The Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 9

Caleb Marr comes to Dodge in search of a meaningful life after finally acknowledging his failure at farming.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Paul Savage

Festus returns to Dodge from wolfing and is hired by the Cattleman's Association to hunt down the wolves killing everyone's cattle. What he finds is that what's been doing the preying may wind him up in prison if he doesn't get Matt's help.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Dunkel

A man is stabbed after winning in a poker game, and Festus is suspected.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: N/A

A teen-aged boy who robbed and killed to impress a saloon gal is pursued by Matt. The boy waylays Matt and leaves him for dead, then goes home to his grandmother's house to find her nursing Matt back to health.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

A mild old peddler of patent medicines and card tricks arrives in Dodge with his grown daughter, hoping to settle down, but instead they find their worst luck yet, beginning with a card game with a rich man and his spoiled son.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: N/A

The Ginnis family causes trouble for Doc Adams, because they hate waiting. Will Timble gets hurt at The Long Branch. Doc has to remove Will's hand, which causes Will to leave Dodge because he can't carve wood anymore.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

A dying man confesses to a murder of which he was acquitted, but Chester suspects the man was lying.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: N/A

Festus finds a little girl out on the prairie. He learns she saw her mother get killed by a stranger. When he takes her to Dodge, Matt hears she was hiding when this happened but can identify this man who may already be in town.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

To earn money to recover the custody of his daughter, an aging man accepts the job of Dodge's first in-town hangman, work no one else wants.

Director: Jerry Hopper

Writer: Paul Savage

A young rascal meets the outlaw idol of his youth, but the aging gunman, newly released from prison, wants only to go straight.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

A man with a grudge hits upon the perfect revenge when he spreads the word in Dodge that short-tempered Billy is so good with a gun that he shot down the famous gunfighter, Beau Carter.

Director: Jerry Hopper

Writer: John Meston

Matt finally catches up to killer Charlie Hacker in Mexico, and has to make a deal with the greedy Mexican police to get Hacker back to the border, with revengeful Mexican bandits in pursuit.

Director: John English

Writer: N/A

A retired lawman and showman wants only to settle down with the Dodge seamstress he left behind twenty years ago, but a young whippersnapper hopes to make a name for himself by challenging the aging gun to a duel.

Director: Jerry Hopper

Writer: N/A

A man carrying a tempting sum of money is attacked from behind by someone who beats him and leaves him for dead. Lucky for the injured man, an old friend of Matt is there to take him in to Doc Adams for mending.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Festus, returning to Dodge after doing some trapping, sees his girl, April, and they argue over a gift she received. Running off, she hides but her perch gives her a bird's eye view of a murder, one no one believes she witnessed but the killers.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: N/A

A charming cowboy apparently is guilty only of breaking hearts until he gets to Dodge, where he finds two women who may make a killer of him.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston

When fast-talking killer Charlie Hacker escapes from Matt in Texas, Matt follows him right into Mexico without extradition papers and has to deal with corrupt officials there.

Director: John English

Writer: N/A

Hard-luck Tobe, who's lost his farm, gets a job in town with Chester's help and takes up with a saloon gal, not knowing she's on the run from a beau who's a con man and a killer.

Director: John English

Writer: Paul Savage

After some horsing around, Festus breaks some of Quint's equipment. To repair or get anew, they travel to Wichita and meet a saloon girl who tells them she needs to get away from town but her jealous boyfriend is now hot on their trail.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Festus' cousin May Blossom arrives from Texas to marry Festus

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Competing with Kitty is a fancy new woman in town with plenty of money to build a new saloon and a secret from the past life she recently left behind.

Director: John Brahm

Writer: Kathleen Hite

Quint is hired to escort a family on the first leg of their journey to Oregon. On the way, he learns the reason for their going, a motive that could have repercussions for Quint.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: Kathleen Hite

A family in search of a doctor find Matt and his prisoner unconscious and handcuffed to each other on the prairie. The prisoner wakens first and announces that Matt is the condemned man he is transporting for hanging.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: N/A

A saloon girl spurns a man's advances in Wichita and moves to Dodge, where she becomes a respectable married woman, only to be confronted with her past when she discovers that her rancher husband is the nephew of the man she refused.

Director: Harry Harris

Writer: John Meston

Henry Huckaby, a local farmer and fed up with a sore back and an empty belly leaves to seek his fortune in Dodge. After several failed ideas he hits on one that may make him rich but could also cost him his life.

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Writer: John Meston