Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Marshal Matt Dillon keeps the peace in rough-and-tumble Dodge City.

Genre: DramaWestern

Cast:James ArnessMilburn StoneAmanda BlakeKen CurtisDennis WeaverGlenn StrangeFred McDougallBert MadridBuck TaylorTed JordanJohn BreenRudy SooterFred DaleJames NusserBert RumseyMathew McCueClem FullerPete Kellett


1Season 17

S17.E1 ∙ The Lost

Mon, Sep 13, 1971

Kitty is lost and wandering the countryside when she befriends a female child who has been living like a jungle girl for years in the wild. Then a family captures the girl and wants to use her in a freak show.

2Season 17

S17.E2 ∙ Phoenix

Mon, Sep 20, 1971

Phoenix is an ex-con hired to kill an ex-law man. When he starts working for the man and his wife, he becomes attached to them and can't go through with it.

3Season 17

S17.E3 ∙ Waste: Part 1

Mon, Sep 27, 1971

On the trail of thief and killer Ben Rodman in the spectacular Utah wilderness, Matt meets Rodman's latest victim, an old prospector who was shot by Rodman over the water hole the old man had staked a claim to. The dying man entrusts his grandson to Matt's care. Quickly thereafter, a wagon drives up with Maggie Blaisdell and Jed Rascoe at the reins, looking for the same water. Maggie is a madam, gimpy Rascoe her handyman, and the four women inside are her prostitutes. Despite Maggie's profession, she and Matt are old friends, complicated by the fact that she was also once Rodman's girlfriend. It's further complicated that one of the "girls" is, unknown to anyone, the mother of the young boy (she ran off and left him with his grandfather years ago). Matt chats with Maggie and learns that she is taking nearly $48,000 in gold dust to the East to invest in a mining consortium where she's a partner. One of the "girls", treacherous Lisa, overhears the conversation and sneaks out, first draining the wagon's water supply. Then she hightails it to Rodman's hideout and tells him all about Maggie, her stash of gold, and Matt joining the group as part bodyguard and part lawman. Rodman and his gang, including a Bible thumper called "Preacher" sneak around behind the wagon train and chase it into an abandoned U.S. Army cavalry post.

4Season 17

S17.E4 ∙ Waste: Part 2

Mon, Oct 4, 1971

Matt, Maggie Blaisedell, her "stable" of call girls and a young boy who's the son of one of the women take refuge from Ben Rodman's gang in an old fort. Unfortunately, the fort has crumbled with age and Rodman and his gang are able to get inside and demand a fortune in gold dust Maggie is carrying for friends. Maggie also has a trunk full of fine hunting rifles and ammo, which she distributes among the group, and though the girls can't hit the broad side of a barn they can scare off any frontal assault. What they don't have is water - one of Maggie's girls turned traitor had drained their barrel before running off to join the gang. With time running desperately short, Matt (and the weather) contrive a scheme to force the outlaws to come headlong after the gold dust, hail of bullets or no.

5Season 17

S17.E5 ∙ New Doctor in Town

Mon, Oct 11, 1971

Kitty finds and reads a letter from Doc Adams, who has disappeared from Dodge. Doc writes that he was so distraught over the death of a young girl under his care, who was suffering from an illness he didn't know how to treat, that he has gone East to re-enter medical school and catch up on something other than surgery for bullet wounds. (This was actually a ploy to give Milburn Stone, who had suffered a heart attack in the off season, time to fully recover.) Soon a new doctor, Dr. John Chapman, arrives. Chapman is a highly cultured, very standoffish New Orleans dandy. The townspeople treat him with disdain and refuse to see him. Chapman pretends not to care, but his feelings are deeply hurt. It takes an explosion at Newly's gun shop -- and a bone fragment pressing on Newly's brain, causing him to have hallucinations and become a dangerous maniac -- to get people to turn to Chapman for help.

6Season 17

S17.E6 ∙ The Legend

Mon, Oct 18, 1971

The Colter family is in trouble. The father is dead, one brother has been hanged, two brothers are on the run, Travis gets fired because of his name and the mother, Beatrice, has to go to work as a saloon singer. Matt and Newly leave town, and Festus is in charge. The two brothers return to Dodge City to get Travis to join in a robbery, but he refuses. Dr. John Chapman, filling in for Doc Adams, steps in to help Bea and Travis.

7Season 17

S17.E7 ∙ Trafton

Mon, Oct 25, 1971

An outlaw, used to killing with ease, kills a priest and then strangely starts to show compassion, mercy, and remorse towards his victims.

8Season 17

S17.E8 ∙ Lynott

Mon, Nov 1, 1971

A badly injured Matt asks a good friend to take over temporarily as the Marshal of Dodge.

9Season 17

S17.E9 ∙ Lijah

Mon, Nov 8, 1971

Lijah, an itinerant mountain man, happens on three murdered members of the Ezra Parker family, and discovers the lone survivor, ten-year-old Rachel Mae, hiding in the root cellar. As Lijah is burying the family, Hale Parker, Rachel Mae's shiftless uncle, comes on the scene. In a struggle with the supposed killer Lijah, Hale is knocked unconscious. Lijah leaves and takes Rachel Mae with him to rescue her from unseen danger. Hale revives and makes his way to Dodge City where he tells his story. Matt organizes a posse and rides out to see what's what.

10Season 17

S17.E10 ∙ My Brother's Keeper

Mon, Nov 15, 1971

During a thunderstorm, Festus seeks refuge in a cave, finding an Old Indian waiting to die. Festus decides to be his "brother's keeper". He takes the Old Indian to Dodge and tries to civilize him. His efforts don't work.

11Season 17

S17.E11 ∙ Drago

Mon, Nov 22, 1971

An aging mountain man reluctantly agrees to join the posse pursuing a murderous outlaw gang, but his real intent is to exact murderous vengeance on the men that murdered his female benefactor.

12Season 17

S17.E12 ∙ Gold Train: The Bullet: Part 1

Mon, Nov 29, 1971

Doc lacks the faith to operate on Matt's bullet wound, so he transports him to a specialist by train, which is taken over by bandits for its gold shipment.

13Season 17

S17.E13 ∙ Gold Train: The Bullet: Part 2

Mon, Dec 6, 1971

Jack Sinclair's gang is trying to steal the gold the U.S. Army is transporting on the same train Doc is transporting a seriously wounded Matt to Denver. Festus and Newly commandeer the wagon the gang will use the haul the gold away. Sinclair and most of the gang give chase on foot; the wagon cannot move fast because of the weight of its load. Matt, laying face down, still manages to shoot one of Sinclair's gang. But, in the process, his condition worsens. Meanwhile, the back story of various passengers unfolds, including a priest who doubts his faith.

14Season 17

S17.E14 ∙ Gold Train: The Bullet: Part 3

Mon, Dec 13, 1971

Matt, a bullet lodged near his spine, must have surgery immediately. Doc is convinced he's not up to the task. However, a priest, whose own faith has been wavering, tells Doc that he must operate; if Matt should not survive the operation, it will be God's will. The priest rediscovers his own faith because of the ordeal. Meanwhile, Festus and Newly abandon the wagon with gold while freeing the horses. Sinclair's gang will have to haul the wagon themselves. Festus and Newly gamble the train can be restarted before they arrive. Doc must complete the intricate operation before the train starts up. Sinclair gets to the train ahead of the gang and finally discovers that Matt is aboard.

15Season 17

S17.E15 ∙ P.S. Murry Christmas

Mon, Dec 27, 1971

Handyman Titus Spangler rescues seven orphans from an overly stern headmistress, Emma Grundy, and winds up in Dodge City at Christmas time.

16Season 17

S17.E16 ∙ No Tomorrow

Mon, Jan 3, 1972

A young man is caught in the web of a trumped-up rustling charge, jailbreak and murder.

17Season 17

S17.E17 ∙ Hidalgo

Mon, Jan 10, 1972

Mando is an outlaw in Mexico who seriously wounds Matt and leaves him to die in the desert. Hidalgo controls nearly all of the small town where Matt finds refuge, and nobody will stand up to him. Matt is determined to kill or capture Hidalgo for his crimes, but is so weak from his injuries he has to prop himself upright with the saddle horn of his horse.

18Season 17

S17.E18 ∙ Tara

Mon, Jan 17, 1972

Newly falls in love with a woman who could put him in danger.

19Season 17

S17.E19 ∙ One for the Road

Mon, Jan 24, 1972

"Dirty Sally" Fergus takes in an old drunken drifter with a surprisingly cultured wardrobe and manners. The old fellow is on the run, as it turns out. He once was an extremely wealthy Eastern businessman, but Demon Rum ruined him. Sally gets him sobered up and to show some self-respect. But into the picture comes the man's disapproving daughter, who wants him committed to an asylum because of his past drunken antics. She's not all bad -- but her boyfriend, who is traveling with her, is. Unbeknownst to her, the boyfriend has his eye on what's left of the old man's fortune, which is still considerable. He went along with her plans to commit him because she would control his estate (and then he would marry her and take over her property rights), but that's taking too long. Now he just wants to assassinate the old man outright. Matt temporarily frustrates the killer's plan by taking the old man into custody and -- with Sally's help -- getting him to prove his competency in court. The daughter is mollified when the old man gives her some money, but the boyfriend drops all pretense and goes after Sally and her friend with a rifle.

20Season 17

S17.E20 ∙ The Predators

Mon, Jan 31, 1972

A 'mad' dog in the countryside has been killing cattle and sheep. A vengeful gunman seeks to kill a man who shot him in the back four years ago, as a widow and her two children try to tame him.

21Season 17

S17.E21 ∙ Yankton

Mon, Feb 7, 1972

When wealthy Wil Donvan's daughter and cowboy Yankton fall in love with each other, the young woman's classy European born mother wants to put a stop to the romance.

22Season 17

S17.E22 ∙ Blind Man's Buff

Mon, Feb 21, 1972

Phoebe nurses a wounded man with amnesia back to health. But with his memory returning it could lead to even more danger for the confused man and heartache for the lonely Phoebe.

23Season 17

S17.E23 ∙ Alias Festus Haggen

Mon, Mar 6, 1972

A case of mistaken identity is no laughing matter for Festus when a U.S. marshal arrests the good-natured deputy as bloodthirsty murderer Frank Eaton. While Festus stands trial, Matt investigates to clear his friend's name.

24Season 17

S17.E24 ∙ The Wedding

Mon, Mar 13, 1972

Walt Clayton is bound to protect his daughter from marrying a young local boy. But his protection may lead to Walt losing the most precious thing in his life.