but the judge can't locate his exact whereabouts and sets fire to a wheat field as a warning to the local citizenry. When that fails to produce the man, the judge threatens to burn all of Dodge City. |
Original Air Date—3 March 1969
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Original Air Date—10 March 1969
A group of former slaves on their way to Oregon are temporarily halted to repair a broken wheel. They find Matt on the prairie, wounded by two outlaws trying to prevent his reaching Dodge City, and hide him until he can recover. |
Original Air Date—17 March 1969
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Original Air Date—24 March 1969
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Original Air Date—22 September 1969
While foiling a stage holdup Dillon takes one of the men prisoner. While bringing him back to Dodge he must deal with the prisoner's brother and his gang and their attempts to free him. Things become more complicated when Newly is taken prisoner. |
Season 15, Episode 2: StrykerOriginal Air Date—29 September 1969
Josh Stryker, a former U. S. Marshal, returns to Dodge City after fifteen years in prison for murder. His former deputy, Matt Dillon was the main witness who convicted him. Now Stryker is torn between his hatred for Matt, his reconciliation with his daughter Sarah Jean, and the threat he faces from two outlaws, Jessup and Reager. |
Season 15, Episode 3: CoreyvilleOriginal Air Date—6 October 1969
Marshal Matt Dillon is brought to Coreyville by Ellie Wylie to ensure a fair trial for her father, Titus. In the process Matt must deal with the town matriarch, Agatha Corey and her sons Billy Joe and Frank. Flo Watson, the redheaded saloon keeper, plays a prominent part in the intrigue. |
Season 15, Episode 4: DannyOriginal Air Date—13 October 1969
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Season 15, Episode 5: HawkOriginal Air Date—20 October 1969
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Original Air Date—27 October 1969
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Original Air Date—3 November 1969
Matt Dillon is escorting his prisoner Charlie Noon back to Dodge City when he encounters a runaway Indian bride being pursued by the braves of her tribe. The Indians have mistaken Charlie Noon as the man who stole her and are seeking revenge. The suspense builds in this episode as all parties are seen to match wits and maneuver for strategic advantage rather than employ violence. "Charlie Noon" is thus noted more for intrigue than the activity one would expect of a typical western. |
Season 15, Episode 8: The StillOriginal Air Date—10 November 1969
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Original Air Date—17 November 1969
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Original Air Date—24 November 1969
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Original Air Date—1 December 1969
Ben Hurley, a poor farmer, steals horses for outlaws to get enough money to take his blind daughter Susan to Kansas City, where she can learn to read and lead a better life. Newly tries to find the rustlers and becomes involved in the young girl's plight. |
Season 15, Episode 12: MacGrawOriginal Air Date—8 December 1969
After twenty years in prison, Jake MacGraw comes to DodgeCity to start over. He takes a job as piano player at the Longbranch, but is this really why he came to town? He woos one of the saloon girls and seems to want a fight with her beau. What's that all about? |
Original Air Date—15 December 1969
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Season 15, Episode 14: The SistersOriginal Air Date—29 December 1969
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Original Air Date—5 January 1970
An Indian warrior, Gregorio (Richard Anderson) is wounded escaping from the U. S. Army Fourth Cavalry, and the bigoted, ruthless Sgt. Emmet Holly (Forrest Tucker) sets out in hot pursuit. Gregorio encounters Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake), steals her horse and takes her hostage. Meanwhile, Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) is tracking all of them. |
Original Air Date—12 January 1970
As Matt escorts a wounded prisoner to Ft. Union, his camp is invaded by a thieving young boy, whom Matt takes into custody. In Dodge City the journey to Ft. Union is joined by two women, one pregnant traveling to see her husband, the other secretly the wife of the prisoner. A trio of outlaws waits on the trail to kill Matt and rescue the prisoner. |
Original Air Date—19 January 1970
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Original Air Date—26 January 1970
Dr. Herman Schultz, a longtime friend of Doc Adams comes to Dodge City to experiment with Mesmerization (hypnotism) as a medical procedure. However, his motives seem to be less noble. |
Original Air Date—2 February 1970
Matt is seriously wounded in a gun fight. Kitty is so despondent, she puts up the Longbranch for sale, bids Matt goodbye and leaves Dodge City. In a new town, in another saloon she finds out why Matt is the kind of man he is. |
Season 15, Episode 20: AlbertOriginal Air Date—9 February 1970
Albert Schiller (Milton Selzer) is losing his job as teller at the bank. When outlaws led by Jake Spence (William Schallert) are unsuccessful in robbing the bank, Albert takes $5,000 and blames it on the gang. Irate at the wrongful accusation, the robbers return and force Albert to join them by taking his wife Kate (Patricia Barry) prisoner. Worst of all, she is menaced by the sociopathic Nix (L. Q. Jones). |
Season 15, Episode 21: KiowaOriginal Air Date—16 February 1970
As this episode opens, the Vail family is sitting down to a meal. The oldest girl Melissa, who seems somehow different from the rest of the family, goes out to the barn to milk a cow. While there she is kidnapped by a member of the Kiowa tribe. At first we think that this is a simple kidnapping by a savage race of people and a posse is organized to pursue Melissa and her abductors. But as this episode progresses it becomes obvious that there is a very compelling reason for the abduction as Melissa's father seems to be only interested in following the Kiowa party and is reluctant to actually engage them. In what turns out to be a touching episode of Gunsmoke, (and without revealing too much of the conclusion) the plot of, "Kiowa" is an indictment of racial prejudice by depicting a man who has to deny and hide who and what he is to advance in the world. |
Season 15, Episode 22: CeliaOriginal Air Date—23 February 1970
Newly's best friend becomes the victim of a con game perpetrated by a pretty young woman and her partner. |
Season 15, Episode 23: MorganOriginal Air Date—2 March 1970
Matt is away, and Morgan sees his chance to take over. He breaks into the Long Branch, and Kitty is forced to take action. |
Season 15, Episode 24: The ThievesOriginal Air Date—9 March 1970
Long Branch bartender Sam Noonan reveals a good bit about his young life while talking to a young man on probation for theft. The thieves, all teenagers, have been given a 'work release': two of them work on a farm and the third for the Long Branch Saloon as Sam's helper. They chafe under the heavy-handed supervision of a small-time lawman who watches over them and takes every opportunity to make their lives miserable. Sam, himself an ex-con from way back, helps out the kid as a sort of payback to a mentor who helped him when he got into trouble. One of the other two, a mentally challenged young man who just goes along with his partners, may also rehabilitate himself if treated properly. The third one, though, finds more and more ways to get into trouble for himself and his partners. |
Season 15, Episode 25: HackettOriginal Air Date—16 March 1970
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Season 15, Episode 26: The CageOriginal Air Date—23 March 1970
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Season 16, Episode 1: ChatoOriginal Air Date—14 September 1970
Chato is a mixed-race Native American with a serious grudge against lawmen. He also has a remarkable athletic ability: he can run and jump over mountain ledges while keeping up a steady fire with his rifle. After an exciting duel, he kills a friend of Matt Dillon's who was tracking him. Matt comes to New Mexico and engages him in a duel of wits with Chato to catch him. Chato's one soft spot is his common-law wife. She is shot and severely injured by a group of renegade tribesmen who were also gunning for Chato. Chato calls a truce with Matt so the group can escape and get her to a doctor - but it's only a truce. |
Season 16, Episode 2: The NooseOriginal Air Date—21 September 1970
Ex-con Fred Garth seeks to exactly re-create the hanging death of his father by casting Doc as the father and Matt Dillon as the young Garth (who was shot in the leg and tied to a post while his father swung). Garth kidnaps Matt, Doc, Kitty and Festus and isolates them in a deserted town. |
Season 16, Episode 3: StarkOriginal Air Date—28 September 1970
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Original Air Date—5 October 1970
The arrival of the first woman doctor in Dodge City, Dr. Sam McTavish, riles Doc Adams. However, she soon wins his confidence and that of his patients, and the two physicians make a startling medical discovery. |
Original Air Date—12 October 1970
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Original Air Date—19 October 1970
Matt, Doc and Festus are on a train in the snow-capped Rockies. Indians stop the train by blocking the tracks in front and behind the train. Someone aboard sold the Indians a bad batch of whiskey that has killed or blinded those who consumed it. The Indians want the guilty turned over to them and will attack in the morning. Matt has his hands full keeping order as the train occupants want to take justice into their own hands. Matt makes a desperate decision. Festus will create a diversion while Matt gets off the train and heads to the nearest telegraph station, which is miles away. The ploy works but three Indian braves, not fooled by it, are in pursuit of Matt. |
Original Air Date—26 October 1970
Matt avoids capture by the three Indian braves and continues on to the telegraph station. Exhausted, he finds out the telegraph lines are down. However, an advisory was issued before while the lines were still operating and Matt finds out who aboard the train sold the bad whiskey to the Indians. Matt borrows a horse from the telegraph operator and heads back to the train. Festus, meantime, is overpowered by panicky train passengers determined to give the Indians the guilty parties. They settle on two men who, it turns out, are deserters from the Army. The men protest, saying they had nothing to do with the whiskey. Matt gets back just in time to prevent the Indians from killing the soldiers. One of the guilty passengers tries to shoot it out with Matt but is killed. The other, whose pregnant wife is aboard the train, prepares to turn himself over to the Indians. Matt, however, convinces the Indians to let the surviving guilty man stand trial. The ordeal, while resolved, will cause major changes in the lives of the passengers, including an engaged couple, a pair of spinster sisters and a con man posing as a priest. |
Season 16, Episode 8: LukeOriginal Air Date—2 November 1970
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Season 16, Episode 9: The GunOriginal Air Date—9 November 1970
Randy, a teenaged bank clerk living in a shack, idolizes a notorious gunfighter and has wallpapered every room with newspaper articles and posters about the man. One night, the gunfighter, hunted by everyone, ducks into the shack. Randy's thrill over meeting his idol goes sour when the gunfighter, who's gone completely paranoid, berates him and then forces him at gunpoint to break into the bank to steal getaway money. Randy manages to distract the gunfighter and duck down, crawling between the bank desks as the gunfighter fires on him. Randy finds a revolver in a desk drawer, comes up and pulls trigger, dropping the gunfighter in his tracks. When news of the gunfighter's death, and who killed him, gets on the telegraph wires, a St. Louis reporter comes out to anoint Randy the new king of the gunfighters. This makes Randy a target for anyone wanting the title. The reporter even imports a hired gun to shoot it out with Randy in a sort of Ultimate Gunfighting Championship, much to Randy's dismay and that of Matt, who's disgusted by all the publicity. |
Original Air Date—16 November 1970
Piney Biggs wanders tired and thirsty into what's left of a family's camp site that has been massacred with no survivors. As he is scavenging through the remains a band of Indians come by and Piney is forced to play dead. He later identifies them as the attackers and tells the people of Dodge that he had been traveling with the family and he is the only survivor. A posse is formed to hunt them down. The Indians are captured by a slimy band of bounty hunters who find Piney's story suspicious. |
Season 16, Episode 11: The WitnessOriginal Air Date—23 November 1970
When Ira Pickett is accused of murdering a man in a gunfight, his father Osgood comes to Dodge City to get rid of the witnesses by one means or another. |
Season 16, Episode 12: McCabeOriginal Air Date—30 November 1970
Matt Dillon boards a train looking for a fugitive named McCabe wanted for robbery. When he finds him, McCabe, with a woman at gunpoint forces Dillon to make a deal. Dillon agrees and they set off for McCabe's farm where his wife lays dying. She dies before they arrive and McCabe's son Dodie feels nothing but anger and bitterness towards his father for leaving them alone all these years. Dodie alerts the nearby town, where he is wanted for a far more serious crime, that his father is back. |
Original Air Date—17 December 1970
Pursued by Marshal Matt Dillon, a Mexican bandit seeks sanctuary with his twin brother, a priest. |
Original Air Date—14 December 1970
An Army sergeant is accused of desertion and the theft of an Army payroll. |
Season 16, Episode 15: JennyOriginal Air Date—28 December 1970
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Original Air Date—4 January 1971
In one of the series' loopiest episodes, Boston whaling captain Aaron Sligo suddenly forsakes the sea entirely. He moves to Kansas, buys a ranch and ceremoniously sets up a plaque on the 100th meridian of longitude, which he says is as far from the sea as possible in the United States (true, but he could have moved farther north). He then becomes a cattle buyer, ordering a shipment of cows from Texas, while courting the widow next door. The widow resists his courtship until he proves that he can grow corn, knowing the soil on Sligo's lot is notoriously unfertile. But Sligo hasn't lost all of his seafaring identity or his skills. He still dresses in full uniform, builds his house in the shape of a ship, and brings his first mate along to serve as ranch foreman. When a rival cattleman pulls a dirty trick on Sligo which prevents him from bringing his cows to market (by spreading a rumor of brucellosis among the herd) and when the rancher's hands beat the first mate to a pulp, Sligo uses his pugilistic skills to even the playing field -- and some mysterious skill to get the corn to grow. |
Season 16, Episode 17: MirageOriginal Air Date—11 January 1971
Festus fatally wounds an outlaw deep in the desert, then finds himself without water when the outlaw dies. Making his way back to Dodge City, Festus hallucinates and may have killed the innocent young Adam Cleary before reaching Dodge. Adam's father, Lemuel comes to seek revenge, and Festus cannot remember what happened. |
Season 16, Episode 18: The TycoonOriginal Air Date—25 January 1971
Festus tries to go into the freight business and it nearly results into matrimony. |
Season 16, Episode 19: JaekelOriginal Air Date—1 February 1971
Carl Jaekel and Beth Wilson were a couple a decade ago, when his temper caused him to kill a man who had insulted her. After eight years in prison, he foils an escape attempt by killing two other prisoners, and is granted a pardon. What the warden doesn't know is that Jaekel has gone completely psychotic and engineered the escape attempt himself, killing his partners in an attempt to look heroic when they were found out. What Jaekel doesn't know is that Beth, who wrote sympathetic letters to him throughout his imprisonment, is actually deathly afraid of him. Without telling him, she found a kindly gentleman whom she married, and now is the mother of a young daughter. Beth keeps up the charade for a while when Jaekel gets out, but he's bound to find out eventually -- and he does, kidnapping Beth's daughter in an effort to force her into repudiating her husband and taking up with him again. |
Season 16, Episode 20: MurdochOriginal Air Date—8 February 1971
Bob Random, making his last "Gunsmoke" appearance, plays still another rebellious teenaged son. This time he is out to spite his lawman father who is fanatically hunting a notorious outlaw gang. Scott (Random) has secretly joined the gang himself under the alias of "John Doe." Only about half the gang's members' names are known, so there are John Doe arrest warrants on the rest of them for a series of crimes -- some committed long before Scott and a young friend joined the gang. When the gang invades Dodge to try to knock over the freight office for a big payroll, Matt and the lawman are waiting. The ensuing wild gunfight leaves two of the four known gang members dead and the other teenager seriously wounded. To save his friend from dying from peritonitis, Scott surrenders and gets his friend to Doc, but insists that he and the friend are both "John Does" -- and could hang for crimes they never committed. Matt and Lucas Murdoch must somehow track down the last two gang members and persuade them to clear Scott's name even though it means nothing to them. |
Season 16, Episode 21: CleavusOriginal Air Date—15 February 1971
Frequent director Robert Totten steps in front of the camera for the title role (some sources say he directed himself, but Vincent McEveety gets the credit). Cleavus, an old friend of Festus, has been dogged by poverty and hard luck all his life. He stumbles into a gold mine looking for help -- only to accidentally kill the miner. While driving the miner's corpse to a farm for burial, Cleavus finds $200 worth of gold dust -- a big chunk of money for 1873 -- in his clothing. This gives Cleavus an idea. In Dodge, he learns that the miner's claim hadn't been registered yet and falsely claims title to it himself. With his new money, he buys fancy store clothes and affects himself as a dandy. He even begins paying court to Kitty Russell. Festus finds out part of the truth about Cleavua and Kitty finds out the rest -- the mine actually held only the limited amount of gold and a lot of iron pyrite -- "fool's gold." Cleavus's luck goes downhill from there. |
Season 16, Episode 22: LaveryOriginal Air Date—22 February 1971
Lavery is a ne'er-do-well small-time crook who does pretty much what he wants -- much to the distress of his wife, who's a Long Branch saloon-hall girl. Now Lavery is on the run for horse theft (he actually left his tired horse at the barn in trade for a new one). Lavery gets his chance at redemption when he sees a thug about to bushwhack Matt and shoots the thug dead. Matt has a talk with the stable owner and clears Lavery of the charge, and gets him a job tanning hides. But Lavery's two outlaw buddies (David Carradine, Ken Swofford) soon show up to try to get him to start stealing again. Added to the confusion is the fact that Mrs. Lavery, who quit her job at the Long Branch when her husband got a job, is now pregnant. This is the last episode for Hank Patterson as stableman Hank. |
Original Air Date—1 March 1971
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Original Air Date—8 March 1971
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Season 17, Episode 1: The LostOriginal Air Date—13 September 1971
After the stagecoach Kitty is riding in is wrecked in the middle of nowhere, she wanders the desert in a vain search for help. On her last legs, she finds a cabin inhabited by two scary adults and by a mute girl who the adults keep in a cage and exhibit as a wild animal. Kitty is also forced to work as a house servant by the couple. She forms a bond with the girl and tries to convince her to help them both escape, and to give the girl some semblance of a normal life. |
Season 17, Episode 2: PhoenixOriginal Air Date—20 September 1971
Phoenix, who has served a long prison sentence, faces an uncertain future as he prepares to hit the road. His cellmate offers Phoenix a job - but it's as a murderer for hire to kill the ex-lawman who put the cellmate away. Phoenix travels to the lawman's small ranch and gets hired as a hand, where he meets the old man and his young wife. Phoenix eventually comes to the conclusion that he can't bring himself to kill the man. Unfortunately, that's just what the cellmate expected - and wants. He kills a guard, breaks out of jail and goes after the lawman himself. |
Original Air Date—27 September 1971
On the trail of thief and killer Ben Rodman in the spectacular Utah wilderness, MAtt meets Rodman's latest victim, an old prospector who was shot by Rodman over the water hole the old man had stakes a claim to. The dying man entrusts his grandson to Matt's care. Quickly thereafter, a wagon drives up with Maggie Blaisdell and Jed Rascoe at the reins, looking for the same water. Maggie is a madam, gimpy Rascoe her handyman, and the four women inside are her prostitutes. Despite Maggie's profession, she and Matt are old friends, complicated by the fact that she also was once Rodman's girlfriend. It's further complicated that one of the "girls" is, unknown to anyone, the mother of the young boy (she ran off and left him with his grandfather years ago). Matt chats with Maggie and learns that she is taking nearly 450,000 in gold dust to the East to invest for a mining consortium where she's a partner. One of the "girls," treacherous Lisa, overhears the conversation and sneaks out, first draining the wagon's water supply. Then she hightails it to Rodman's hideout and tells him all about Maggie, her stash of gold, and Matt joining the group as part bodyguard and part lawman. Rodman and his gang, including a Bible thumper called "Preacher" sneak around behind the wagon train and chase it into an abandoned U.S. Army cavalry post. |
Original Air Date—4 October 1971
Matt, Maggie Blaisdell, her "stable" of call girls and a young boy who's the son of one of the women take refuge from Ben Rodman's gang in an old fort. Unfortunately, the fort has crumbled with age and Rodman and his gang are able to get inside and demand a fortune in gold dust Maggie is carrying for friends. Maggie also has a trunk full of fine hunting rifles and ammo, which she distributes among the group, and though the girls can't hit the broad side of a barn they can scare off any frontal assault. What they don't have is water - one of Maggie's girls turned traitor had drained their barrel before running off to join the gang. With time running desperately short, Matt (and the weather) contrive a scheme to force the outlaws to come headlong after the gold dust, hail of bullets or no. |
Original Air Date—11 October 1971
Kitty finds and reads a letter from Doc Adams, who has disappeared from Dodge. Doc writes that he was so distraught over the death of a young girl under his care, who was suffering from an illness he didn't know how to treat, that he has gone East to re-enter medical school and catch up on something other than surgery for bullet wounds. (This was actually a ploy to give Milburn Stone, who had suffered a heart attack in the off season, time to fully recover.) Soon a new doctor, Dr. John Chapman, arrives. Chapman is a highly cultured, very standoffish New Orleans dandy. The townspeople treat him with disdain and refuse to see him. Chapman pretends not to care, but his feelings are deeply hurt. It takes an explosion at Newly's gun shop -- and a bone fragment pressing on Newly's brain, causing him to have hallucinations and become a dangerous maniac -- to get people to turn to Chapman for help. |
Season 17, Episode 6: The LegendOriginal Air Date—18 October 1971
The Colter family is in trouble. The father is dead, one brother has been hanged, two brothers are on the run, Travis gets fired because of his name and the mother, Beatrice, has to go to work as a saloon singer. Matt and Newly leave town, and Festus is in charge. The two brothers return to Dodge City to get Travis to join in a robbery, but he refuses. Dr. John Chapman, filling in for Doc Adams, steps in to help Bea and Travis. |
Season 17, Episode 7: TraftonOriginal Air Date—25 October 1971
Matt is out to find a gunfighter who killed two people. |
Season 17, Episode 8: LynottOriginal Air Date—1 November 1971
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Season 17, Episode 9: LijahOriginal Air Date—8 November 1971
Lijah, an itinerant mountain man, happens on three murdered members of the Ezra Parker family, and discovers the lone survivor, ten-year-old Rachel Mae, hiding in the root cellar. As Lijah is burying the family, Hale Parker, Rachel Mae's shiftless uncle, comes on the scene. In a struggle with the supposed killer Lijah, Hale is knocked unconscious. Lijah leaves and takes Rachel Mae with him to rescue her from unseen danger. Hale revives and makes his way to Dodge City where he tells his story. Matt organizes a posse and rides out to see what's what. |
Original Air Date—15 November 1971
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Season 17, Episode 11: DragoOriginal Air Date—22 November 1971
An aging mountain man reluctantly agrees to join the posse pursuing a murderous outlaw gang, but his real intent is exact a murderous vengeance on the men that murdered his female benefactor. |
Original Air Date—29 November 1971
The three-part story begins with Doc Adams returning to Dodge City after an absence, which lifts the spirits of the town. Later, Matt is shot by a criminal. The bullet is lodged near his spine. Doc says he's incapable of the intricate surgery necessary to remove the bullet. As a result, Doc transports Matt by train to Denver, where a specialist awaits. Kitty, Festus and Newly also decide to make the trip. The U.S. Army is also using the train to transport gold, which is the target of a gang led by Jack Sinclair -- who lost a hand because of Dillon. Matt, laying face down and virtually unable to move, would be a sitting duck if Sinclair discovers he's on the train. |
Original Air Date—6 December 1971
Jack Sinclair's gang is trying to steal the gold the U.S. Army is transporting on the same train Doc is transporting a seriously wounded Matt to Denver. Festus and Newly commandeer the wagon the gang will use the haul the gold away. Sinclair and most of the gang give chase on foot; the wagon cannot move fast because of the weight of its load. Matt, laying face down, still manages to shoot one of Sinclair's gang. But, in the process, his condition worsens. Meanwhile, the back story of various passengers unfolds, including a priest who doubts his faith. |
Original Air Date—13 December 1971
Matt, a bullet lodged near his spine, must have surgery immediately. Doc is convinced he's not up to the task. However, a priest, whose own faith has been wavering, tells Doc that he must operate; if Matt should not survive the operation, it will be God's will. The priest rediscovers his own faith because of the ordeal. Meanwhile, Festus and Newly abandon the wagon with gold while freeing the horses. Sinclair's gang will have to haul the wagon themselves. Festus and Newly gamble the train can be restarted before they arrive. Doc must complete the intricate operation before the train starts up. Sinclair gets to the train ahead of the gang and finally discovers that Matt is aboard. |
Original Air Date—27 December 1971
Handyman Titus Spangler rescues seven orphans from an overly stern headmistress, Emma Grundy, and winds up in Dodge City at Christmas time.
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Season 17, Episode 16: No TomorrowOriginal Air Date—3 January 1972
A young man is caught in the web of a trumped-up rustling charge, jailbreak and murder. |
Season 17, Episode 17: HidalgoOriginal Air Date—10 January 1972
Mando is an outlaw in Mexico who seriously wounds Matt and leaves him to die in the desert. Hidalgo controls nearly all of the small town where Matt finds refuge, and nobody will stand up to him. Matt is determined to kill or capture Hidalgo for his crimes, but is so weak from his injuries he has to prop himself upright with the saddle horn of his horse. |
Season 17, Episode 18: TaraOriginal Air Date—17 January 1972
Newly falls in love with a woman who could put him in danger. |
Original Air Date—24 January 1972
"Dirty Sally" Fergus makes a memorable return, this time on her own (her series wouldn't reach the air for another two years). This time she takes in an old drunken drifter with a surprisingly cultured wardrobe and manners. The old fellow is on the run, as it turns out. He once was an extremely wealthy Eastern businessman, but Demon Rum ruined him. Sally gets him sobered up and to show some self-respect. But into the picture comes the man's disapproving daughter, who wants him committed to an asylum because of his past drunken antics. She's not all bad -- but her boyfriend, who is traveling with her, is. Unbeknownst to her, the boyfriend has his eye on what's left of the old man's fortune, which is still considerable. He went along with her plans to commit him because she would control his estate (and then he would marry her and take over her property rights), but that's taking too long. Now he just wants to assassinate the old man outright. Matt temporarily frustrates the killer's plan by taking the old man into custody and -- with Sally's help -- getting him to prove his competency in court. The daughter is mollified when the old man gives her some money, but the boyfriend drops all pretense and goes after Sally and her friend with a rifle. |
Original Air Date—31 January 1972
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Season 17, Episode 21: YanktonOriginal Air Date—7 February 1972
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Original Air Date—21 February 1972
Phoebe is a lonely widow living in the hills alone -- until one day she finds a well-dressed man staggering toward her cabin. The man has been shot in the head, the victim of an apparent robbery attempt (the thieves stole his fine horse). Phoebe, unaware of this, takes in the man, nurses him back to health, and gives him a new name -- Jed Frazier. Meanwhile, back in Dodge, Matt arrests one of the thieves on an unrelated charge. When Phoebe, at Jed's urging, comes into Dodge to tell Matt about the shooting, the imprisoned thief hears about it and calls from his cell window to his partner about how their victim survived his injury and might testify. The gunman asks Phoebe about "Jed Frazier," who meantime has left the cabin in search of his true identity, and gets the information that he's on the way to the train station. Phoebe, realizing she's unwittingly tipped off a killer, rushes to tell Matt... |
Original Air Date—6 March 1972
A case of mistaken identity is no laughing matter for Festus when a U.S. marshal arrests the good-natured deputy as bloodthirsty murderer Frank Eaton. While Festus stands trial, Matt investigates to clear his friend's name. |
Season 17, Episode 24: The WeddingOriginal Air Date—13 March 1972
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Original Air Date—11 September 1972
The episode has two plot threads. First, in the Oregon wilderness Matt Dillon escapes with a prisoner from a band of bank robbers led by Charley Utter. They kill the prisoner but continue to pursue Matt for the $24,000 bank loot he has recovered from them. Second, Matt encounters two runaway orphans, Tuttle and Hannah Kincaid, who are floating down the Rogue River. At a rough mining town Matt and the children encounter a thief, Pierre, and his partner in crime, Paulette. |
Original Air Date—18 September 1972
Continuation of Episode #18.1, "The River, Part 1". The outlaws catch up with Matt Dillon and the two orphans, Tuttle and Hannah, at the rough mining town. Matt and the children make their escape on the raft, along with the pair of thieves, Pierre and Paulette. As the outlaws ride hell-for-leather along the Rogue River bank, the escapees continue their whitewater rafting journey. All the characters meet at the Narrows, and the plot threads weave a well-disposed conclusion. |
Season 18, Episode 3: BohannanOriginal Air Date—25 September 1972
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Original Air Date—2 October 1972
Musgrov spent five years in prison after Ira Spratt turned him in as an army deserter. Now out of prison, Musgrov captures the craven wife beater Spratt and takes him to Dodge City to kill him. In the gunplay, Festus and Newly are wounded, and Spratt escapes. He hides in Gideon's barn and again escapes when Musgrov arrives. Musgrov then takes Gideon hostage, threatening to kill him if the townsfolk of Dodge City do not bring him Spratt. |
Original Air Date—9 October 1972
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Season 18, Episode 6: SarahOriginal Air Date—16 October 1972
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Original Air Date—23 October 1972
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Original Air Date—30 October 1972
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Season 18, Episode 9: MilliganOriginal Air Date—6 November 1972
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Season 18, Episode 10: TatumOriginal Air Date—13 November 1972
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Original Air Date—20 November 1972
Farm owner Clarabelle Callahan has absolute rights to the water supply in her area. Rather than negotiate with Clarabelle, rancher Lamoor Underwood turns to hatred and violence by bringing in a gunslinger, Dick Shaw. Unknown to either side, farm hand Pete Brown is the noted gunfighter John Jobson and represents a deadly equalizer for Clarabelle. |
Original Air Date—27 October 1972
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Season 18, Episode 13: Hostage!Original Air Date—11 December 1972
Matt Dillon apprehends Virgil Bonner and brings him in to stand trial. Bonner is wanted for murder and he is found guilty and sentenced to hang. His older brother, Jude Bonner, leads a band of outlaws known as the Dog Soldiers and he swears to have his revenge if his brother is hung. To back up his threat he takes Miss Kitty hostage and threatens to kill her. Matt must try to get a stay of execution from the Governor in order to save Kitty. |
Season 18, Episode 14: JubileeOriginal Air Date—18 December 1972
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Original Air Date—1 January 1973
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Season 18, Episode 16: HomecomingOriginal Air Date—8 January 1973
Doc tends to a dying woman with the help of Kitty and the woman's daughter. Doc has sent word to the woman's two sons to come and see her for the last time, and they arrive - but they are escorting a death-row escapee who is a total psycho and takes the entire group hostage. Newly tries to bluff his way in by applying a plaster cast to his right arm (he's left-handed) and concealing a revolver inside, but the convict shatters the cast and nearly kills the whole bunch. It's up to the whole group to depend on whether Matt will understand a cryptic summons sent to him while he was away. |
Season 18, Episode 17: ShadlerOriginal Air Date—15 January 1973
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Season 18, Episode 18: PatriciaOriginal Air Date—22 January 1973
Newly falls in love with a young woman who is drying of leukemia. At show's end, Doc Adams offers to teach Newly how to become a doctor. |
Original Air Date—29 January 1973
Matt Dillon rides wearily into Dodge City after thirty-six hours in the saddle. At the office he can't get to sleep because Festus is so exuberant about everything. In the course of the day Matt fights with a prisoner and is stabbed with a fork. Kitty will not talk to him because duty caused him to miss a picnic. There is a brawl in the Longbranch Saloon. A young boy locks a crotchety old woman in a safe that has no available combination. Finally, Matt takes things into his own hands. |
Original Air Date—5 February 1973
Outlaws led by Dan Whelan come to Dodge City looking to kill Matt Dillon, who is out of town. They attack Newly and Festus, and throw them into jail. The outlaws take over Dodge City, robbing the bank and citizenry. They come to grief when they invite Kitty Russell into a poker game. |
Season 18, Episode 21: KimbroOriginal Air Date—12 February 1973
Adam Kimbro, Matt Dillon's mentor as a lawman, is down on his luck. He's a lush, cleaning horse stalls for his next meal. Kimbro takes a short term job as a deputy with Matt, where he must face the kind of man he has become. |
Season 18, Episode 22: Jesse/IIOriginal Air Date—19 February 1973
Festus Haggen and Newly O'Brien meet an old friend of Festus, Jesse Dillard, an African-American cattle drive cook. Their confab is interrupted by U. S. Marshal Halstead, who has a warrant for Jesse's arrest, charging him with jail break. Jesse goes along peaceably, explaining that he killed his employer for shorting his wages and for a racially motivated flogging. Instead of the normal sentence of six to twelve months, Jesse had been given ten years at hard labor because of his race. Pete Murphy and a few drovers try to rescue Jesse, accidentally shooting the marshal. Dave Carpenter, the owner of the herd and Jesse's boss, rides in with the rest of the drovers to save Jesse from the marshal, who soon dies. Festus is conflicted between his sense of duty and his loyalty to Jesse. |
Season 18, Episode 23: TalbotOriginal Air Date—26 February 1973
An outlaw named Talbot falls in love with the widow of a man he was forced to kill in self-defense. |
Original Air Date—5 March 1973
In a highly-honored episode dealing with religious belief, Russian-Jewish farmer Moshe and his family come to Kansas to try to take advantage of the land. However, their traditions are mocked by the cowboys around, notably a neighboring farm family. One night, one of Moshe's sons and the neighbors get into a fight, and the son is found dead of a broken neck soon afterward. Moshe witnessed the start of the fight but not the actual killing. Under the Mosaic law he treasured, he cannot testify and without his word the farm family is set free. Moshe's second son (Richard Dreyfuss, in his last role before "American Grafiti" movie stardom) buys a shotgun and threatens the neighbors with it to compel them to confess, but wastes his powder firing at imaginary targets and is run off the farm. The neighbors then invade Moshe's farm in an attempt to drive him off for good.
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Original Air Date—10 September 1973
Matt becomes involved in investigating the disappearance of female settlers and travelers in the region. He links it to a band of renegade Native Americans, whom plan to sell the women as sex slaves to a band of ruthless white mercenaries.
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Original Air Date—17 September 1973
Matt helps two of the captives (a one-time saloon girl named Stella and a young girl named Marcy) escape their bloodthirsty Indian captor. After Matt and Stella bring the shaken Marcy out of her shell - she had earlier witnessed her mother's murder at the hands of her would-be rapist - the three team together to stop the ringleader of the white slave trade to justice before he can escape to Mexico.
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Original Air Date—24 September 1973
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Original Air Date—1 October 1973
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Original Air Date—8 October 1973
Scott Coltrane's nickname (the title of this episode) is well-earned; he is one of the fastest guns in the West. But Coltrane is honest and has no desire to get in a non-legitimate fight; furthermore, he has recently married and learns he will soon become a father. When he comes to Dodge to settle, three men take him on at the same time (he drops all three in their tracks, though only after trying as hard as he can to persuade them to quit). Before long, another hired gun comes after him. Coltrane has a Hobson's choice of fighting until he gets killed or not fighting and getting killed anyway. Matt tries to figure out another route Coltrane can take.
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Original Air Date—22 October 1973
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Original Air Date—29 October 1973
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Original Air Date—5 November 1973
A riot on an Indian reservation leads to some of the men breaking out and marauding over the plains, terrifying the local whites. In one case, their terror is well-justified: a band breaks into the home of a local rancher and destroys it, killing his wife in the process. Matt and other lawmen come upon a group carrying various stolen items and take them in. The rancher gathers his minions and rides into Dodge vowing to lynch the men. Matt won't back down and insists that the Indians be held for trial. The rancher doesn't dare challenge Matt head-to-head, but Matt soon finds that any trial would be a shambles because the Indians can't speak English. In desperation, Matt shanghais a traveling circuit rider into serving as the Indians' counsel. The rider, Cicero Wolfe (Paul Stevens) finally agrees, but warns Matt that he himself is a half-blooded Cherokee and intends to make the trial a crusade against bigotry. The trial begins in a highly charged atmosphere.
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Original Air Date—12 November 1973
As the trial for a renegade group of Indians accused of murder during a rampage gets under way, half-breed defense counsel Cicero Wolfe (Paul Stevens) turns it into an expose' on the plight of Native Americans and how they have been prejudged on the basis of their skin color. Matt has sneaked Wolfe a piece of evidence that will clear the defendants -- if Wolfe doesn't get gunned down first. The rancher who lost his wife in the attack, and his daughter, start to develop deep respect for the high-principled Wolfe and start to believe his theory that the wrong men were arrested for the murder. But will it be enough?
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Season 19, Episode 10: Lynch TownOriginal Air Date—19 November 1973
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Original Air Date—26 November 1973
Patrolling the back country of Kansas on assignment for Marshal Dillon, Newly O'Brien comes to a small community /of rednecks and finds that a person there needs an emergency operation. Newly, who has been trained by Doc Adams to eventually pursue a career in medicine, undertakes the surgery - but the patient dies and the townsfolk hold Newly responsible. When word of the imminent hanging reaches the Long Branch Saloon where Matt Dillon, Kitty Russell and Doc are sharing a table, all three rush off to save Newly's neck. They get to the scene in time, but Doc is accidentally shot by one of Newly's guards and Newly must test his surgical skills once again. |
Original Air Date—3 December 1973
As Nellie and her niece Susan are moving to St. Louis permanently, Matt Dillon brings in a wounded prisoner, Norman Boswell, for Nellie to patch up, thus delaying the move. Susan highly resents the intrusion in her plans. Nellie and Norman develop feelings for one another and plan to be married, while Susan schemes to turn Norman in for the reward. |
Original Air Date—17 December 1973
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Original Air Date—24 December 1973
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Original Air Date—14 January 1974
Matt and a sheriff team up to hunt a family of particularly sadistic outlaws. |
Original Air Date—21 January 1974
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Original Air Date—28 January 1974
Marshal Dillon teams up with old friend Marshal Luke Rumbaugh to tame the town of Hilt. |
Original Air Date—11 February 1974
When the parents of a daughter who was raped refuse to accept the girl's baby, Marshal Dillon must find a home for the child. |
Original Air Date—18 February 1974
William Talley is a very unusual breed of gunfighter. He is well-educated, married and father to a poetry-spouting teenage daughter. That doesn't stop an association of ranchers around Dodge from hiring him to kill a rival rancher with his own lofty ideals, but it does lead the rivals into an unusual alliance. |
Original Air Date—25 February 1974
After being raped, Dodge City school teacher Sarah Merkle struggles with the implications of being an unwed mother. |
Original Air Date—4 March 1974
When his uncle kills his father in cold blood, Buck Henry vows to avenge his death, no matter what the cost. |
Original Air Date—11 March 1974
A broke young man seeks his fortune with an old drifter, a formerly legendary champion billiards player. |
Original Air Date—18 March 1974
The schemes of a mother trying to control the lives of her son and daughter lead to tragic results. |
Original Air Date—1 April 1974
The final episode to feature Kitty is also the last one where Matt gets shot in the shoulder -- he takes down a shotgun-wielding bank robber but takes a load of buckshot in his gun arm. When Matt wakes, he says: "This arm just doesn't feel right." Matt soon discovers that rehabilitating the arm will be a long, slow process and (ironically) after a quarrel with Kitty, he decides to turn in his badge and leave town to be a drifter. Good idea, because the remaining bank robbers soon come back looking for Matt's scalp. When Kitty convinces them he's left, the robbers leave too, but determine that Matt has to live off the land by fishing and "this part of Kansas ain't exactly awash with rivers and cricks." Meanwhile, Matt comes upon a young Army deserter, who ran out after his unit massacred a group of unarmed Indians (My Lai, anyone?). A bounty hunter (David Huddleston in a cameo) menaces the deserter, but Matt distracts him long enough for the deserter (Dennis Redfield) to whip out his revolver and fire a warning shot. The deserter, Lem, takes a liking to Matt and brags about his prowess with a gun, all the while gloating about how he would never fire a bullet into another man. Matt considers that a dangerous contradiction and says so in no uncertain terms. Lem's ideals are tested when the robbers come upon their hideout and start blazing away, intending to get Matt and take Lem down with him. |
Original Air Date—9 September 1974
Matt is trapped at a mountain cabin occupied by murderous Abraham Wakefield and his sons. The embittered Wakefield detests lawmen because of his wife's death years earlier and he decides that it would be "sporting" for he, his sons, and their vicious dog to hunt the Marshal like an animal in the bitter cold. |
Original Air Date—16 September 1974
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. |
Original Air Date—23 September 1974
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. Meantime, Matt Dillon, Festus Haggen and Newly O'Brien are on the trail of the kidnappers, disguised as gun runners. |
Original Air Date—30 September 1974
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. |
Original Air Date—7 October 1974
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. |
Season 20, Episode 6: The WivingOriginal Air Date—14 October 1974
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 guests. This was the second episode filmed for the final season and was meant as a stand-alone, but drew so much fan mail that a sequel, "Brides and Grooms" (with Morgan and Ryan returning but a different group of young men and women in the younger roles) was commissioned and filmed as the next-to-last episode of the season. |
Original Air Date—21 October 1974
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. |
Original Air Date—4 November 1974
Late one night, a man (seen only from the shoulders down or in silhouette) enters the Dodge House Hotel, swipes a room key, lets himself into the room and goes back to return the key. A few minutes later, the room's occupant comes in. As he shuts the door, he looks up and sees the silhouette -- pointing a rifle at him. The slug drills him through the heart, but there is no sound of the shot and he's not discovered until the next morning. Newly thinks that someone could fashion a device to silence muzzle blasts. Matt sends word throughout Dodge and the nearby communities to form a street police force. But the killer strikes again the next night, and the next. Matt's now convinced that the serial killer is choosing his victims for a specific purpose -- most likely because they served on a jury. Matt questions Doc, who's lived in Dodge the longest, about the juries he remembers serving on and whether he remembered the men who served with them and who they judged. From Doc's information, Matt figures that Doc himself is the next on the list. But when the chief suspect is reported already dead, Matt must try to find the killer all over again. |
Original Air Date—11 November 1974
Matt captures a small-time fugitive and returns him to the town where he escaped. There, Matt meets the sheriff, an old acquaintance of his who used to play draw-and-shoot games with him. But the town seems profoundly uneasy even at a casual glance. Matt stays around to inquire, and learns that the sheriff has become a power-mad tyrant, viciously abusing even the slightest lawbreakers (including an old lady and a young boy, just for openers) and gunning down any serious challengers. Matt convinces the town council to depose the sheriff, but when Matt leaves the sheriff comes back, worse than ever (he stares down his own deputy and kills him). Matt is frantically summoned back and starts a cat-and-mouse game with the sheriff in a High Noon showdown that everyone is convinced Matt will lose. |
Original Air Date—18 November 1974
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. |
Original Air Date—2 December 1974
Matt and Festus bring a particularly notorious killer into a town on the edge of a desert, where the sheriff cheerfully informs the killer that "tomorrow we start working on the gallows." The sheriff spoke too soon: the killer gets the drop on him, murders him and flees into the desert. Festus, who stayed behind to borrow a new mule, goes in pursuit but is bushwhacked in his own right. Festus, however, is rescued by Ben Snow, a hermit who was a gold miner many years earlier -- only to be shot in the leg and left for dead by his partner. Snow is half-crazed ("I'd even make friends with a snake!") -- but he actually found his gold mine, a spring which provides him with water and shelter and food from desert animals. He's panned the spring incessantly and racked up a huge cache of gold dust. Snow might be able to get out of the desert (he's tried before and left water caches as far as he could walk), but he's so bent out of shape that he refuses to go without the gold -- many dozen pounds of it. So he steals Festus's weapons and handcuffs, turns them against them and makes Festus into his "pack mule." When Festus asks why, Snow explains that he will buy up the town where his ex-partner fled and make life a living hell for the man. He also warns Festus that if he collapses, "I'll shoot you like a mule gone lame!" With all the cards stacked against him, Festus sets out carrying the huge sacks of gold, while Snow follows in his tracks under the blazing sun. |
Original Air Date—9 December 1974
Festus is forced to pack gold dust across the desert, hoping to get to a town on the other end before his and Ben Snow's water supply runs out. Matt and Newly, having been alerted by telegram, try to catch up to them. When Festus spots the tracks of the killer who also wounded him, he simply turns around and goes after the killer. Snow has a Hobson's choice of shooting Festus and trying to make it out alone (which he knows he can't do) or go along and pick up the convict. They find him, strap half the gold to his back, and force him to come along to face a noose at the end of the journey. A series of double-crosses follow, leaving Festus and Snow in the direst of straits. |
Season 20, Episode 13: The ColonelOriginal Air Date—16 December 1974
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. |
Season 20, Episode 14: The SquawOriginal Air Date—6 January 1975
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 startlingly helpful when the bank robbers catch up with the group and lay siege to their cabin. |
Season 20, Episode 15: The HidersOriginal Air Date—13 January 1975
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Season 20, Episode 16: LarkinOriginal Air Date—20 January 1975
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. |
Original Air Date—27 January 1975
One of the series' most honored episodes centers on whether youngsters have the right -- and the duty -- to get a free public education. A teenage farm boy is holed up in the corncrib reading a borrowed copy of "The Iliad" when a fox gets into the henhouse, killing three chickens. The boy's father gives him a whipping to remember and considers taking him out of school. The middle-aged schoolteacher (Allen Garfield in a prototype of his "Teachers" movie role) figures out what happened and continues to encourage the student, giving him a copy of "The Odyssey" next. The father finds the book and burns it. Then he physically hauls the son out of school, bowling over the teacher in the process. The teacher goes to Matt and swears out a warrant for the father's arrest on assault charges. In the ensuing courtroom trial, Doc (in Milburn Stone's last major role on the series) is called on the testify about the value of a public education, while the teacher drills his own student on the knowledge he has picked up and how much use it could be. |
Original Air Date—3 February 1975
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. |
Original Air Date—10 February 1975
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! |
Season 20, Episode 20: Hard LaborOriginal Air Date—24 February 1975
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. |
Original Air Date—3 March 1975
Festus, out on patrol meets an aging traveling preacher who wants to build a church for Indians on their small reserve. The whites in the nearby town are furious and torches the building (Festus fires two shots from a revolver at the escaping arsonists). The preacher vows to try again and again - despite a heart condition that is about to kill him. |
Season 20, Episode 22: The BustersOriginal Air Date—10 March 1975
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. Complications arise when both men fall for a saloon girl, and Harve also has a surprise return meeting with the horse that kicked him. |
Season 20, Episode 23: ManoloOriginal Air Date—17 March 1975
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 surprise (inadvertently ramming the old man's head into a huge cast-iron water jug). This leads to the ostracizing of Manolo (Urich), made worse when he doesn't spot a wolf attacking the herd and loses sheep and a dog in the process. Manolo goes to work sweeping up at the Long Branch, while his younger brother follows and tries to persuade him that he can fight this. In syndication, this is the last episode shown ("The Sharecroppers", which ran later, was filmed at midseason and postponed). |
Original Air Date—31 March 1975
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