The Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 12
Every episode of Gunsmoke Season 12 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 12!
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television.
Season 12 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Gunsmoke" season 12 is "Snap Decision", rated 8.2/10 from 214 user votes. It was directed by Mark Rydell and written by N/A. "Snap Decision" aired on 9/17/1966 and is rated 0.7 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Goldtakers".
8.2/10 214 votes#1 - Snap Decision
Season 12 Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1966
Disturbed over being forced to kill a prisoner who was trying to save his life, Matt Dillion turns in his badge.
Director: Mark Rydell
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 196 votes#2 - The Goldtakers
Season 12 Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1966
A gang of thieves commandeers the Dodge City blacksmith shop to divide a gigantic bar of gold.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: N/A
8.7/10 679 votes#3 - The Jailer
Season 12 Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1966
Six years after her husband's hanging, Ma Stone plots her revenge against Matt Dillon by first kidnapping Kitty to use as a lure and then jailing Matt to be hanged on the morning of the second day with Kitty watching as her man died.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: N/A
7.9/10 187 votes#4 - The Mission
Season 12 Episode 4 - Aired 10/8/1966
Marshal Dillon is helped by an apparently friendly young runaway who later faces him as a deadly adversary.
Director: Mark Rydell
Writer: N/A
8.3/10 175 votes#5 - The Good People
Season 12 Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1966
A respectable rancher and his son hang an innocent man and allow a bewhiskered bounty hunter to go on trial for the murder.
Director: Robert Totten
Writer: N/A
8.7/10 275 votes#6 - Gunfighter, R.I.P.
Season 12 Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1966
A gunfighter (McGavin) hired to murder Matt Dillion gets wounded while trying to save the life of an elderly Chinese man.
Director: Mark Rydell
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 179 votes#7 - The Wrong Man
Season 12 Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1966
Hootie Kyle is a poor but honest farmer whose credit has run out. Matt Dillon and Festus lend him some money, then he gets swindled out of it in a poker game. Later Hootie gets circumstantially framed for the murder of the card shark who swindled him.
Director: Robert Totten
Writer: N/A
8.0/10 213 votes#8 - The Whispering Tree
Season 12 Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/1966
After eight years in a prison for robbery a farmer returns home and hopes to find the stolen fortune he had buried under a tree.
Director: Vincent McEveety
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 191 votes#9 - The Well
Season 12 Episode 9 - Aired 11/19/1966
All of Dodge City is suffering from a drought. A rainmaker (Guy Raymond) tries to put an end to it before the town's public well, their last source of water, runs dry.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: Francis M. Cockrell
8.0/10 200 votes#10 - Stage Stop
Season 12 Episode 10 - Aired 11/26/1966
Doc Adams takes up arms to defend a gold shipment from bandits, first during a stagecoach ambush and then at a weigh station. He is aided by a blind man and a wounded man in the battle against the bandits.
Director: Irving J. Moore
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 182 votes#11 - The Newcomers
Season 12 Episode 11 - Aired 12/3/1966
Lars Karlgren, a Scandinavian immigrant and his teenage son Petter, find the West even wilder than they had imagined when they settle in Dodge City. Petter gets framed for a murder of a man who was picking a fight with him.
Director: Robert Totten
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 198 votes#12 - Quaker Girl
Season 12 Episode 12 - Aired 12/10/1966
The identity of a criminal is confused with that of deputy marshal Thad, when a Quaker party rescues the pair from a do-or-die fight.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 193 votes#13 - The Moonstone
Season 12 Episode 13 - Aired 12/17/1966
A young farmer's former partner-in-crime, girlfriend and slow-witted brother figure in the discovery of his forgotten past.
Director: N/A
Writer: Paul Savage
6.8/10 179 votes#14 - Champion of the World
Season 12 Episode 14 - Aired 12/24/1966
Bull Bannock (Alan Hale), retired heavyweight champion of the world, attempts to make a home for himself in Dodge City, and tries to buy Miss Kitty's Longbranch Saloon.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: N/A
7.7/10 178 votes#15 - The Hanging
Season 12 Episode 15 - Aired 12/31/1966
To Marshal Matt Dillon and his deputies falls their grimmest task in many years-- the hanging of a ruthless gunman.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 174 votes#16 - Saturday Night
Season 12 Episode 16 - Aired 1/7/1967
A vengeful prisoner poses a continual threat to the life of Marshal Matt Dillon.
Director: Robert Totten
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 185 votes#17 - Mad Dog
Season 12 Episode 17 - Aired 1/14/1967
Festus Haggen is mistaken for a hired gunman and offered $300 to fight, and run out of town, the 3 sons of a man his cousin is accused of killing.
Director: Charles R. Rondeau
Writer: N/A
7.7/10 191 votes#18 - Muley
Season 12 Episode 18 - Aired 1/21/1967
A young gunman (Zalman King) falls for one of Kitty's saloon girls (Lane Bradbury) while waiting to kill Marshal Matt Dillon and rob the bank.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
7.1/10 161 votes#19 - Mail Drop
Season 12 Episode 19 - Aired 1/28/1967
A boy (Eddie Hodges) comes to Dodge City in search of his father only to learn that he is a wanted criminal.
Director: Robert Totten
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 167 votes#20 - Old Friend
Season 12 Episode 20 - Aired 2/4/1967
An embittered lawman (Fritz Weaver) seeks revenge against the men who destroyed his town and took away his wife.
Director: Allen Reisner
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 204 votes#21 - Fandango
Season 12 Episode 21 - Aired 2/11/1967
Matt Dillon tries to bring a man to justice in spite of an onslaught of an crazed vengeful lawman wishing to exact his own revenge.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 175 votes#22 - The Returning
Season 12 Episode 22 - Aired 2/18/1967
After eight years as a down-on-his-luck farmer, husband & father, and reformed outlaw (Michael Ansara) tries to make ends meet by rejoinning his old gang to rob the Dodge City freight office.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: N/A
7.9/10 160 votes#23 - The Lure
Season 12 Episode 23 - Aired 2/25/1967
Private detectives use Kitty and the daughter (Kim Darby) of an outlaw to trap the girl's fugitive father (Stephen McNally).
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 165 votes#24 - Noose of Gold
Season 12 Episode 24 - Aired 3/4/1967
Deputy District Attorney Shephard will do anything to further his career, including having outlaw John Farron killed, instead of being able to give himself up.
Director: Irving J. Moore
Writer: N/A
8.3/10 175 votes#25 - The Favor
Season 12 Episode 25 - Aired 3/11/1967
Kitty's conscience is torn between her sense of obligation to a man (James Daly) who saved her life and her concern for the law and Marshal Matt Dillon.
Director: Marc Daniels
Writer: N/A