The Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 4
Every episode of Gunsmoke Season 4 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 4!
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 4 Ratings Summary
The best episode of "Gunsmoke" season 4 is "Matt for Murder", rated 7.9/10 from 200 user votes. It was directed by Richard Whorf and written by John Meston. "Matt for Murder" aired on 9/13/1958 and is rated 0.1 point(s) higher than the second highest rated, "The Patsy".
7.9/10 200 votes#1 - Matt for Murder
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 9/13/1958
Matt resigns as Marshall after Tom Samples accuses Matt of killing an innocent man;however, Doc and Matt's old friend Wild Bill Hickok come up with a plan that might clear Matt of this erroneous charge of murder.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: John Meston
7.8/10 193 votes#2 - The Patsy
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 9/20/1958
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.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: John Meston
7.7/10 177 votes#3 - Gunsmuggler
Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 9/27/1958
Matt believes white smugglers supplied the guns that a band of Pawnee used to attack local ranchers.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: John Meston
8.1/10 186 votes#4 - Monopoly
Season 4 Episode 4 - Aired 10/4/1958
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.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 191 votes#5 - Letter of the Law
Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 10/11/1958
A rich landowner seizes the chance to get a little more acreage when he discovers that a homesteader has failed to file the paperwork to make his quarter section his own.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: John Meston
7.6/10 187 votes#6 - Thoroughbreds
Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 10/18/1958
Matt and Chester, out of water while riding back to Dodge, come upon a man with two fine horses who is not very trusting. When they meet him later in Dodge, he is much different: friendly and spending money freely.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 182 votes#7 - Stage Hold-Up
Season 4 Episode 7 - Aired 10/25/1958
A stagecoach on which Matt and Chester are riding is robbed and another passenger is murdered. Matt utilizes a ruse to incriminate the thieves when a "cowboy" appears and offers to show him where one of the thieves may be buried.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
8.2/10 223 votes#8 - Lost Rifle
Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 11/1/1958
Matt refuses to arrest his friend Ben Tiple without more evidence, when the man he has been feuding with is found shot in the back.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.7/10 188 votes#9 - Land Deal
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 11/8/1958
When a stranger leading some immigrants planning on settling outside of Dodge wants Matt to give him a badge to avert trouble, Matt gets suspicious and rides out to their camp to see what is really up.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
7.2/10 175 votes#10 - Lynching Man
Season 4 Episode 10 - Aired 11/15/1958
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.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.8/10 191 votes#11 - How to Kill a Friend
Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 11/22/1958
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.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
8.1/10 182 votes#12 - Grass
Season 4 Episode 12 - Aired 11/29/1958
White men pretending to be Indians attack greenhorn Harry Pope at night, and he kills one of them. Now the dead man's friends want revenge.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.7/10 181 votes#13 - The Cast
Season 4 Episode 13 - Aired 12/6/1958
When Doc arrives too late to save his patient, her husband, a good friend of Matt's, blames Doc for her death.
Director: Jesse Hibbs
Writer: John Meston
7.6/10 190 votes#14 - Robber Bridegroom
Season 4 Episode 14 - Aired 12/13/1958
Financially desperate Jack Fitch robs a stagecoach and abducts passenger Laura Church, unaware that she is "engaged" to an unscrupulous businessman who threatened to ruin her father if he did not agree to the marriage.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.9/10 188 votes#15 - Snakebite
Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 12/20/1958
Claustrophobic plainsman Poney Thompson is arrested for murdering a man who maliciously shot his dog, but an ironic fate awaits him after he breaks free from Chester's custody.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: John Meston
7.2/10 190 votes#16 - Gypsum Hills Feud
Season 4 Episode 16 - Aired 12/27/1958
Matt's attempt to find a man who shot at him from ambush leads him and Chester into the middle of a murderous feud between two bitter and isolated mountain families.
Director: Richard Whorf
Writer: N/A
7.3/10 166 votes#17 - Young Love
Season 4 Episode 17 - Aired 1/3/1959
Over the objections of his sometime partner Rod Allison, treacherous Jim Box murders aging rancher Jesse Wheat, then attempts to steal cattle from Wheat's young widow.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 192 votes#18 - Marshal Proudfoot
Season 4 Episode 18 - Aired 1/10/1959
Matt goes along with a hoax when Chester's aging Uncle Wesley arrives for a visit. Wesley thinks Chester is the marshal and Dillion is his assistant.
Director: Jesse Hibbs
Writer: John Meston
7.5/10 178 votes#19 - Passive Resistance
Season 4 Episode 19 - Aired 1/17/1959
A man's house is burned and his livestock killed, but he refuses to identify the perpetrators to the marshal.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
7.5/10 178 votes#20 - Love of a Good Woman
Season 4 Episode 20 - Aired 1/24/1959
An old friend of Doc's, a nurse, is visiting and he hopes she will stay around Dodge. In the meantime Matt is worried that an ex-con is gunning for him even though he thought he was innocent five years ago.
Director: Arthur Hiller
Writer: N/A
8.3/10 213 votes#21 - Jayhawkers
Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 1/31/1959
Trail boss Dolph Quince sends for his friend Matt to help escort his cattle herd into Dodge because he is having trouble with Jayhawkers (Kansas renegades), and he hopes to ease the animosity his men have towards all Kansans.
Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Writer: N/A
7.7/10 203 votes#22 - Kitty's Rebellion
Season 4 Episode 22 - Aired 2/7/1959
An old friend of the family comes to Dodge looking for Kitty, but when he finds out she's a saloon owner, he's dismayed. Intent on defending her honor wherever she is insulted, he nearly gets himself killed. Kitty finally tells him that she has no honor, and he keeps making a fool out of himself thinking otherwise. It sends him away and saves his life at the same time.
Director: Jesse Hibbs
Writer: John Meston
7.4/10 187 votes#23 - Sky
Season 4 Episode 23 - Aired 2/14/1959
Young Billy flees Dodge in fear after being suspected of shooting dead an older saloon girl whose sexual advances he had been resisting.
Director: Ted Post
Writer: N/A
7.6/10 175 votes#24 - Doc Quits
Season 4 Episode 24 - Aired 2/21/1959
Doc takes hard the death of a homesteader under his care; then a flashy new medicine man comes to town and takes away many of his patients.
Director: N/A
Writer: John Meston
7.6/10 176 votes#25 - The Bear
Season 4 Episode 25 - Aired 2/28/1959
Rivalry for the affections of a former saloon gal leads to a frame-up for murder.
Director: Jesse Hibbs
Writer: N/A