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.

False Front

James Arness

Amanda Blake

Dennis Weaver

Ken Curtis

Milburn Stone

John Meston

Andrew V. McLaglen

Old Comrade

Uncle Sunday

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.

The Search

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.

Call Me Dodie

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.

Quint Asper Comes Home

Chester may find himself entrapped into marriage with a drifter's daughter who isn't particular about how she lands a husband.

Root Down

A bank robber hides out in Dodge, bringing along his girl. While he's gambling away his loot, his girl casts her eye on Matt.

Jenny

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.

Collie's Free

A young woman who's heir to her father's land decides to carry out his plan to build a ditch that will impair her neighbors' access to water and perhaps trigger a range war.

The Ditch

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.

The Trappers

A band of ne'er-do-wells, led by their mother, see in town a young woman that pleases them and decide to take her by force.

Phoebe Strunk

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.

The Hunger

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.

Abe Blocker

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.

The Way It Is

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.

Us Haggens

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.

The "town fool" has a chance to change his life when he learns that a famous general, now on his deathbed, believes him to be his long-lost son.

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

Louie Pheeters

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.

The Renegades

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.

Cotter's Girl

When a young pretty farm woman becomes attracted to and sees some good in a would-be robber, she refuses to identify him.

The Bad One

Chance Hopper is Matt's young foster brother, torn between loyalty to Matt and to his partners in crime, who are counting on Chance to divert Matt from their course and make good their getaway.

The Cousin

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.

Shona

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.

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.

Blind Man's Bluff

Two ne'er-do-wells come to town and soon cook up a plot under which half-Comanche blacksmith Quint Asper is framed for the theft of a horse. The atmosphere in Dodge quickly becomes dangerously ugly for Quint.

Quint's Indian

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.

Anybody Can Kill a Marshal

O'Ryan and Finnegan, feuding over a girl they both knew back home, are caught in a legal loophole to take ownership of a mine and land they both own. When Matt is forced in the middle of it, he has to work fast so no one else is hurt.

Two of a Kind

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.

I Call Him Wonder

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.

With a Smile

A rancher's widow regrets having spent her life away from the bright lights of a city, and is desperate that her son not share her fate.

The Far Places

Kitty welcomes her mentor from New Orleans, but the colorful old lady takes liberties with the truth and with Kitty's possessions.

Panacea Sykes

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.

Tell Chester

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.

Quint-Cident

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

Old York

Chester is sweet on a widow dressmaker. When the widow is not only intent on marriage but eager to make changes in Chester as well, he has second thoughts--especially after a talk with her child suggests that the widow may still be a wife.

Daddy Went Away

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.

The Odyssey of Jubal Tanner

A prized Appaloosa, grazing alone and apparently without owner on the prairie, proves to be the ruin of more than one man.

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.

The Quest for Asa Janin

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.

False Front

Seasons20

Season 8 Episodes38

Cast5

Crew2

Discussion

Episode Summary