8.2/10235 votes#1 - Crack-Up
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1957
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.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: John Meston
8.0/10223 votes#2 - Gun for Chester
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1957
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.
Director: Louis King
Writer: N/A
7.9/10204 votes#3 - Blood Money
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1957
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.
Director: Louis King
Writer: N/A
7.8/10196 votes#4 - Kitty's Outlaw
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1957
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.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Writer: John Meston
7.9/10227 votes#5 - Potato Road
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/12/1957
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.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
7.5/10195 votes#6 - Jesse
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 10/19/1957
Jesse comes to Dodge to kill the man who killed his Pa.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Writer: N/A
7.9/10209 votes#7 - Mavis McCloud
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 10/26/1957
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.
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: N/A
7.6/10176 votes#8 - Born to Hang
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/2/1957
Joe Digger wants to kill the two men who tried to lynch him.
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: N/A
7.6/10190 votes#9 - Romeo
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 11/9/1957
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.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
8.4/10264 votes#10 - Never Pester Chester
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 11/16/1957
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.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.6/10195 votes#11 - Fingered
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 11/23/1957
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).
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/10210 votes#12 - How to Kill a Woman
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 11/30/1957
Pernell Roberts appears in this episode, as Matt tries to find a killer who robbed the stagecoach.
Director: John Rich, Sam Peckinpah
Writer: N/A
7.9/10199 votes#13 - Cows and Cribs
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 12/7/1957
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?
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: Kathleen Hite, John Meston
8.5/10235 votes#14 - Doc's Reward
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 12/14/1957
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.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.6/10206 votes#15 - Kitty Lost
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 12/21/1957
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.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
7.6/10206 votes#16 - Twelfth Night
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 12/28/1957
A hillbilly arrives in Dodge looking to continue a feud started back in the hills of Virginia.
Director: John Rich
Writer: N/A
7.9/10221 votes#17 - Joe Phy
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 1/4/1958
Matt goes to Elkader after the man who shot him and runs into Joe Phy "US Marshall".
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
8.0/10226 votes#18 - Buffalo Man
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 1/11/1958
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.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
7.6/10206 votes#19 - Kitty Caught
Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 1/18/1958
The Gunner brothers rob the bank in Dodge and take Kitty hostage.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.7/10188 votes#20 - Claustrophobia
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 1/25/1958
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.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: John Meston
7.8/10218 votes#21 - Ma Tennis
Season 3 Episode 21 - Aired 2/1/1958
Andy Tennis kills a gambler. Matt arrests him but Andy's mother breaks him out of jail.
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: N/A
6.9/10191 votes#22 - Sunday Supplement
Season 3 Episode 22 - Aired 2/8/1958
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.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.7/10202 votes#23 - Wild West
Season 3 Episode 23 - Aired 2/15/1958
Hattie throws in with two men to kill her husband and then sell his ranch for the money. Yorky Kelley sees the men ride off with his father and trails them till his horse breaks a leg. On the prarie Yorky finds Marshall Dillon and asks for his help finding his Pa.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
8.8/10296 votes#24 - The Cabin
Season 3 Episode 24 - Aired 2/22/1958
Matt get caught in a blizzard then finds shelter in a cabin but finds more than he bargained for.
Director: John Rich
Writer: John Meston
7.6/10218 votes#25 - Dirt
Season 3 Episode 25 - Aired 3/1/1958
Nat Seiber and Polly Troyman are to be married. When Polly's younger Brother finds out that Nat had visited another woman (Beulah)late one evening at her house, Polly's Brother (Henry Troyman) thinks that Nat has dishonored his Sister Polly and promises to stop the wedding anyway he can. When Nat is shot on his wedding day, everyone thinks Polly's Brother committed the shooting. After Matt and Chester do an investigation, Matt comes to another conclusion about the shooting of Nat Seiber.
Director: Sam Peckinpah, Ted Post
Writer: Sam Peckinpah
The Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 3
Every episode of Gunsmoke Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 3!
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...
Genres:WesternAction & AdventureDrama
Network:CBS
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"Crack-Up" is the best rated episode of "Gunsmoke" season 3. It scored 8.2/10 based on 235 votes. Directed by Ted Post and written by John Meston, it aired on 9/14/1957. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "Gun for Chester".