Every season of Gunsmoke ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best seasons of Gunsmoke!

Dan Grat, a gunman hunted by Texas authorities, seeks refuge in Dodge City. Marshal Dillon goes into action against this outlaw who shoots before he talks.

Matt Gets It

Matt intercedes on behalf of ex-con Cope Borden, when Rance Bradley accuses Cope of horse theft and attempts to lynch him. Cope is proven innocent of the charge, but later kills Bradley's nephew in a fair fight during a gambling dispute. Matt is caught in an awkward situation when he must defend the unsavory Cope against the decent people of Dodge.

Hot Spell

Hank Worth, son of wealthy rancher Jake Worth, is kidnapped by three men and held for $20,000 ransom. They shoot him in the back for trying to escape. They call on Doc but Hank dies. The killers decide to let Doc go because he is the only doctor within 400 miles and they fear they might need his services someday. Before sparing his life and freeing him, they force the reluctant Doc to give his word of honor that he will never reveal their identities.

Word of Honor

When returning to Dodge, Chester and Matt are confronted by Holly Hawtree, whose father is desperately ill with gangrene. His only hope for survival is amputation of the affected leg. Matt performs the surgery, but the gangrene has spread too far and the old man dies. Matt later discovers that the presumed accident leading to Mr. Hawtree's condition was actually caused by Ben Walling, who has his sights on Holly.

Home Surgery

Two outlaws seek the rumored hidden fortune of old prospector Obie.  They drag him to get him to tell.  Obie forgets his cares and disappears on honeymoon with newcomer Ella May.  Matt suspiciously questions the simple Obie about Ella May's motives and finds Obie is deeper than he seems.

Obie Tater

Little Timmy Wyatt witnesses a series of bizarre murders.  He has a habit of telling tall tales, so no one will believe him.

Night Incident

Clay Young is trying to evict Josh Nolan, who says he paid for the property. Matt and Chester are tied up in reluctantly enforcing eviction law unless they can find another way.

Smoking Out the Nolans

Matt warns skilled gunman Andy Travis, of his choice between quitting the gun or else being constantly hunted and forced to prove himself.  Matt finds a way to foil the $1000 bounty on Andy's head.

Kite's Reward

Buffalo hunter Jase Murdock is warned by storekeeper Ross to stay out of Indian territory. Matt talks with Murdock's skinner, Golden Calf, who determines that Murdock's medicine is no longer good.

The Hunter

Two bullies cut off Chen's pig-tail, gravely dishonoring him in Chinese culture. Chen vows vengeance.

The Queue

Old-timer Smith is a former Army officer considered a butcher. He arrives in Dodge City speading rumors about the new Banker, Drew Holt.

General Parsley Smith

Chester is embarrassed at a visit by his estranged mountain man brother Magnus. To prove that Magnus is too uncivilized for town, Chester tours him through the highlights of Dodge: card gambling, drinking, and talking with Kitty. Meanwhile, the Long Branch women plan a Christmas Eve dance which is busted by the spiteful Lucifer Jones.

Magnus

Lucy professes her love for handsome Booth Rider, and concocts a scheme against Ephram.  Booth becomes the unwitting pawn in a homicide that culminates in an ironic twist of fate.

Reed Survives

Doc is enraged by traveling medicine man Professor Lute Bone and his opium elixir, and digs up a gun to shoot him with.  A lad also hunts him because his father died drinking his elixir, so Bone reconsiders the patent medicine business.

Professor Lute Bone

A dishonest deputy sheriff steals a prisoner from Matt's jail, so Matt and Chester hunt them.

No Handcuffs

Matt kills a man and his widow posts a $1,000 bounty in vengeance.  Everyone from sodbusters to gunslingers are out for that reward.

Reward for Matt

Witnesses refuse to testify against a notorious outlaw.

Robin Hood

Yorky, a white boy who was brought up by Arapahoes, is victimized by horse thieves. Accused of their crime, he is shot by the vengeful Abe Brandt and his son. Matt is also targeted by the horse thieves.

Yorky

A former lawman tries to keep his failing eyesight a secret from his enemies.

20-20

A well-liked hardware drummer is actually a man wanted for multiple murders.

Reunion '78

A would-be tough guy picks on the wrong man in an attempt to make a name for himself when he tries to involve Marshal Matt Dillon by staging a street fight.

Helping Hand

An old sodbuster comes to town and decides he wants to marry Kitty. When he won't leave her alone she declares she'll shoot him if he pesters her anymore.

Tap Day for Kitty

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

Indian Scout

Doc must find a way to thwart a typhoid epidemic in Dodge (Howard McNear appears).

The Pest Hole

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

The Big Broad

Hack Prine, a friend of Matt's rides into Dodge. However he is there as a gunman, for Matt Dillon.

Hack Prine

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

Cooter

Charles Bronson guest stars as a cowardly gunslinger who only goes after old men or young kids who aren't very experienced with guns.  But, when Matt Dillon gives him an ultimatum, he shows his true colors.

The Killer

A stranger comes to Dodge, and Doc bewilders and dismays Chester and Matt by arming himself and vowing to kill the man.

Doc's Revenge

Seth, a newcomer to Dodge is bullied by Keeler, a boxer.

The Preacher

The brother of a man Matt was forced to kill vows to kill Matt by any means necessary (Mort Mills appears).

How to Die for Nothing

Matt's Childhood hero, Dutch George is now the leader of a notorious gang of horse thieves he must now stop.

Dutch George

A bitter old man spreads rumors of an impending Indian raid on Dodge.

Prairie Happy

When Chester's mail-order bride arrives, neither she nor Chester are what the other are expecting (first credited appearance of Bert Rumsey as 'Sam').

Chester's Mail Order Bride

An ex-Union soldier is forced to use violence against a pair of diehard Rebels (Jacques Aubuchon appears). First episode without the "Boot Hill" intro.

The Guitar

Matt encounters an ex-girl friend---who's now working on the wrong side of the law.

Cara

A self-styled religious prophet (Ainslie Pryor) is making life miserable for his daughter and new son-in-law..

Mr. and Mrs. Amber

A young outlaw uses an old woman as a pawn in his bid for freedom.

Unmarked Grave

While on the way back to Dodge, Matt and Chester discover a homsteading family fleeing Pleasant Valley, which is besieged by   Indians.

Alarm at Pleasant Valley

After he is summoned unknowingly by Ben Pitcher to treat one of his cows, a human patient of Doc's dies. During a fight with Pitcher, Doc is knifed.

Cow Doctor

After his friend Ben Williams is shot down by Lou Shippen, Matt travels to Elkader to bring him him.  The only problem, he doesn't know what he looks like and the town is protecting Shippen.

Brush at Elkader

Matt refuses to turn the rustler Joe Trimble over to Major Banker for court-martial.

Custer

Matt closes up shops to a group of drunken cowboys, which causes trouble.

The Round Up

After gunman, Sam Kercher is killed by Matt, his 16-year-old brother arrives to fight Matt.

Young Man with a Gun

At Fort Dodge, home of the third cavalry, Mrs. Mary Cullen tells the colonel that the twelve year old white boy they recovered from the Cheyenne is her son Dennis. The tribe had taken him when he was two years old.

Indian White

Matt is used by an old friend in a con game.

How to Cure a Friend

Doc comes upon a homesteader with a busted leg—and a gun to protect himself from his wife.

Legal Revenge

Matt leaves Dodge City unprotected when he sets out to find a killer (Mike Connors) (Bert Rumsey credited as 'Bartender', but referred to by Chester as 'Sam Noonan').

The Mistake

An outlaw threatens to kill Doc if he does not help his wounded buddy.

Greater Love

Matt and Chester act as decoys to ambush outlaws (including Mickey Simpson) that are masking their crimes as those of renegade Indians (Fintan Meyler and Herbert Rudley appear).

No Indians

Matt discovers that he was the intended victim of a murder he is investigating.

Spring Term

Matt helps a woman whose suitors are about to duel for her affections.

Poor Pearl

A landowner (Paul Fix) tries to terrorize homesteaders (Bartlett Robinson and Peg Hillias) off their land (Gordon Gebert, John Smith, and Stuart Whitman appear).

Cholera

An old buffalo hunter (Edgar Stehli) swears revenge on the skinner (Grant Withers) that left him to die (Richard Deacon appears as banker Botkin, Bert Rumsey credited as 'Bartender').

Pucket's New Year

Matt traps a cattleman (Tyler McVey) who shot two homesteaders (including Roy Engel) (Malcolm Atterbury and Vivi Janiss appear).

The Cover Up

An Indian woman (Angie Dickinson) faces prejudice for her father's raid on Dodge City (Peter Whitney and Paul Wexler appear).

Sins of the Father

A bank robber (Robert H. Harris) murders his wife and frames Tobeel (Frank de Kova) for the crime (Paul Lambert appears).

Kick Me

A young gunfighter, Tom Clegg, forces farmer Abe Curry into a duel and kills him. Matt can't arrest Clegg since Abe drew first. However, Abe's brother Morgan plots revenge.

Executioner

Townspeople protect an outlaw (Carl Betz) they believe has reformed (Tige Andrews, Joe De Santis, John Dierkes, Marianne Stewart, and Ward Wood appear).

Gone Straight

The shooting of several members of an outlaw gang, though in self defense, triggers an emotional crisis in Matt, haunted by memories of all the men he has killed (Lawrence Dobkin, Russell Johnson, and Gloria Marshall appear).

Bloody Hands

An Eastern girl makes the long trip to Dodge, only to find that her fiancé has lost his money and won't marry her.

Skid Row

Rena Decker, a new dance hall girl, purposely gets her admirers into fighting over her. Despite Kitty's negative opinion of her, Matt befreinds Rena and gets her a job at the Long Branch. Soon afterward, 4 men are dead and Rena is the cause.

Sweet and Sour

Ex-gunslinger Joel Adams' past is about to catch up with him.

Cain

A Washington official is determined to tame Dodge City.

Bureaucrat

Kitty gets annoyed by a pair of old farmers who are each trying to have a fling with her.

Last Fling

Chester is drinking at the Long Branch and gets into an argument with a gambler over a girl. When the marshal breaks it up, he tells Chester to bring the man to jail. On the way there, the man is killed and everyone thinks Chester did it.

Chester's Murder

Dodge City meets a Photographer who shows the residents how a camera works.  Jacoby wants to take pictures of how the Wild West looks. When Matt learns someone died, he thinks the photographer may have hired someone to kill Grubby for a picture of the west.

The Photographer

A cowboy vows revenge for the shooting of his friend, who was mistaken for a criminal (Don Keefer and Catherine McLeod, real-life husband and wife, appear as a husband and wife).

Wrong Man

Philip Locke is looking for Laura Simmons, a saloon girl, but she doesn't want him to know where she works. Laura tells Matt that she and Philip were previously engaged, and she asks him not to say anything about her job. Philip warns Matt that he will be killed if he doesn't tell the truth.

Big Girl Lost

Matt fakes his death to lure a gunman (Vic Perrin) out in the open (Robert Karnes appears, Bert Rumsey credited as 'Sam').

What the Whiskey Drummer Heard

A former gunfighter has turned away from violence, but his fiancee's brother is determined to goad him into a gunfight.

Cheap Labor

After Charlie Brewer is found dead, Jack Salter who was a friend of Charlie Brewer comes to Matt's office saying Vint killed Brewer. Matt then tries to find out if Jack is right.

Moon

Joe Delk causes trouble at The Long Branch after shooting two men who were unarmed.

Who Lives by the Sword

Matt goes after an outlaw (Earle Hodgins) who shot Chester (Paul Wexler appears).

Uncle Oliver

Kitty's father, Wayne Russell, arrives in Dodge to meet his daughter after abandoning her and her mother as a baby.  He insists that saloon life is not fit for a proper lady and wants to take her back to New Orleans so he can pamper her and invest her savings in his freight business.

Daddy-O

A former Army Officer wants Matt Dillon's job. Matt then takes Mr. Egan on his rounds.   Matt lets Egan try his brand of justice that almost costs Egan his life.

The Man Who Would Be Marshal

A braggart tries to provoke a gunfight with a harmless drunk.

Liar from Blackhawk

Jack Kelly plays a hot-tempered husband who thinks Matt is after his wife.

Jealousy

Matt learns there is a hired killer in Dodge City, the hired killer gives Matt a challenge to find out who paid Nate Springer to kill Matt.

Crack-Up

Chester believes Asa Ledbetter is out to kill him. After Chester is shot, he tells Matt Asa Ledbetter shot him. Matt worries that Chester may be working too hard on finding Asa Ledbetter. Asa Ledbetter claims Chester killed his brother.

Gun for Chester

After Harry Spencer's life is saved Matt receives a wanted poster for Joe Sharpe who robbed a bank. Matt learns that Joe and Shape left Dodge so Sharpe could try and get the reward money.

Blood Money

Doc, Chester, and Matt suspect Kitty of helping a bank robber when she invites Matt to an out of the way spot for dinner.  What they didn't know was that the bank robber was the first 'man' Kitty had ever known.

Kitty's Outlaw

Budge wants the Marshall to arrest his Pa for murder but when they get to Budge's house they get captured by Bud & his Ma so they can rob the bank.

Potato Road

Jesse comes to Dodge to kill the man who killed his Pa.

Jesse

Mavis McCloud comes to Dodge to get married. She marries Barny but Lou Staley comes looking for Mavis and wants to kill Barney and the Marshall.

Mavis McCloud

Joe Digger wants to kill the two men who tried to lynch him.

Born to Hang

A powerful landowner threatens to wipe out Dodge when his daughter falls in love with the son of his archenemy. Matt has to find a way to stop it.

Romeo

When Matt sends Chester out to handle a rowdy couple of cow pokers, Chester ends up nearly dead.  Matt is so guilt ridden he vows to find the men who did it and make them pay.

Never Pester Chester

The people of Dodge gets suspicious of Jim Cobbett (John Larch) when his second wife (Virginia Christine) vanishes just like his first (Karl Swenson appears).

Fingered

Pernell Roberts appears in this episode, as Matt tries to find a killer who robbed the stagecoach.

How to Kill a Woman

The whole town is caught up in a mystery: where does Joe Nadler get all his money---and where does he go to spend it?

Cows and Cribs

Doc kills a man who shoots his horse. The man's brother comes looking for Doc because he thinks Doc killed his brother for reward money.

Doc's Reward

An eastern dude asks Kitty if she'd like to take a midnight drive, but when she doesn't return the next day, Matt goes looking.

Kitty Lost

A hillbilly arrives in Dodge looking to continue a feud started back in the hills of Virginia.

Twelfth Night

Matt goes to Elkader after the man who shot him and runs into Joe Phy "US Marshall".

Joe Phy

Matt & Chester are taken prisoner by two buffalo hunters who are hunting buffalo in Indian territory. The hunters leave them tied to a wagon in hopes that the Indians will kill them.

Buffalo Man

The Gunner brothers rob the bank in Dodge and take Kitty hostage.

Kitty Caught

Ollie Ridgers is a free spirited man who hates towns and lives free on the prairie. His friend Jim Branch convinces Ollie to go into Dodge for a good time at Miss Kitty's saloon.

While Ollie is in town, two men kill Ollie's hogs and mule. Ollie goes after the two men thus killing one of the men.

Matt is forced to arrest his good friend Ollie for killing one of the men.

After Ollie has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to a long prison term, Ollie's friend,  (Jim Branch) kills Ollie to spare Ollie from the cruelty of being being incarcerated for the rest of his life.

Claustrophobia

Andy Tennis kills a gambler. Matt arrests him but Andy's mother breaks him out of jail.

Ma Tennis

Clifton Bunker and Samuel Spring, writers from New York, come to Dodge looking for a story. Finding none they stir up trouble to get a story.

The Best Seasons of Gunsmoke

The Best Seasons of Gunsmoke

Season 11

Season 9

Season 17

Season 7

Season 12

Season 10

Season 18

Season 20

Season 13

Season 19

Season 3

Season 2

Season 5

Season 6

Season 14

Season 1

Season 4

Season 15

Season 16

Season 8