The Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 8

A rancher's spoiled son believes even after he is convicted of murder that his father's wealth and influence will save him from the hangman.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

A young man is convicted of killing the saloon girl he wanted for his own. Matt is so sure that the young man is really innocent that he goes on the road after another suspect to prevent an unjust hanging.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: Paul Savage

Quint says that white renegades, not Indians, are the cause of recent raids around Dodge. Working shotgun on the stage, he proves his point when he is attacked, then pursued by those renegades. His "Indian" skills save him and a colonel's daughter who has contempt for half-Comanche Quint.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

Matt and Doc come to the rescue of a farm wife and daughter who essentially are kept as prisoners by the farmer and his son.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: N/A

When a boy witnesses his grandfather's murder, it sends Matt looking for a new found companion's uncle. Festus Haggen is tracking his uncle for killing his twin brother Fergus. Matt is wary but learns to trust Festus when he's shot and in bad shape.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: N/A

A father's dying request is that Matt go to retrieve his daughter. Expecting to find a little girl, Matt finds a near-grown woman, but one who's wild and desperately in need of civilizing.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

A half-Comanche has joined his mother's tribe in killing whites to avenge the murder of his father, but Matt sees the good in the man and the chance to re-integrate him, perhaps, into white society.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

Billy Poe is falsely accused of murder by a dying man, and flees to another town while Matt follows him, and encounters dangerous resistance from other men who hate lawmen.

Director: Ted Post

Writer: John Meston

A trapper leaves his friend dying alone in order to save his own life, only later to stumble across that friend in Dodge, very much alive and wanting him dead.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: N/A

An orphaned Indian boy latches on to a cowboy in need of work and the two of them find all doors closed to them in Dodge.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Pardoned for his Civil War service, an old outlaw finds his way to Dodge, where there's a lawman who's in his debt.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: John Meston

The friendship between business partners is jeopardized when one of them sustains a head injury, changing his personality. The injured man threatens to kill West's character, the fiancé of a young saloon woman.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: John Meston

Aaron, sweet on saloon girl Leah and wanting to make her his wife, is attacked and killed by Colie Fletcher. When Matt goes after him, Colie runs into Jubal Tanner, wounds him, and steals his horse. Jubal, ungrateful to those who help him, meets Leah, and each helps the other's outlook.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: Paul Savage

An adolescent escapee from a cruel orphanage knows she has a lot to learn, and she starts learning it from the rough-and-tumble characters and loafers she encounters in Dodge.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

While Matt is out of town, putting lawman's business ahead of Kitty yet again, a new man in her life has plenty of time and attention to give--perhaps too much attention.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Two men want to rob the bank in Dodge, but are unwilling to try it while Matt lives. A man agrees to accept the job of killing the marshal, attaching some rather peculiar conditions to his acceptance.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Chester is smitten with Polly, but she has eyes only for Wade, a man new in town and newly her father's employee. Knowing little about Wade, Polly agrees quickly to marry him, but Chester discovers that Wade already has a wife.

Director: Joseph Sargent

Writer: N/A

The town drunk who saw a man drowned, believes it was dream, until he meets up with the guy who did the drowning.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: John Meston

Gib Dawson brings his beautiful Indian wife, Shona, in to Dodge for treatment of a badly infected hand wound, at a time when racial tensions are running high against the Comanches.

Director: Ted Post

Writer: John Meston

Civilization is moving in on the isolation of a rugged pioneer friend of Matt's, and he starts using lethal force against the settlers encroaching on the land he regards as his.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

A slick city reporter sets out to prove that even a milquetoast can pass for a feared gunfighter, if a few well-placed tidbits of rumor precede him.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

A young man named Cale may have earned Marshal Dillon's respect, but Tate Gifford says Cale has just ridden off on a stolen horse - Tate's horse.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Released after eight bitter years in prison, Collie Patten has difficulty adjusting to the fact that things have inevitably changed with respect to his relationships with his wife, his son, and the citizens of Dodge.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Chester gets a letter from his uncle Sunday, a 'crook', on his upcoming trip to Dodge city. When he arrives with a niece, he finds he has to watch them both or what they have planned just might work, at his expense.

Director: Joseph Sargent

Writer: John Meston

A woman newly widowed is powerfully attracted to Quint, but when he gently turns her down, she vows to make him pay for scorning a white woman.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: Kathleen Hite