The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – CBS

Based on the radio series “Gunsmoke” which broadcast from 1952-1961, which was created by Norman Macdonnell and John Meston. The 30-minute episodes of the first six season was retitled “Marshal Dillon” in syndication

TV series developed by Charles Marquis Warren

Theme music: “Old Trails” (aka “Boothill”) written by Rex Koury, arranged by William Lava. TV version conducted by Lud Gluskin. Lyrics were written by Glenn Spencer, and performed by Tex Ritter, but were not used in the show itself. 

• 001. Matt Gets It – 9/10/1955
  • Western actor John Wayne (himself) introduces the program. Matt Dillon (James Arness) is the United States Marshal in Dodge City, Kansas during the latter third of the 19th century, and he is assisted by his friend Chester Goode (Dennis Weaver), who walks with a limp and acts as a deputy even if he isn’t one officially. In Amarillo, a gunfighter named Don Grat (Paul Richards) has just killed another man after a crooked card game, but when he is told by his friend Bird (Malcolm Atterbury) that the man was unarmed, he decides to leave town in shame and head for Dodge City. Amarillo Sheriff Jim Hill (Robert Anderson) comes to Dodge to meet him there and arrest him, and announces himself to Matt. While visiting the Long Branch Saloon and his friend Miss Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake), Matt runs into Grat, who warns Dillon that he likes to be left alone and that he’s good with his gun. Dillon tells him he can do whatever he wants except for break the law… which includes resisting arrest. Hill meets Grat outside and attempt to take him in, but Grat shoots and kill him when Hill approaches. Matt witnesses the murder and confronts Grat, but he is shot in the chest as well. Kitty and Chester take him to Dr. Galen “Doc” Adams (Milburn Stone), who can’t immediately diagnose his condition. Chester vows that he will kill Grat if Matt dies. Fortunately Matt makes a full recovery and starts to move around town, but makes sure that he is unarmed, so Grat won’t do anything other than taunt him. Once he recovers, he goes to see Grat at the Dodge House where he’s staying and is told by the manager Mr. Uzzel (Howard Culver) which room he’s in. Grat tries to get Matt to come close to him to arrest him, but Matt keeps his distance, surmising that Grat may be the fastest gunslinger he’s ever seen, but seems to always want his victim close because he has no aim. Grat attempts to fire on him and misses, giving Matt the chance to shoot and kill Grat. 6/24/21

• 002. Hot Spell – 9/17/1955
  • During a particularly sweltering heat spell, Matt spots a posse led by citizen Rance Bradley (James Westerfield) attempting to hang a gunslinger named Cope Borden (John Dehner) for stealing one of Bradley’s horses. Matt stops them and sends them home, telling them that Borden deserves a fair trial. Borden makes it clear that he owes no allegiance to Dillon, and continues to taunt him and tell him how ironic it is that the law is sticking up for him. Matt is able to determine that the horse was in fact purchased while Borden was in Yuma, and wasn’t stolen after all. He presents this information to Bradley, who admits that he is wrong, but still encourages Matt to run him out of town before he does indeed cause trouble. Matt releases Borden, and although he encourages him to leave, he has no legal right to throw him out. Later, Borden confronts a card dealer and accuses him of dealing from the bottom. The dealer denies it and pulls a gun on Borden, but he himself is shot dead. The dealer turns out to be Rance’s nephew Jason (Marvin Bryan), who just arrived from St. Louis. Borden wants revenge, but Matt stops him in the street from starting a gunfight. He and Chester take him back to his office, but Bradley and his posse surround the building, demanding that he send Borden out to be lynched. All the while Borden continues to taunt and laugh at Matt for doing his dirty work for him. Matt pulls out his rifle to hold back the posse, but then tells Chester that he can’t shoot men who have been law-abiding citizens… until today. He finally storms out and tells the posse that they are free to take Borden and lynch him, but that he will hunt them all down and ensure that they are hanged as well. This snaps Bradley out of it, and he apologizes and blames the heat for his behavior. Matt then insists that Borden get out of town. Borden still find it amusing that Matt spared his life, and now will always wonder when he will return. Bert Rumsey is Sam the bartender. 6/25/21
• 003. Word of Honor – 10/1/1955
  • Doc Adams has tried to save a man who was shot in the back, but the man dies. Doc had been brought miles away from Dodge by three men, Harry (Claude Akins), Rudy (Dick Paxton), and Jack (Thom Carney), one of whom the dead men has told Doc had shot him in the back. The men threaten to kill Doc since he knows too much, but Doc makes a promise not to tell anyone that they killed the man. He hold true to his promise, when he tells Matt everything that happened… except for who did it and were they are. Meanwhile, Jack Worth (Robert Middleton) approaches Matt and tells him that his son Hank had been kidnapped and that he had left $20,000 in a hallowed-out log to pay as ransom. Matt has a hunch that Hank was the man who was shot, and he insists on accompanying Jake to the watch the stump. When they arrive, they find Hank dead. When Matt reveals that another party knows who the killers are, but won’t tell him, Jake demands that Matt tell him who is holding the information. When Matt refuses, Jake threatens Matt’s life if he doesn’t tell him by the next morning. Doc comes up with a plan to catch the killers, but Jake and his sons Jeff (Ray Boyle) and Ed (Will J. White) ride into town to come after Matt. They threaten Matt, who vows to catch the killers if Jake will promise to help. Jake agrees, and Matt tells Chester to put the Worths into jail, and since Jake gave his word, he has no choice but to comply. Doc tells Matt to spread a rumor that Doc had revealed the killers, thus inviting them to come after him. Five days later, the kidnappers ride into town, and Rudy immediately goes after Doc, but is shot by Matt when Rudy pulls his gun on him. The other two catch Matt sneaking out the window of Doc’s office to come after them, and point their rifles to kill him… but they are both shot by the Worths. Chester admits he saw that it was going to be a three-on-one battle, so he released the Worths to even the playing field. Matt and Jake make peace with each other and invite Doc to join them for a drink. Doc however says he needs to get sleep, as he has a long day of business the next day. Matt agrees, and they all part ways. 8/10/21
• 004. Home Surgery – 10/8/1955
  • Matt and Chester are on their way home after dropping a prisoner off over 100 miles from Dodge. They are fired upon by a teenage girl named Holly Hawtree (Gloria Talbott), who thought they were an animal. She tells them that her father (Joe De Santis) is home sick after being thrown from his horse and is now feverish with a bad leg. The men suspect gangrene, and when they see him, they confirm it. Hawtree also tells the men that a local man named Ben Walling (Wright King) rode off days ago in search of a doctor and hasn’t come back. He has taken an intense dislike of Walling, mostly because he has been pursuing Holly.  Matt and Mr. Hawtree agree that the only way to save him is to amputate the leg before the poison spreads to his heart. Matt reluctantly agrees to perform the operation. After he performs the surgery, Walling returns with the wagon and horses and tells the men that the horses got away and he just recovered them on foot that morning. They are suspicious of him, and Matt even believes that Walling cut the saddle of the horse that threw Walling, in order to kill him so he can have his way with Holly and the land. Hawtree relapses days after surgery and is convince that they were too late and that the gangrene is nearing his heart. Matt promises that he won’t let Walling get near to Holly, and promises to look after her if anything happens. As Holly goes in to see her father on his death bed, Walling returns pointing a gun at Matt and Chester, and tells him that he overheard their whole conversation. Matt correctly deduces that Walling is afraid to shoot, and warns him that if he shoots Matt, then Matt will easily be able to respond and put a bullet in him before he dies. He is able to get the gun away from Walling and knock him out. After Mr. Hawtree dies, Matt and Chester head back to Dodge with Holly and Walling, who he is charging with attempted murder. 8/11/21
• 005. Obie Tater – 10/15/1955
  • A former prospector named Obie Tater (Royal Dano) lives alone in a remote area, and is rumored to have a stash of gold that he brought back from California. One night two bandits named Mitch (Jon Sheppod) and Quade (Pat Conway) show up at his house and try to give up the gold. Obie is polite and accommodating, but tells them that he spend the money long ago to build his ranch and now has nothing left. They do not believe him, and tie him to their horse and drag him. Weeks later Obie goes into Dodge to see the doctor, and when asked, he tells Marshal Dillon what happened to him The Marshal takes him around to the saloons to see if they can find the perpetrators, but instead Obie is introduced by Kitty to a new lady in town named Ella Mills (Kathy Adams), and is quickly distracted by her. Obie and Ella fall for each other instantly, and it isn’t long before they are married. Marshal Dillon warns him that she seemed to know too much about Obie, and suspects that she might be marrying him because she thinks he has gold, and additionally thinks she may be tied to the men who dragged him. Obie gets angry at the Marshal for the insinuation and storms out. Weeks later, Dillon and Chester head out to Obie’s place to check on him, and find him staying in his barn, estranged from Ella, who won’t allow him near her until he shows her his gold… of which he maintains there is none left. The Marshal is proven to be right, when Quade and Mitch show up, and knock out Dillon, and threaten to hang Obie if he doesn’t produce the gold. By this time, Ella believes that Obie doesn’t have any gold, and tries to stop Quade, but she is shot and killed by him. Dillon wakes up and shoots Quade. Obie laments the death of his wife, and says he wishes he would have told them about the gold that he had hidden in the rain barrel all along. 2/11/22
• 006. Night Incident – 10/29/1955
  • Mrs. Wyatt (Jeanne Bates) comes to Matt to ask him to talk to her little boy Timmy (Peter J. Votrian), because he keeps telling tales about seeing a monstrous man and woman swoop from the sky, and then murder and steal. He says that his friend White Fawn (Anne Warren) and him then watch the monsters come back home and count the money. Matt then visits with Timmy to hear his version of the story. Matt asks Timmy to take him to see this happen, but he says that the people are White Fawn’s parents and they will hurt her if he tells. He deduces that Tim is lying. Tim offers to show him, if he promises that he won’t tell anyone about it, so Matt reluctantly does. They go to see White Fawn on the outskirts of town, and hide in the attic when her parents Edward Hinton (Robert Foulk) and his wife Lennie (Amzie Strickland) come home with their next batch of stolen money. They tell each other if they get one hundred more dollars, they will be okay. The next day Matt struggles with how to handle the situation since he promised he wouldn’t tell anyone. He also sees Mr. Hinton come into town to get supplies. The store owner Cal Ross (Lou Vernon) vouches for Hinton and tells Matt that he is an honest man. Matt asks Timmy if he can be let free of his promise and stop the Hintons from robbing, and Timmy agrees if Matt promises he can protect White Fawn. The next time they go out to rob, White Fawn tells Timmy, who informs Matt. They follow them into an out-of-the way area, where Hinton climbs a tree and waits for a drunk to go by to roll. Matt poses as a drunkard and lures Hinton to attack him. However, when Hinton sees that it is the Marshal, he flees. Lennie, with her gun, tells Matt to let him go. Hinton returns to retrieve his wife and threatens to shoot Matt if he won’t let them go. He tells Matt that his wife had been kidnapped by the Cheyenne nine years earlier, and he finally retrieved her and her daughter White Fawn. He vows to take care of them and live quietly in Oregon, but he’s been robbing so that he can quickly get supplies to make the journey. Matt promises that he’ll get a fair trial, do his time, and make his plans come true, even offering to make sure that White Fawn is cared for. They ride quietly back to town. Lance Warren is Timmy’s sister Maggie. 2/11/22
• 007. Smoking Out the Nolans – 11/5/1955
  • Rancher Clay Young (John Larch) claims that he allowed young couple Josh Nolan (Ainslie Pryor) and his wife (Jeanne Bates) live in a sod house built on his property, but now he is planning to sell off his land to another rancher named Mr. Burgess (Edward Platt), who wants the land free of any squatters. However, the Nolans will not vacate the house, and threaten to shoot anyone who tries to force them out. Young and his men surround the house and wait for them to leave, preventing them any access to food and water. Young goes to see Marshal Dillon to ask him to execute the court order to have them evicted. Dillon attempts to bring the Nolans water, but Josh shoots the bucket and tells him he wants no help from anyone helping Young. Nolan tells Marshal Dillon that he had paid $170 for the land, and that Young later came and told him he would file the deed for him. He admits that he is illiterate and trusted Young to do what is right. Young claims that this is untrue, and Dillon isn’t sure who is telling the truth. However, since there is no evidence of a deed, and he has a court order to get the Nolans off the property, Dillon and Chester smoke them out of the house using Sulphur down their chimney. After they are out, they go peacefully, and stay in a hotel in Dodge that Marshal Dillon pays for. That night he finds that Nolan has staked out an alleyway where he plans to lay in wait until Young and Burgess walk though on their way home so that he can shoot them. Dillon catches him in the act but Nolan threatens to shoot Dillon if he stands in his way. When the men show up, Dillon disarms Clay Young and then stands in front of him with his back to Josh Nolan. He tells them that he will have to shoot him though the back and hit an unarmed man, but this does not dissuade Nolan, and he gets ready to shoot. Before he can fire, Clay Young admits that he was lying, and his greed has gotten the better of him and he plans to leave Dodge. Mr. Burgess agrees to still buy the land, and allow the Nolans to continue to live on it. Josh offers to buy Dillon a drink, but Dillon tells him that he’ll buy one for him instead. 6/17/22
• 008. Kite’s Reward – 11/12/1955
  • A stranger named Jake Crowell (Herbert Lytton) has arrived in Dodge, and Marshal Dillon and Chester try to figure out what he is doing there. Soon enough he reveals himself to be a gunslinger walks into the saloon and challenges a man named Andy Travis (Adam Kennedy), who promptly kills the man. Dillon takes Travis’s gun and tries to find out the reason he was after Crowell. He claims he had never seen the man before and doesn’t know why he wanted to shoot him. Dillon assumes that Travis is a gunslinger and will continue to face challenges such as this until he gives up his gun. Travis is reluctant but decides to give it a try and make an honest living in Dodge by working for Moss Grimmick (George Selk) at his stable. The next man who comes looking for Travis to challenge him is a bully named Jim Beecher (Jon Locke), but Travis won’t retrieve his gun so they can gun fight. Instead, Travis tells him he’ll fight him hand to hand. Travis easily defeats Beecher, even after Beecher pulls a knife. Back at his office, Dillon runs into a man named Joe Kite (James Griffith), who tells the Marshal that he wanted him to see his face because he is in town to capture or kill someone.  he claims is a wanted man with a reward, having once been part of a gang. Andy has been enjoying his new life without carrying a gun. A bounty hunter named Barnes (Chris Alcaide) comes into town looking for Travis, and this one claims that Travis is a wanted man named Hager in Laramie, Wyoming with a $1000 reward, having once been part of the Fisher game. Dillon takes Barnes’ gun and tells him to leave town. Elsewhere, Kite confronts Andy and tells him that he’s taking him with him dead or alive. Andy reaches for his gun which isn’t there and gets shot by Kite in the process. Dillon arrives and speaks to the dying Andy, who admits his mistakes with the gang and tells him that his plan to give up gunslinging didn’t work. Dillon places the blame on himself for Andy’s death, and he and the men in town run Kite out of Dodge without taking Haker with him. 6/17/22
• 009. The Hunter – 11/26/1955
  • A buffalo hunter named Jase Murdock (Peter Whitney) meets with storeowner Cal Ross (Lou Vernon) who will outfit his expedition in exchange for buffalo pelts. Accompanying Murdock is an Indian buffalo skinner named Golden Calf (Richard Gilden). Ross warns Murdock that his expedition should be on the northern high plains rather than heading south into Indian territory, where he would break the United States treaty by hunting buffalo on their land. Murdock scoffs at him and heads into town. Marshal Dillon hears commotion in the saloon and goes in to find that Murdock is holding a knife on a man (Robert Keene) who accidentally bumped into him. Dillon breaks up the fight and warns Murdock that he had better not break any laws, which just elicits a condescending laughter from Murdock. Dillon tells Miss Kitty that he was once beaten up and had a friend scalped by Murdock back in the day when Dodge City was full of wild hunters like Murdock who made their own law. Murdock was later accepted into an Indian tribe as a medicine man, who brought them guns and good meat. Dillon goes to see Ross to find out which way Murdock is headed, but he can’t give him any information, other than to warn Dillon not to tangle with Murdock. Dillon tracks down their campsite and speaks to Golden Calf, who says that after Murdock left their tribe, he came to find him to try and get his ‘medicine’ back, but found that it had gone bad. He wound up staying along with him to act as his skinner. He tells how Murdock has abused him ever since they have been working together. Murdock then shows up, and Dillon warns him that if he crosses the line into Indian territory, he will arrest him. He also gives him a warning that Golden Eagle might be waiting to get him back into Indian territory and then might turn on him, but Murdock says he has no fear or the cavalry, the Indians, or Golden Eagle, also bragging how far away he can shoot a man or animal with his rifle. Later, when Chester tells Dillon that Murdock has left his camp, Dillon follows him south. As Dillon is riding along, Murdock begins shooting at him. He is too far away for Dillon to return fire, but each time Murdock reloads, Dillon inches closer to him hiding behind the giant rocks. When he gets close, he sees that Murdock’s rifle is perched on top of the rocks he was behind, but he cannot see Murdock. He climbs to his perch to find that Golden Calf has stuck a knife in Murdock’s back. Dillon tells Golden Calf that as a Marshal, he has to take him in, but suspects he will be let off for saving Dillon’s life. Golden Calf also admits that Murdock was his father. 10/9/22
• 010. The Queue – 12/3/1955
  • Stagecoach station keeper Mr. Bailey (Sebastian Cabot) is bitter about waiting for a coach that is four hours later just to greet ‘gamblers, thieves, and gunmen’, and find Dodge City to be an abomination in the sight of the Lord. Brothers Howard (Dennis McCarthy) and Rabb Briggs (Robert Gist) poke fun of Bailey for spending so much time in the Long Branch when he feels this way. The passenger in the coach turns out to be a Chinese immigrant named Chen Lan Wong (Keye Luke), and when the brothers see him, they toss him back on the stagecoach to send him away. Marshal Dillon sees this happen, and rescues Chen and tells the brothers, who once lost their brother Jimmy at the hands of some Chinese prospectors, to leave Chen alone. Bailey thanks the Marshal and tells him that he plans to bring the brothers back to Christian morals. Later, while Bailey is drinking at the Long Branch, the brothers tell him that the box that Chen is carrying around is full of money, just like the prospectors that killed their brother. Bailey suggests that they can run him out of town without bloodshed by cutting off his queue, or pigtail, which represents their Chinese pride and honor. While Doc is removing one of Chen’s teeth, the Marshal pops in and sees that Chen’s queue is missing. He also learns that Chen is educated, and he doesn’t speak with a thick Chinese accent that he had adopted to make Americans not resent an educated Chinese man. Chen tells Dillon that he plans to return to China to bring his wife back to America, but he won’t go without his queue or the lives of the men who took it. The Marshal warns him not to kill anyone, and then later meets up with the Briggs boys and warns them that he wants that pigtail back or else he will beat it out of them. Two Texas men whom he broke up a fight between and another barfly (Bing Russell) scoff at him for not letting people fight but threatening to start his own. Mr. Bailey then tells the brothers he has another idea on how to run Chen out of town. He asks them for the pigtail and a gun, and tells them to meet him at Chen’s later that day. Bailey then pistol whips Chen and tells him he wants his treasure box. In fear of his life, Chen tells them to find it under the floorboard. Bailey gets it and then tells Chen he has to kill him, and how he set it up to make it looks like the Briggs boys committed the crime by having them meet him there. Dillon enters at that moment and shoots Bailey dead. The brothers arrive then and tell the Marshal that Chen shot Bailey just for trying to help. Dillon tells them that he shot Bailey, and then Chen takes Bailey’s gun and threatens to kill the brothers for taking his queue. Dillon convinces him that if he and his wife want to be American’s, he must abandon his ideas about pride and follow the laws of America. Chen then hands his gun over to the brothers. Dillon reminds them that they need to give Chen back his queue. After they remove it from Bailey’s body and do so, Chen shows them that the only thing in the treasure box is his marriage certificate and less than ten dollars. Chen gives his pigtail to Dillon as a souvenir. George H. Gray is the blonde Texas boy. 10/9/22
• 011. General Parsley Smith – 12/10/1955
  • Returning from out of town, Marshal Dillon spots a gunman named Nash (John Alderson) in town and confronts him. A man named Drew Holt (James O’Rear), the new banker in town who just opened his bank Holt’s Bank in the ten days that Dillon was out of town, tells Dillon that Nash works for him. Nash is skeptical of Holt, especially considering his association with Nash. Meanwhile, a man identifying himself as Genral Parsley Smith (Raymond Bailey) tells Dillon that Holt was a former spy in the Civil War, playing each side against the other, and that he is now a thief who will soon abscond with all of the funds he raises in the bank. He is very vocal about it and stands outside the bank dissuading customers from going inside. Holt claims that he never has met Smith, and furthermore that he was never even in the army. The more Dillon hears from everyone, the more he is convinced that Smith is a crackpot. Everyone he encounters tells him of the tall tales that Smith is fond of telling. Even Doc vouches that Smith has always lied about himself, and tells Dillon that he was never a General, but rather a butcher with his unit. Dillon verifies with Mr. Botkin (Wilfrid Knapp aka Budd Knapp), the other banker in town, that Holt’s credentials looked good when he showed them to him upon his arrival in town. Dillon warns Smith to stop interfering with Holt’s business or he will run him out of town. He also decides to tell Nash to get out of town as well, then tells Smith that if he needs any protection, he will handle it himself. Later that night, Dillon hears a gunfight and finds Smith positioned behind a well. He has killed Nash and claims to have hit Smith who is firing on them from inside his house. Dillon identifies himself and tells him to come out, but Holt takes a shot at him. Dillon fires on him and kills him through the window. When they all go inside, Holt tells Dillon that he wishes he had taken care of him long ago. They find that he had indeed bagged up all of the bank money and was going to steal it. Smith admits that he loved to tell tall tales about his past and admits that he has stayed at the Grant Hotel in Abilene and few weeks earlier and overheard the men laying out their plan in the next room. Despite the fact that Smith said he hadn’t been shot, he suddenly stops talking and dies. Dillon tells Chester that he had even lied about being hit… and that they’ll never find out how he really knew about the robbery since the Grant Hotel where he claims to have heard them planning had burned down two years earlier. 12/7/22
• 012. Magnus – 12/24/1955
  • On the day before Christmas Eve, Miss Kitty is getting the saloon ready for the Christmas Eve dance, but she and the other workers are visited by the ultra-crotchety Lucifer Jones (James Anderson), who finds the dance wicked. He finds Miss Kitty the evilest of all since she looks like his late daughter. He begins destroying the decorations until Marshal Dillon arrives and throws him out, causing him to vow revenge on the town. Meanwhile, Chester spots his brother Magnus (Robert Easton) in town. He hasn’t seen him in years and doesn’t want to, considering him to be an uncivilized and wild animal who lives out in the outdoors country. He wants to ignore him, but both Matt and Doc think they should greet him since it is Christmas. Chester agrees to go along, and Matt advises him to try and give him a chance by showing him around the town. Chester pokes find at his lifestyle and accuses him of never gambled, danced, seen a woman, or taken a drink. He first takes him to the saloon to play poker with the new dealer (Than Wyenn). After Chester leaves the game, Magnus cleans out the dealer, who accuses him of cheating. Magnus willingly admits he was cheating, which he learned from a gambler to show him how wicked the game is. Magnus also proves that the dealer was also cheating, so Matt throws him out of town. Then Chester takes him drinking, which Magnus considers to be evil and wicked. Magnus only takes a couple of drinks, so he has to take Chester home in a wheelbarrow. Chester then takes him to breakfast in the saloon where he meets Miss Kitty and is smitten by her. They agree to dance at the Christmas party that night, and Magnus makes an impressive effort at dancing with her. He tells Chester that he learned it while living among the Sioux. Chester is surprised to hear this, and Magnus says he hasn’t been asked anything by Chester for years. Lucifer Jones shows up at the dance with a rifle and tells Kitty he is going to kill her because she is beautiful and evil. Magnus steps up and says that he agrees and that he too was tempted by her wickedness. He suggests that Lucifer stone her with coal, and as he goes to hand it to Lucifer, he is able to knock him back and take his gun. When Matt shows up, he has Lucifer thrown in jail. He says he learned how to talk like a preacher after traveling with one for a while. Chester realizes that Magnus has actually had great adventures and invites him to stay in Dodge with him. Magnus tells him how he doesn’t like city life and will be leaving after Christmas. Chester gives Magnus his treasured pocketknife, and everyone has a drink together. Dorothy Schuyler is Olive. 12/7/22
• 013. Reed Survives – 12/31/1955
  • Lucy Hunt (Lola Albright), a former dancer from the Long Branch, rides into town to tell Marshal Dillion that her husband Ephraim (John Carradine) has told her that he is going to kill her. She says that he believes she is wicked due to her past occupation, even though most people think he is a good man planning to be a preacher. Matt rides out to talk to Ephraim, who readily admits that he is having some trouble with Lucy and cites scripture indicating that he has a duty to lend his hand against the frail reed of his household. Dillon warns him the ‘reed’ had better not break, and Ephraim responds that she needs a strong and gentle hand and that he loves her very much. Dillon heads to the Long Branch and asks Miss Kitty if she knows much about Lucy. She tells Matt that he should talk to Booth Rider (James Drury), who has been working on the Hunt farm. He won’t give the Marshal much information, but Dillon advises him he might want to pull out of Dodge and go and see the world. When Booth returns to the Hunt farm, Lucy kisses him and warns him that Ephraim has purchased a gun and plans to kill both of them, warning him that he should kill Ephraim first. Dillon and Chester ride out to the farm that night, and upon arrival hear a gunshot. They find Ephraim dead, and Matt confronts Lucy and tells him that although she’ll probably get away with it, but that he knows that her plan was to use Booth to have her husband killed. Dillon has an Indian named Tuso watch the Hunt house, and report to him when Booth returns. As soon as the Marshal approaches, Booth tries to shoot at him. He gets off one more shot, before the Marshal is able to get a shot off at him. Booth survives and tells the Marshal that he now knows that Lucy used him. In fact, when he returned, she laughed at him after playing him… so he strangled her. Dillion tells him that he probably could have gotten away with Ephraim’s murder since Ephraim was found with a gun in his hand. NOTE: James Arness’s wife Virginia Chapman Arness was credited as playing a gypsy. but didn’t appear in the episode, later playing gypsy fifteen episodes down the line. 12/8/22
• 014. Professor Lute Bone – 1/7/1956
  • Doc Adams spends a harrowing night tending to a baby with bronchitis, and then questions his parents Mr. (Don Gardner) and Mrs. Ringle (Gloria Castillo) whether they had followed his specific instruction for taking care of the baby. It turns out they had done a little more by giving the baby an elixir known as Universal Curative that is being peddled in town by a salesman named Professor Lute Bone (John Abbott) and his banjo-playing assistant Wellington (Jester Hairston). Doc is furious and vows to put a stop to him. He makes his way back to town where he finds that Bone and Wellington are in the middle of one of their musical presentations. Chester himself has been using the elixir and has been feeling mighty good. He is even called up onto the wagon by Bone and asked to give his testimonial. Matt puts a stop to that immediately and tells Chester to come off the stage. The Doc looks Chester over and determines that he is doped up, and vows to figure out what is in the medicine. Another man in the crowd, Hank Stooler (Strother Martin) asks Bone if the elixir will help his 80-year-old father who is currently laid up, and Bone says he will personally come deliver it to him. Matt pays Bone a visit and asks him to leave town, but Bone refuses and tells him that he’s setting up a permanent shop on Main Street. He receives a warning from Matt that he is going to try and run him out of town. When he gets back, Miss Kitty tells Matt that Doc is furious again and is going after Bone with a gun. Matt gets back and stops him, and Doc tells him that his medicine contains the addictive drug opium. Matt tells this to Bone, who admits that there is only the tiniest amounts of it in the bottle. Both Doc and the Marshal confront him about the Ringle baby. Then Hank arrives and threatens Bone with a shotgun. Matt is able to talk him down, but Hank claims that his father dropped dead after taking the medicine. Matt arrests Bone for practicing medicine illegally, and then takes Doc to the Stooler farm for an inquest. The Doc determines that Mr. Stooler felt so great after ingesting the opium that he drank large amounts of it and though he could plow on the farm, which killed his heart instantly. Ultimately, Matt releases Bone, but tells him he must leave Dodge. Bone is crestfallen and claims he only wanted the Marshal’s respect and had hoped to retire in Dodge. Out of guilt, he burns his wagon to the ground, and he and Wellington leave town together. Sally Corner is Mrs. Stooler. 12/9/22
• 015. No Handcuffs – 1/21/1956
  • A deputy sheriff named August Brake (Mort Mills) tracks an escaped prisoner named Hank Springer (Vic Perrin) from the town of Mingo to Dodge. As Brake is about to shoot Springer in the back, Marshal Dillon intervenes and questions both of them. Brake claims that Hank shot a man named Dobey and stole his poker earnings back in Mingo. Hank claims that the sheriff is corrupt and always pins any crime on someone, guilty or not, and has him hanged. Since Brake has no warrant, Dillon keeps Hank in a cell and tells Brake they can talk further when he produces a warrant. Instead, Brake sneaks back into the Sheriff’s office when Dillon is gone and tells Chester that there is a gunfight going on at the Dodge House. He attempts to handcuff and arrest Hank, but Hank hits him over the head with his handcuffs and knocks him out. When Chester returns, Hank is standing over Brake with Brake’s gun in hand. He says that now that he has killed Brake, he plans to return and kill the crooked Sheriff in Mingo before he is caught and hanged. Matt and Chester set out to catch up to him, and along the way, they find a hunter (Herbert Lytton) who was shot in the leg by Hank. The hunter says that he stole his horse, but that the horse has bad lungs and won’t likely make it to Mingo. There is house between there and Mingo with a woman (Marjorie Owens) alone without her husband. Matt and Chester head there, but the woman nervously claims no one has come by. She also mentions what a despicable man the sheriff of Mingo is, and tips her hand that she hopes that Hank gets him. Matt realizes that Hank had been there hiding behind a curtain, but he has escaped out the window and stole Matt and Chester’s horses, forcing them to walk the ten miles to Mingo. When they arrive, they find the Sheriff’s Office caretaker Mr. Turnkey (Cyril Delevanti) in the office, packing and ready to leave town. They also find Hank Springer, shot dead in the back laying in one of the cells. Turnkey tells them that he assumes that the Sheriff shot him. He also says he’s heard that the Sheriff shot Dobey to recover some gambling winnings… and that Dobey also had a very pretty wife. Matt and Chester head to the Golden Nugget saloon where he faces the Sheriff (Charles H. Gray). The sheriff is coy with Matt, and tells him that he shot Hank, maybe because he drew first… or maybe because he didn’t like his looks. Matt backhands the sheriff and challenges him to draw. The Sheriff backs down and is forced to handcuff himself. Turnkey accompanies him to the jail cell, and several men in the bar say they will testify to a circuit judge that the sheriff indeed shot Hank in cold blood. Matt cautions the men that the next person they hang a badge on needs to be looked over much better than this sheriff was. 12/9/22
• 016. Reward for Matt – 1/28/1956
  • Matt tracks down Jeremy Stoner (Paul Newlan) while he’s gathering up his stray cattle. He plans to arrest Stoner for the murder of Jake Reeves, a nester whom Stoner thought stole some of his cattle. Stoner goes on a tirade about nesters and settlers who are fencing in their property, refuses to be arrested, and the pulls his rile on Matt, who is forced to shoot and kill him. He brings him back to town, planning to take him to his Mrs. Stoner (Helen Wallace) in the morning. Before he has the chance, she comes to see him the next morning, calling him a murderer and blaming Matt for her husband’s death. She tells him that she is going to put a $1000 reward on his head for any gunfighter to collect if they kill him. A townsman named Day Barrett (Val DuFour) riles up his friends in town by reminding them of all of the times Matt threw them out of a saloon for firing their guns. He taunts Matt and tells him that he might be interested in collecting the reward once Matt starts to unravel. Barrett takes delight in watching Matt sullenly go about his day, fearful he might be shot. When Matt goes to visit Doc, someone indeed takes a shot at him and breaks the window behind him. The next day, a young farmer (John G. Lee) rides into town on a horse and first at Matt with his rifle, and Matt is forced to gun him down. Before he dies, he apologizes to Matt. Miss Kitty goes to see Mrs. Stoner and pleads with her to lift the reward, but she won’t hear of it and claims to not care about the life of the farmer. That night in the Long Branch, Barrett begins taunting Matt even more, and this time he throws whiskey in Matt’s face and attempts to shoot him. Matt overpowers him and knocks him out, but Barrett’s stray bullet kills another man in the saloon. Mrs. Stoner comes to see Matt the next day and makes him an offer to pull the reward if Matt will leave town. Matt refuses the offer but can see that she is starting to feel guilty. While they are talking, another elderly woman (Jane Inness) approaches Matt and says she is looking for her son, who turns out to be the young farmer that Matt had killed. She says her son is not a killer, but ever since their father was killed, they’ve had difficulty having enough money for food for themselves and her daughter. Mrs. Stoner then asks her name, and she tell her that it is Mrs. Reeves. She will not introduce herself because she suddenly is not proud of her name. She tells Matt to take the $1000 that she has waiting in the Dodge House and that he will know what to do with it. 12/9/22
• 017. Robin Hood – 2/4/1956
  • An accused stagecoach robber named John Henry Jordan (William Hopper) is on trial for his crime, but only the banker Mr. Botkin (Wilfrid Knapp) was actually robbed of his money during hold-up. The other passengers were spared, and consequently all of the refuse to identify Jordan as the robber. Even married couple Harry Bowen (Barry Atwater) and his wife (Nora Marlowe) offer conflicting testimony as to what the robbery looked like. Despite Dillon’s warnings that Jordan will rob and kill again like had done many times before, the jury finds him not guilty, and the judge (S. John Launer) sets him free. Jordan sticks around Dodge and spends him money on folks in the saloon night after night, until he finally winds up broke. Soon enough, the humble farmer Pete Fisher is killed and robbed of his $200, and Jordan is able to take the money and gamble it in the saloon and wind up with $1800. Dillon enlists a former card sharp named Vince Butler (James McCallion) who he helped rehabilitate to use his own hundred dollars and win over $2000 from Jordan. Dillon then counts on him to attempt another robbery, but Dillon is called away by Butler himself to report that he was beaten and robbed. Dillon goes looking for Jordan, who has been invited for dinner with the Bowens. Jordan tells the Bowens to advise the Marshal that he’s not there as he says he doesn’t want to talk to Dillon again. The comply, but as soon as Dillon leaves the house, Jordan robs them of their life savings that they’ve hidden in a sugar canister. He gets ready to execute them to keep them quiet, but Dillon returns and holds Jordan at gunpoint. Jordan refuses to take his gun off of the Bowens and demands that Dillon put his gun on the table. Instead, Dillon shoots out the light so that Jordan can’t see where to fire, and Dillon fires and hits Jordan in the shoulder. Dillon tells the Bowens that it looked like they had too much food on the table for two people, and then makes them promise to testify against Jordan, and this time not to forget what he looks like. 2/4/23
• 018. Yorky – 2/18/1956
  • One night a teenage Indian named Yorky (Jeff Silver) is caught trying to steal a horse by the owner Abe Brant (Howard Petrie) and his son Tom (Dennis Cross). They take a shot at Yorky and hit him in the leg before he escapes. Later, a man named Seldon (Malcolm Atterbury) comes to see Marshal Dillon and tells him that he found Yorky passed out from the bullet in his leg. He has tries to nurse him to health, but the poison is spreading. Furthermore, Yorky, who is actually a white boy and not an Indian at all, is wild, and is threatening him if he tries to help him. Dillon comes out to see Yorky at the ranch of Seldon and his wife (Mary Gregory). Yorky tries to attack the Marshal before he passes out cold. The Marshal is able to dig the bullet out of his leg and drain the poison, and then brings him back to his office to stay in bed for several days. Yorky tells the Marshal that he lives among the Arapahoe who have told him that his real parents were killed in a raid. He also has told Yorky if he can bring back horses and a scalp, he will be a true warrior. Yorky begins to trust Marshal Dillon for saving his life and takes a job at the local stable. One day, York sees a horse that he knows in town, and then sees Abe Brant, who is heading out to get some horses to sell to the Army but plans to earmark one buckskin for the Marshal. When Brant comes to see the Marshal and offers him the horse, Yorky identifies the buckskin as one that used to belong to him. The others he identifies as being owned by Standing Bear. The Marshal and Yorky go out to see the horses, and the Marshal asks Brant for the bill of sale on the horses. He admits that he has stolen them from the Arapahoe but says that the Arapahoe have killed his men and stolen from him all of his life. Tom pulls a gun on the Marshal to stop him from arresting his father, but Abe wants to kill the Marshal so he will never arrest him. Tom tries to stop him, and during the scuffle, Yorky throws a knife at Abe and kills him. Tom agrees to attend the inquest and requests that the Marshal bury him in the open somewhere. Later, the Marshal turns the money over to an Army Sergeant in order to get the horses back and return them to Standing Bear. However, Yorky has already taken them and returned to the reservation, leaving the buckskin behind for Marshal Dillon. 2/4/23
• 019. 20-20 – 2/25/1956
  • An ex-lawman named Troy Carver (Wilton Graff), whom Marshal Dillon credits with inspiring him to become a lawman, rides into town, but when Dillon calls out his name in the street, Carver draws on him in a panic. Once Dillon identifies himself, Carver tells him that he was only joking to keep Dillon on his toes. He tells Dillon that he is in town to pick up a horse he was storing at Moss Grimmick’s stable to take with him to live on his retirement ranch. Dillon has an inkling that Carver is afraid of being gunned down, so he asks him about it, only to be told to mind his own business. Later, during a dispute in the saloon, Carver gets rough with the dealer (Pitt Herbert) and accuses him of cheating, a situation that the Marshal has to diffuse. Grimmick comes to see Dillon and tells him that a man named Lee Polen (Martin Kingsley) has been hanging around the stables and cleaning his gun over and over. Dillon surmises that this is the man who is looking to kill Carver. He goes to see him, and Polen admits that he is seeking revenge on Carver for killing his brother Clay during a drunken dispute. He believes that Carver could have brought him in peacefully without shooting him. After the situation with the dealer, Marshal Dillon correctly guesses that Carver is having trouble with his sight. He sends Doc to go check on him, and he determines that Carver takes several seconds to focus on anything, which would be deadly in a gunfight. He says, however, that when it was dark, Carver was quick to see a lighted match. Knowing that Polen will continue to pursue Carver even if he kicks him out of town, he tries to spook Polen from entering a gunfight by having Doc lie and tell him that Carver’s vision is back to 20-20. Polen doesn’t fully buy it, so the Marshal tells Polen that he has ordered Carver out of town the next morning, knowing that Polen will try to gunfight him that night. He has Chester wait for Polen to show up at the stables, and then tell Carver when Polen arrives. The two have their gunfight, and Polen wounds Carver in the shoulder, while Carver shoots Polen in the hand. Polen realizes that Carver could have easily killed him, but he spared his life. He realizes that Carver likely had no choice but to kill his brother. Carver’s shoulder wound is minor, so he can get on with his retirement. He is grateful the gunfight happened at night, as he was only responding to the flash of light caused by Polen’s gunshot. 2/5/23
• 020. Reunion ’78 – 3/3/1956
  • A man named Jerry Shand (Val Dufour) rides into Dodge and speaks to his friend Marty (Mason Curry) about another man in the Long Branch Saloon named Andy Culley (Maurice Manson). A bystander (Joe Perry) overhears Jerry tell Marty that he is going to confront Culley and perhaps kill him. Culley is inside celebrating his success franchising barbed wire to sell across Kansas, but when Jerry buys him a drink and toasts the old hometown of Lawrence, Kansas, Culley is suddenly spooked and wants to leave. Jerry forces him to keep drinking and then picks a fight with him. Marshal Dillon is in the bar and stops the fight, arresting Jerry for disturbing the peace. Meanwhile, one of the bar girls Belle Archer (Marion Brash) sees Jerry and makes a hasty exit and goes back to her hotel room. Andy shows up at the jail and to everyone’s surprise, apologizes to Culley and bails him out. He later confronts Jerry in the street and apologizes again, this time offering to give him $600. When Jerry calls Culley a murderer, Culley loses his temper and pulls a gun on Jerry. As Belle watches from her room above, Jerry then draws on Culley and shoots and kills him. Everyone in town gathers and wants to lynch Jerry, but Dillon said he is to get a fair trial. After he is arrested, Jerry tries to tell Marshal Dillon that Culley pulled a gun on him. He also tells the story of how Culley used to be with a gang of bushwhackers and killed his parents and kidnapped his girlfriend Ellie. Dillon and Kitty try to question Belle about what she may have seen from her window, but she denies seeing anyone. The next day at the inquest, one witness testifies that he heard Jerry tell Marty that he planned to kill Culley. The Marshal then brings Belle in to the inquest, and Jerry recognizes her as his kidnapped girl Ellie. She didn’t want him to see what she had become, but when Dillon told her that it might cost him his life, she agreed to tell what she had seen from the window… which fully corroborated his story. After Jerry is cleared of any charges, he leaves town. He tries to say goodbye to Ellie, but she said that Ellie is no more and now there is only Belle. 2/5/23
• 021. Helping Hand – 3/17/1956
  • A young man named Steve Elser (Brett Halsey) comes into town to meet up with a ranch foreman named Bill Pence (Ken L. Smith) and his posse who have accused him of stealing cattle. When Kitty sees him in the bar, she senses trouble, so she has him hide in her locked room and she goes to get Sheriff Dillon. He gives Pence and his men a warning that he doesn’t allow lynching in Dodge, and he takes Elser over to the prison, more for his protection. Elser tells his woeful tale of his home life in Oklahoma, where he escaped the drunken clutches of his father, who worked hard all his life but could never quite succeed, especially after some Texas cattlemen stole his cattle. Elser had thought about stealing Pence’s cattle just to get the better of some cattlemen but didn’t end up taking anything. Pence brings his boss Emmet Bowers (Russ Thorson) to see Dillon as well, but he repeats his rule that there will be no hanging. Dillon tells Elser that he can stay in town if he can find a job within a week, but it seems the cards are stacked against him as Bowers has told everyone in town not to hire him. Elser begins hanging around with a ne’er-do-well named Ben Hander (Michael Granger), and the Sheriff also catches Elser egging on Pence for a fight in the Long Branch. Dillon shortens the time he originally gave Elser to find a job now that he’s become the sidekick of Hander and tells him he has until the following night. Doc, who was supportive of Matt’s help of Elser, tells him that he needs to cut him loose at this point. Matt arranges a job for him on one of the general store’s freighters, but then hears gunshots. Hander has attempted to rob the Express Office and shoots the clerk, who identifies that it was only Hander in the robbery. Pence and his men pursue him, and he holds up in a livery stable with Elser. The Marshal tells Hander that the clerk’s injuries were not fatal and talks him into coming out. Hander tells everyone that Elser had nothing to do with the robbery, but Dillon tells him it time for him to leave town anyway. Elser pulls Hander’s gun and shoots the Marshal in his side. Dillon won’t let Pence shoot him, but when Elser starts to fire at him again, Dillon draws and kills him. He tells Chester that it was too late to help Elser from the beginning, and that he should have known it. 2/6/23
• 022. Tap Day for Kitty – 3/24/1956
  • A man named Nip Cullers (John Dehner), who has recently settled in the area after making his fortune in Arizona, comes into town with his housekeeper Nettie Batcher (Mary Adams) and another woman named Blossom (Charlene Brooks) and pays a visit to the tailor Jonas (John Patrick) to get a suit for his wedding. He doesn’t have a bride yet but intends to find one in Dodge. When Blossom makes a snide comment about realizing what he already has, Cullers slaps her face. He later makes his way to the Long Branch where he entertains dancing girls Olive (Evelyn Scott) and Kate (Dorothy Schuyler). When Kitty realizes that the girls are making fun of and being cruel to him, she tells them to leave him alone. Cullers decides then and there that Kitty is going to be his bride. She tries to rebuff his advances, but he insists that he will return with a reverend to marry them. Marshal Dillon finds it somewhat humorous, but the next day when she comes to work, Cullers is there, dressed in his best suit, and ready for the wedding. She again tells him to leave her alone, and this time threatens that if he comes after her, she’ll shoot him with a shotgun. The Marshal has also had enough and tells him to leave town by sundown. Cullers tells the Marshal that any man who comes between him and his woman deserves to be shot, and vows to ambush him from afar with a shot gun, even if it is in the back. Later, a shotgun blast is heard, but it is Cullers who has been shot. He takes a non-fatal blow in the shoulder and blames it on Kitty. When Marshal Dillon discovers women’s footprints near where the gun was fired, and then Miss Kitty unexpectedly shows up at the crime scene, the Marshal has no choice but to believe that Kitty might be involved. He has her wait in his office, and then goes to question Nettie and Blossom, who are headed to pick up Cullers and leave town. He has Chester pick up Miss Kitty and bring her there. The Marshal then accuses Blossom of shooting Cullers, and she confesses to the crime. However, Nettie intervenes and tells the Marshal that Blossom is Cullers’ daughter, and she is just protecting her. Nettie is the one who shot him out of jealousy, as she has been tending to him for twenty years and believed that he’d eventually come around and propose to her. Dillon gets Doc to allow Nettie to go in and see Cullers. She apologizes for shooting him and admits the reason why. He says that he hadn’t taken notice of her, but sure is now. Blossom finally smiles at the prospect of Nettie and her father finally getting together. 2/7/23
• 023. Indian Scout – 3/31/1956
  • A man named Will Bailey (DeForrest Kelly) and his friends Clay (Tommy Hart) and Twitchell (Willian Vaughn) watch as 23 dead soldiers, one of them being his dead brother, are paraded through town after they are killed during a Comanche encounter at Cold Creek. Bailey blames the only survivor Amos Cartwright (Eduard Franz), who was the scout on the expedition and had once lived among the Comanche when he married one of the ladies in the tribe, and vows to kill him. When Amos hears what Bailey has been saying, he confronts him in the saloon, but Marshal Dillon puts a stop to any encounter, trying to talk Bailey into calming down, and warning Cartwright to watch his back. When Dillon tries to get a statement from the Colonel to clear Cartwright, Bailey is attacked by Cartwright with a knife, and he is scalped and killed. Amos leaves town right away, so Dillon and Chester set out after him on horseback. They track him, but also note markings indicating that they are being followed by Comanche. Eventually Matt and Chester catch up with Cartwright, and he admits that although he didn’t lead the cavalry into the Comanche’s hands, he didn’t warn them when he saw the ambush while he was scouting. but before they can take him, a band of Comanches approach and wait for them to come out of their hiding places. One of them is Amos’s late wife’s brother Buffalo Tongue (Pat Hogan). They eventually determine that the Comanche may not know that Matt and Chester are even with him. Amos decides to take his chances with the Comanches rather than go back to Dodge for the noose. When Buffalo Tongue rides closer, Amos goes to greet him, but Buffalo Tongue shoots him with an arrow. The Comanche ride away, and Matt and Chester speak to the dying Amos. He is most upset by the fact that Buffalo Tongue didn’t even bother to count coup. Matt tells Chester that he believes that Amos likely knew what would happen to him for leading the scout party against them, and Chester remarks that he saved their lives. 2/8/23
• 024. The Pest Hole – 4/14/1956
  • Kitty and Olive tend to several men are deathly ill and sleeping in the open cells of the jail-turned-hospital. Everyone thinks it may be food poison, but Doc starts to suspect that it is typhoid fever. This sends some of the townsfolk, Mr. Bradley (Howard McNear), Mr. Hannah (Howard Culver), and Mr. Matthews (Patrick O’Moore) into a panic, especially when Doc mentions a city quarantine. When one of the men, Otto Richter, dies, Doc is able to examine the body and determine that his cause of death was in fact typhoid fever. His only clue as to the source of the illness was that they all had dinner together to discuss the German picnic at Bedino’s cafe. Matthews threatens to visit Bedino’s and insist he shut it down and then run him out of town. The Marshal isn’t so sure, but even Doc suggests closing it down for a couple of days. When Dillon and Chester get there, they find that Bedino has been murdered. Matthews admits that he killed Bedino when he wouldn’t agree to close his restaurant, so Matt throws him in jail. Mrs. Sauer (Lisa Golm) comes from Log Creek for help, because she too has the disease. Doc finds out that she hadn’t eaten at Bedino’s, nor had she been in Dodge for the past two months. When more people start to die, Doc starts to feel guilty and depressed, and gets drunk, much to Matt’s irritation. Matt realizes that everyone who has died was a German settler, so he and Doc start to suspect that the infected food may have come from the German Picnic. They question another patient, Mr. Burkleman (Gordon Mills), and he tells them that Franz Beltzer (Norbert Schiller) did the cooking for the picnic. They go to visit him but find that he is in perfect health. The Doc is puzzled, but he asks Mr. Beltzer if he will cook up some of his meat, and then asks Matt to bring Kitty to do some cooking as well. When they get there, he has Franz cook up one batch of meat and Kitty cook up another. Doc plans to eat some of Franz’s meat, while Matt will eat Kitty’s. However, Chester takes a bite of the Franz sausage. He suspects that Franz might be carrying the bug with him, even though he appears to be immune to it. Doc now wants to see if Chester comes down with typhoid, but several days pass and Chester seems to be in perfect health. With the Doc fearing he is back at square one as people start to flee town in fear, Chester suddenly is stricken with thirst and a fever. Pelzer agrees to never cook again, not even for himself. After five days of sleeping, Chester wakes up feeling better and begins his recovery. Phil Rich is credited but does not likely appear in the episode. 2/8/23
• 025. The Big Broad – 4/28/1956
  • A large menacing woman named Lena Wave (Dee J. Thompson) comes riding into town with her companion Emmett Fitzgerald (Terry Becker), whom she seems to enjoy pushing around. She meets with Marshall Dillon and tells him that Emmett is a card dealer and will be holding a game in the Long Branch, and making sure that everyone in earshot understands that she’s not scared of anyone and will stand up to anyone in town… including the Marshall. Emmett hosts the game, while Lena throws out anyone who causes any trouble. When some of the guys play a trick on Chester and switch out his cards, he makes the mistake of accusing Emmett of cheating, which gets him punched in the mouth by Lena. The Marshall is at a loss on how to handle her since no one can hit a woman. He does give her a warning that if she were to shoot someone, he’s lock her up like any man. Sure enough, she does wind up shooting a man named Ed Jane at the Dodge House. However, the hotel clerk vouches that Jane was drunk and had made advances on her. The Marshall lets her go and takes her gun, but Jane’s partner Nate Bannister (Joel Ashley) shows up looking for revenge on Lena. Matt takes his rifle from him, knocks him out, and puts him in a cell. Lena then comes to see Lena to see what the man who intends to kill her looks like. However, when he sees her, he is instantly attracted to her and begins to flatter her. Lena is in fact quite flattered, and they agree to bury the hatchet and have a drink together. Bannister comes on strong and is very flirtatious with her, provoking the anger of Emmett. Lena sends Emmett away, but when Bannister starts talking about marrying Lena, Bannister returns with a gun and shoots Bannister. He survives the shots, and Matt arrests Emmett. Lena reveals that she and Emmett have been married for ten years, and she had always hoped that Emmett would make her feel like a woman, and this has finally proven his love for her. She requests that Matt let her go into jail with Emmett since they are married, and Matt agrees. The two look as if they are falling in love all over as Lena accompanies him to the jail. Heine Brock aka Henry Brock is Drummer, the guy thrown out of the poker game. 7/15/23
• 026. Hack Prine – 5/12/1956
  • Marshall Dillon travels for three days to find an escaped murderer named Lee Timble (Hal Baylor), before finally finding him and bringing him back to Dodge to stand trial. When they arrive in town, Lee’s brother Dolph (George Wallace) is waiting to greet him. Lee tries to distract Dillon and tells Dolph to shoot him, but Dolph knows better and lifts his hands away from his guns. Meanwhile, Matt receives a visit from his old friend Hack Prine (Leo Gordon) who once saved Matt’s life, and they have a welcome reunion. Oley (Wally Cassell), an old Civil War veteran with one eye warns Dillon that some men (Tyler McVey, Larry J. Blake, Paul Keast) led by Dolph Timble are taking about hiring someone to kill Marshall Dillon. Based on Oley’s tip, Dillon goes to eavesdrop on them in the bar and then kicks them all out. All of the men are angry at Dillon for throwing them out and are willing to kick money for the hitman that Dolph is raising to have Dillon killed if he doesn’t release Lee. Soon, Dolph returns to the saloon, this time with Hack Prine. Dillon confronts him in the street and gets him to admit that they have hired him as the hitman. Dillon offers him the $800 bounty to leave town, but Prine says that it will hurt his reputation. Dillon then tells Prine that Lee Timble shot his victim, an unarmed hide skinner, in the back. Later, Doc reports that a dead man was found in Hack Prine’s hotel room, and the dead man turns out to be Oley. Dillon heads to the saloon to confront Prine, but he hears a shotgun go off inside. It turns out to be Prine shooting Dolph Timble for framing him for Oley’s murder. Matt tells him that he knew that it hasn’t been him who killed Oley, because Oley never carried a gun. Prine tells Dillon that he backed out on the deal because he felt he couldn’t kill Marshall Dillon. However, since Dolph Timble never drew on Prine, the Marshal insists that Prine will have to be arrested for Timble’s murder. Prine tells him that he can’t deal with prison, so he pulls his gun on Dillon, and Dillon shoots him dead in the street. 7/15/23
• 027. Cooter – 5/19/1956
  • A poker game is going on at the Long Branch with a new dealer in town named Ben Sissle (Vinton Hayworth), who has just hired a mentally disabled assistant named Cooter Smith (Strother Martin). When one of his opponents (Robert Vaughn) catches him dealing from the bottom of the deck, he confronts him. Sissle taunts him, and their other opponent Pate (Brett King) fires on the guy. Although it appears to be self-defense, Kitty tells Matt that the victim was going after Sissle after saying that he had been cheated. Dillon suspects that Pate is Sissle’s hired gunman to shoot anyone who tries to call out Sissle for cheating at cards. Dillon forces Sissle to accompany him to Pate’s hotel room. When they arrive there, Sissle tells the Marshall to leave him alone or else Pate will kill him. Pate refuses to get into a showdown with Dillon and agrees to leave town. Dillon tells Sissle the next time he makes a mistake, he will arrest him and see that he hangs. Later, Chester reports that Cooter is now wearing a gun, so Dillon has Chester bring Cooter to him. He tells Dillon that Ben Sissle had given him the gun as part of his job for him, but that he really doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do for Sissle. When Dillon arrives at the Long Branch that night, Sissle tells him that Cooter had asked for a gun and when he put it on, he became mean and has now threatened to kill Dillon. When Cooter comes in, he does in fact tell Dillon that he’s going to kill him and attempts to pull his gun. Dillon is so fast, he has his gun drawn before Cooter can even remove his gun. Cooter then reveals that it was all Sissle’s idea to play a practical joke on the Marshall. However, Dillon knows that his plan was to have him kill Cooter when he drew on him, and then be so shamed that he would slink out of town. Dillon tells Sissle that he’s going to make sure that the word goes out what a despicable person Sissle is. Coother, however, fells that Sissle has made everyone laugh at him, so he follows Sissle out and holds his gun on him. Dillon tries to get him to put his gun away and warns him that he will have to be arrested if he shoots Sissle. When Sissle tries to get away, Cooter shoots him anyway, leaving the Marshall feeling badly for what will now happen to Cooter. 7/15/23
• 028. The Killer – 5/26/1956
  • A man named Crego (Charles Bronson) is traveling to Dodge with a man he just met (James Nusser) on the trail. The man doesn’t quite trust him, and soon it becomes apparent why: when Crego stand up to shake the bugs out of his blanket, he shoots the man dead while he is in his blanket. Dillon and Chester later find the body, as well as footprints with California spurs. Later, after bypassing the lure of a gypsy (Virginia Chapman), Matt and Chester head to the Long Branch, where they find Crego picking on a young man named Jesse Hill (David Chapman), trying to coax him into drawing first. Matt intervenes and stops the fight, warning Jesse to steer clear of Crego, who they notice is wearing California spurs. Later, while Matt is getting a new suit made by the tailor Jonas (Dabbs Greer), he catches him trying to manhandle Kitty. Dillon tries to prod Crego into drawing right then and there, but Crego wants no part of a gunfight with Matt, who accuses him in only trying to provoke those he knows he can beat into drawing, and then getting away with murder in the name of self-defense. Crego then kills a second victim Lydacker, after he prods him to draw, then shoots him in the kneecaps and the stomach. Matt decides he doesn’t want to drive him out of town because he will kill again. Doc also tells him that one of the guys who brought in Lydacker’s body was Jesse Hill, and he left fighting mad. Matt and Chester search all over town to find Crego, but they don’t end up finding him until he is provoking Jesse Hill to draw and then kills him. This time Matt has an idea he’s never tried before, so he finds him in the Long Branch and then tells Chester to stand by the door and keep an eye on Crego. Dillon taunts Crego and tells him to come outside. Crego refuses to fight him and even removes his gun belt. Dillon tells him that if he doesn’t come outside, he will return and kill him, armed or not. As Dillon walks out of the saloon, Crego grabs his gun and pulls it on Dillon. Chester shouts his warning to Dillon, who then turns and fires on Crego and kills him. 7/16/23
• 029. Doc’s Revenge – 6/9/1956
  • While Doc is heading to see patient, with Chester tagging along looking for free medical advice, he spots three men arriving into town. When Doc sees that one of them is man named Clem Maddow (Chris Alcaide), he vows to kill him, and promptly heads home to get his 36 Colt and heads to the saloon to meet him. Chester gets Marshall Dillon, who walks in and tries to stop him, and sees that Clem refuses to fight Doc or defend himself. Clem’s brother George (Ainsley Pryor) and their partner Ben Bartlett (Harry Bartell) both verify that they are all miners riding through after striking gold in Arizona and are heading to St. Louis. Doc won’t tell Matt what his vendetta is all about, but Matt tells Doc that his position is such that he has a responsibility in town and too many people count on him to throw his life away. The men all agree to leave that evening. He sends Doc away to cool off and is then unable to find him for the rest of the evening. That night, they hear a shot and find that someone has shot Clem in the back. Doc then shows up and decides to try and help Clem recover. Bartlett insists that it must’ve been Doc who hit George on the head and then shot Clem while Bartlett was inside the store. When Doc gets the bullet out of Clem, they find that it isn’t a bullet from Doc’s 36 Colt. Matt then suspects that it was one of Clem’s partners, most like the more argumentative one, Bartlett. Matt shows both George and Bartlett the bullet. Bartlett and George start blaming each other for the murder, and Bartlett tries to pull a gun on everyone. Matt stops him, but then George pulls his gun and admits that he had done the shooting. Doc comes from behind him and makes him drop his gun. George punches Bartlett, and Matt punches George and then has Chester put him in jail. Later, while Doc is nursing Clem back to health, he tells Matt that he doesn’t hate him any longer. Clem wakes up and tells Doc that he really did love a girl named Ellen and would have come back to her if he had made something more of himself. Doc fills in the blanks and tells Matt that Ellen was a woman that he love, but who loved Clem. He left her while she was pregnant and never came back. Her baby died at birth and she died shortly afterward of a broken heart. It was Matt’s speech to him about being needed by everyone that straightened out his thinking and made him choose to stop living with so much hatred. 7/16/23
• 030. The Preacher – 6/16/1956
  • A stagecoach arrives in town carrying a prize fighter named Sam Keeler (Chuck Connors) and his friend and manager Humbert (Paul Dubov), as well as an incredibly sullen preacher named Seth Tandy (Royal Dano). Keeler has it in for Tandy because he didn’t say a word during the entire coach ride. He begins pushing him around and punching him once they get off the coach in Dodge City. The stagecoach driver (Jim Hyland) tries to defend Tandy, even pulling a gun on Keeler, but Tandy jumps in his way and says that he wants no more violence. When Marshall Dillon shows up, he orders Keeler to back off of Tandy, but Keeler won’t take any orders. Since Keeler doesn’t wear a gun, there isn’t much anyone can do to stop him when he starts picking on someone, and for that, Dillon calls him a coward. When Keeler aims to fight with the Dillon, Matt removes his gun and pistol whips Keeler in the head and knocks him out. When Chester, Grimmick, and Humbert drag him to a trough to douse him with water, he awakes to the sounds of the town laughing at him. For this, Keeler later beats up Tandy again and is seen by Doc. Tandy can’t understand all of the violence and hate in the world, and Dillon tells him it is because many men are never taught otherwise. It is because of this that Tandy has lost his faith in God and now wanted to be away from where he had been a preacher. Tandy refuses to turn in Keeler, as he thinks that if Dillon tries to arrest him, it will lead to more violence. In order to keep Tandy protected, Matt his him sleep in the jail cell. The next morning, Tandy planned to move on to the next town on the next coach. While Chester steps away to make him breakfast, Humbert shows up and forces Tandy to leave with them by gunpoint. They leave a note that Dillon must meet them at Turkey Bend and being no one else and no guns. When Dillon arrives, Keeler tells him that he is going to beat Tandy to death, and then will use the rest of his energy to work over Dillon. Humbert tells him that he didn’t want to be part of any murder and holds his gun on Keeler, but Keller is too quick and takes the gun away and punches Humbert. Then he starts working over Dillon, but suddenly Dillon gets the upper hand is able to beat up Keeler using hand-to-hand combat, even when Keeler tries to use a big stick. Humbert thanks Dillon for saving his life, and Dillon tells him to take Keeler and leave town once he wakes up. Tandy is impressed that Dillon was willing to give up his life to save him, and remembers what Dillon said about how some men were never taught to turn away from hate and violence, and with that in mind, he decides to return home and try to help people the best way that he can. 7/16/23
• 031. How to Die for Nothing – 6/23/1956
  • Two drunken Texas cowboys named Ned (Bill White Jr.) and Zack (James Nolan) come riding into town shooting their guns, until Marshall Dillon forces them to stop. Zack won’t hand over his gun to Dillon so he pistol whips him over the head. Ned pulls a gun to fire on Dillon, but Dillon shoots and kills him first. Before Zack takes his body back to the cowboy camp, he warns Matt that Ned’s brother Howard Bulow (Mort Mills) will come after him, although he will never face a gunfighter face to face and would likely shoot him in the back. Matt becomes paranoid as he keeps his eye on everyone who comes into town, even threatening to put a stranger named Roberts (Herbert Lytton) in jail if he won’t tell him his name. Dodge House manager Riesling (Maurice Manson) thinks Matt is overstepping his bounds. Bulow then reveals himself on the street and pledges to kill Matt his own way in his own time. Matt then takes him to the jail and locks him up until he can cool off. He stays up all night ranting, raving, and kicking the jail bars, keeping Chester awake. The Texas cowboys’ boss Will Jacklin (Lawrence Dobkin) shows up and demands that Matt let Bulow go free. When Matt refuses, Jacklin shows up with his fourteen men and they have a standoff in the street, insisting that he free Bulow. Matt threatens to shoot down Jacklin if any of the men make a move, but Jacklin says he’s not afraid to die, and tells his men to tear up the town after they’ve finished with Dillon if he gets shot. Matt has no choice but to let Bulow go, even giving him his gun as they leave. Riesling is standing by, also insisting that Matt free Bulow. After the men have left, Riesling tells Matt that he’s going ride to their camp in the morning and tell them that they are all welcome to stay in town. The next morning, Matt and Chester go to see Riesling and find out if he saw them. He tells them that they plan to return that night and don’t want any trouble from the Marshall. Just then, Bulow emerges from his room and takes a shot at Matt’s back. He misses, and Matt pursues him upstairs in the hotel. He hides from Matt, but when he emerges from one of the room and tries to shoot him again, Matt gets the edge and fires on him three times. He tells Chester that Bulow died as uselessly as a man could. As they leave, Riesling tells Matt that Bulow had followed him into town and told him he’d kill him if he told Matt that he was there. 7/17/23
• 032. Dutch George – 6/30/1956
  • A well-known horse thief named Dutch George (Robert Middleton) happens upon a traveler named Jimmy McQueen (Tom Pittman) heading to Dodge. McQueen doesn’t trust him, but Dutch puts him at ease, then hits him over the head and steals his bay horse. When Dutch arrives in Dodge, Matt reveals that Dutch was from his hometown, and they were once friends. Unfortunately, Dutch chose the wrong side of the law and now works in a large horse thieving operation, but since he usually has his gang members do the stealing, he has never been convicted of the crime. Jimmy McQueen shows up in Dodge and reports the crime. Matt immediately knows that Dutch is the thief, but by now Dutch has left town. Matt offers to bring McQueen with him to catch up to Dutch and identify him, even though McQueen would rather go after him on his own. They follow the trail for a while and then decide to camp, also recognizing that there are Cheyenne are in the area, but McQueen suddenly rides off alone. Matt and Chester find Dutch’s camp, where he has met up with five of his partners who are driving the horses out of the area. Matt overtakes their lookout man Hack (Richard Warren) and tells Dutch and the others that they’re going to stand trial. He also warns Dutch that McQueen is also after him, Just then the Cheyenne Indians ride upon them and steal their horses and kill two of the men. Since Dutch and his men no longer have possession of the horses, Matt decides to let him go. When Matt and Chester get back to Dodge, they find McQueen there with the bay horse that had been stolen. He tells Matt that he had come to return the horse that they had lent to him. Matt is furious with McQueen, as he believes that he told the Cheyenne where Dutch and his men were holding the horses. Matt tells him that he got two men killed over getting his horse back, which he claims was found roaming along the prairie. He won’t admit to anything, and bids Matt and Chester a farewell. Matt decides he can’t do anything about it and reminds Chester to never trust a stranger. 7/17/23
• 033. Prairie Happy – 7/7/1956
  • As Matt and Chester are riding back to Dodge after delivering a prisoner in Hays, they run across a father (Tyler McVey) and son (Bruce Holland), when the boy takes a shot of them. He is only paranoid that they are Indians, and the father tells Matt that there are people riding in from everywhere toward Dodge because the Pawnee Indian tribe are on the warpath and plan to attack there. When they get back to Dodge, the leader of the defense committee, Jonas, is handing out weapons that have been sent by the Federal government to fend off the Pawnee. Matt is puzzled by this since the Pawnee have always been a peaceful people, and he sends Chester to poke around and see who has started this rumor. One man who certainly believes it is an elderly man named Tewksburty (Robert Ellenstein), who claims to have lived among the Pawnee and swears that they will relentlessly attack the townspeople and go after the women and children. Matt questions him as to where he heard it, but only gets common answers like the fact that the word is out. Jonas and some of the townsmen demands that Matt work with them to come up with a strategy for the next morning when they are sure to attack. Matt points out that Indians would never give a time and place for an attack. He demands that all of the men go home, even though Jonas is convinced that they are going to attack. Chester wakes up Mr. Dillion in the middle of the night to report that the Pawnee had set Danvers’ (Jack Holland) house on fire and left behind Pawnee arrows. While they are there, Tewksbury starts a second fire on the property, but Dillon spots him and chases him down. Tewksbury admits to Marshall Dillon, as well as the other men, that he started the fire to try and get them to attack the Pawnee tribe. He says he can’t stand the Indians or the white men and wants them all to suffer. When Jonas hears this, he is ready to string up Jonas right then and there, but Dillon says he is to get a fair trial. When Jonas finds out that there were two cowboys staying in Danvers’ house that were killed in the fire, he demands that Tewksbury be turned over to be hung. Dillon tells them that it doesn’t change a thing and he will still receive his trial. Just then a Pawnee woman named Quiet One (Anne Barton) comes into town and identifies Tewksbury as her father, Lost Warrior. She brings him his medicine bag to his cell, and just before the posse comes back after him, Tewksbury takes some ‘strong medicine’ that ends his life. Quiet One says that he died without shame, and Matt tells her that Jonas and the other can go on living without shame. Quiet One leaves town with her father’s body as the others look on. Roy Engel is the citizen who plans to knock off the ‘red devils’ one by one. 11/14/23
• 034. Chester’s Mail Order Bride – 7/14/1956
  • Chester’s been carrying around a photo of a girl named Ann Smithwright, getting drunk and looking for advice from Sam the bartender. When Nate Bannister takes the picture from him while trying to be friends, Chester gets angry and punches him, causing him to get punched back. Kitty tells Matt that he’s better take him out of the bar, so they go back to the office with Doc and ask him about the photo. He says that he’s been writing the women through the periodical Cupid’s Messenger, and that she is coming to Dodge from Philadelphia to marry him. Chester confesses that when she sent her picture to Chester, he returned the trade by sending her Matt’s photo. While Doc gives Chester a suit that he borrowed from the undertaker, Matt goes to pick up Ann, but when he finds her, Ann (Mary Carver) isn’t the girl in the photo that Chester had either. It turns out that she had sent a photo of her more attractive sister. Matt takes her to the Dodge House and drops her off, and then the real Chester comes to see her. They are both annoyed with each other and blame the other for sending a photo under false pretenses, but once they begin talking, they realize it is the feelings for each other that really count, and they had gotten along swimmingly in their writings. Nate is the first to congratulate him and they become fast friends. Chester takes Ann for a wagon ride on the plains and despite the fact that she is only seventeen, she thinks she’d like to be a homesteader with Chester, so they agree to be married. Unfortunately, a man named Brady (Russell Thorson) from the Pinkerton agency, who had been hired by Ann’s parents to find her and bring her home. Matt tells Chester that Ann comes from one of the most successful families in Philadelphia, and that her mother had a heart attack when she heard about Ann running off. Matt convinces Chester that homesteading will drive Ann to old age by the time she is thirty years old, and that her dreams would never be realized. As the town gets ready to throw Chester and Ann an engagement party, Chester has a talk with Ann and convinces her that it would be best for her to go back home and finish her education with her parents. Nate is furious that Chester’s dreams were taken away, and he threatens Mr. Brady. Matt stops him and says that Chester and Ann made a brave decision, and Kitty asks Nate to dance to diffuse the situation. Chester and Ann say their goodbyes before she leaves with Mr. Brady. Chester laments to Matt that he wishes he never learned to read. William Hamel is the barbershop customer. NOTE: Nate Bannister is listed as “Linus” in the credits. 11/14/23
• 035. The Guitar – 7/21/1956
  • Weed Pindle (Aaron Spelling) is a funny-looking, dim-witted Civil War veteran who rids in from Texas on his burro Rainbow with his guitar. Two guys in town named Augie Short (Jacques Aubuchon) and Gene Tyler (Charles Gray) act friendly toward him and take him from bar to bar, but when they find out that Pindle fought for the Union Army, their intentions turn more sinister. Marshall Dillon tells them to calm down when they get rowdy in the street, and then he asks Chester to keep an eye on them because he has to head out to the Fort for the day. Two of the townsmen, Tom (Bill Hale) and Delmer (Duane Grey) tip off Chester that Short and Tyler plan to hang Pindle once they’ve hit every saloon in town, finishing at the Long Branch. One of the bartenders named Bill Pence (Joseph Mell) tries to stop them from coming in with his rifle, but they barrel in anyway. Soon it becomes clear that they intend to hang Pindle, much to Pindle’s surprise. Doc, Pence, Delmer, and Tom all try to stop the guys from hurting him, but it isn’t until Chester comes in with a rifle are they able to get the guys to back down. After they leave the saloon, the guys talk Pindle into playing his guitar. Pence offers him a job playing in the saloon, but Pindle says he never stays in one place. Pence offers to let him stay at his place for the night. When Pindle goes out to water Rainbow, he runs into Short and Tyler, who have painted Rainbow. The guys then destroy Pindle’s guitar and head into the Long Branch. Marshall Dillon returns in the aftermath and goes inside and backhands Short and Tyler and orders them to leave town. Pindle decides to leave town that night so that he can clean off Rainbow. Pence spots Short and Tyler following Pindle out of town, and he signals some unseen men to follow behind them. As Pindle is traveling along, he is stopped by Short and Tyler who have been lying in wait for them. They immediately start the dirty deed of stringing him up. The next morning, Dillon brings Doc out to take a look at the body hanging from the tree to determine how long it had been dead, and it is revealed that there are two bodies hanging from the tree. It turns out that the bodies belong to Short and Tyler, and Pindle is nowhere to be found. Marshall Dillon questions Tom and Delmer, and Chester offers up his alibi. Pence lies and says that Pindle hadn’t left until the morning, while Doc says the bodies are about eight hours old. Dillon reminds the men that the law applies to all of them equally, but since he can’t arrest the whole town, he is going to let it go. However, he says if he finds out who is responsible, there will be an arrest and a trial. Doc wonders if they got to enjoy the hanging that they had been longing for. 11/15/23
• 036. Cara – 7/28/1956
  • Doc is called to the Long Branch, where a woman named Cara (Jorja Curtright) has tries to commit suicide. The Doc surmises by the area of her arm that was cut that the effort was insincere. She asks the Doc if she can see Marshall Dillon. When Doc comes to get Dillon, he recognizes her name right away as an old flamer he had a dozen years ago in Yuma. She tells Matt she had heard that Matt was in Dodge City and wanted to stay there for a while. Matt asks an annoyed Kitty if Cara can come work at the Long Branch and have a room there.  Meanwhile, Sheriff Benson (Charles Webster) from Wichita stops by to visit with Matt on his way to Denver. Benson tells Dillon about an at large bank robber named Jack Tolliver (Douglas Odney) who has killed several men. He also tells Dillon that one of Tolliver’s partners often comes into town in advance to scout the bank before the robbery. When Matt hears that the scout is a woman who fits Cara’s description, he immediately starts to suspect her. He tells Chester that he is able to overcome his fondness and emotions for Cara when he thinks about all of the men that Tolliver has killed. Throughout the week, Matt keeps a close eye on Cara and all of the men to whom she talks. Kitty then comes to Matt on Cara’s behalf to ask if she can borrow $20. Matt gives it to her and then tells Chester to keep an eye on her as she buys a ticket to St. Louis. Matt confronts her at the train station, and she tells Matt that she talked Tolliver out of robbing the bank while Matt was the Marshall. He then deduces that it was Tolliver for whom she bought the ticket and that he is on the train. When she says there is no way he can identify her, he and Chester jump on board the train and says they will have the train held until every man on it can identify himself. Once they are on board, Matt tells Chester that Tolliver isn’t on the train, but is in Dodge City waiting for him to leave so he can rob the bank that night. Matt and Chester go to a town ten miles away and then take horses back to Dodge. Matt had earlier told Mr. Botkin to have all large money moved to another safe outside the bank in preparation of the robbery. Matt and Chester stake out the bank until Tolliver and his gang show up. They surprise the gang and kill one man, while Tolliver holds Cara as a hostage. She tells Matt that Tolliver will never shoot her, but when she pulls away from him, he does in fact shoot her in the back. Matt then shoots and kills Tolliver, who dies in the street next to Cara. As she is dying, she says how strange it was that she chose Tolliver… and how strange it was that she still loves him. 11/15/23
• 037. Mr. and Mrs. Amber – 8/4/1956
  • A man named Neal Amber (Paul Richards) comes to see Marshall Dillion, ranting in desperation how he has all of the bad luck on his farm that he can handle, and alluding to the fact that murder is sometimes justified if someone is coming down on him too hard. Dillon goes to see Jonas the storekeeper to inquire about Amber’s situation, and while he is there, they catch Amber stealing seed out of the back of his store. Jonas wants him arrested, but Dillion decides to put the grain on his account and sends Amber on his way. Dillon and Chester ride out to visit Neal and his wife Sarah (Gloria McGehee), but Neal is fast asleep. Sarah tells Matt that her husband is at the end of his rope, and he has never wanted to be a farmer. She tells Dillon that they can’t leave because her rich brother Peak Fletcher (Ainslie Pryor), who reckons himself an instrument of the Lord has Neal and Sarah doing penance for her sins. As the Marshall and Chester ride out, they run into Fletcher and his son Simon (Bing Russell), and he criticizes Dillon for not punishing Amber for stealing. They also tell Dillon that Sarah is doing penance for being a cheap dancehall girl for many years. Later, Fletcher comes to see Marshall Dillon to report that Sarah was caught stealing one of Fletcher’s calves. Sarah maintains her innocence and says she was just looking at the calf and doesn’t know how the calf got in her barn. Once again, Marshall Dillon gives the Ambers the benefit of the doubt. In their lowly condition, Dillon overhears tell Neal telling his wife that she would be better off dead than being persecuted. That night Simon comes to see Dillon and tells him that he had better get to the Amber place, as Sarah has disappeared, and Neal is sitting in his house catatonic. Dillon and Chester goes to see Amber, who initially says that he sent Sarah to the East and plans to join her. Dillon has Chester search the vicinity and he finds that Sarah is dead in the barn with a bullet hole in her. Neal Amber admits that he shot her to put her out of her misery. He maintains that he should have killed Pete like he originally says. Dillon arrests Neal and takes him to the jail. The next morning, Fletcher and Simon come to the courthouse to demand that the Marshall hang Amber. When Amber hears them outside, he grabs a rifle and shoots Simon, who fires off several shots and hits him back. Before Simon dies, he admits that he planted the calf in their barn so that her penance would come sooner. Before Neal Amber dies, he tells the Marshall that he only shot Sarah after she had already given up and died on her own. He said that this would let her keep her self-respect. Dillon promises to keep the secret. As Dillon helps Fletcher load up his son’s body, Fletcher blames Neal Amber for his death, but Dillon questions whether it was really Neal who ultimately killed Simon. Fletcher says that this will not bring him to his knees, since this was the Lord’s will. 11/17/23
• 038. Unmarked Grave – 8/18/1956
  • A stagecoach driver (Boyd Stockman) drives Sheriff Darcy (Than Wyenn) who is transporting a prisoner named Rusty aka Blackie (Ron Hagerthy) to Dodge City in order to catch the train to Wichita to meet deputies to take him to Caldwell for Blackie’s trial. The Sheriff has just suffered a heart attack and Blackie mocks him and says he’ll never get him to his trial, since a gang of his friends led by Tasker Sloan (William Hopper) will be meeting him in Dodge to break him free. Sheriff tells Blackie that what he didn’t know is that he has a friend in Dodge. Meanwhile in Dodge, a woman named Mrs. Randolph (Helen Kleeb) is questioning Marshall Dillon about the whereabouts of her son Hollis “Whitey” Randolph. Dillon delicately tells her that he was killed by a Deputy Sheriff from Hutchinson when a gang he was in had escaped from jail. She questions whether her son had to be shot down, and Dillon tells her that the gang had killed a dealer in a saloon robbery. She falls deeper into despair when Dillon has to tell her that he is buried on Boot Hill in an unmarked grave. Just then, Sheriff Darcy arrives with Blackie, and before he collapses, he pistol-whips Blackie. Darcy tells Dillon that Blackie had been with a gang who committed a bank robbery in Caldwell, and Blackie had been identified as the man who killed the cashier. He also says that that he can’t be held because his gang is coming to break him loose, and that he should keep him held out of sight until the 7:10 train leaves the next morning for Wichita. Mrs. Randolph is furious that Darcy had slugged Blackie with his gun and equates Blackie with her abused son. She vows to not let any lawman shoot him down. Darcy is taken to Doc but dies while being treated. Chester goes to get Dillon and spots Tasker’s gang arrive in town and rough up the stagecoach driver, demanding to know where they took Blackie. Mrs. Randolph brings soup for Blackie at the Dodge House where Dillon is holding him but throws the soup into his face in order to try and let him escape. Dillon stops him from leaving and throws Mrs. Randolph out. Doc tells Dillon that he promised Darcy before he died that Marshall Dillon would get Blackie on the train to Wichita. Dillon and Chester guard Blackie at the Dodge House, while Tasker and his gang search the town for him. When they spot the gang outside the Dodge House, Blackie breaks the window and signals where he is located. Dillon and Chester creep through the quiet town with Blackie trying to get him to the train station, but they are ambushed by the gang once they reach the station. Blackie is shot dead by one of his own men, and Dillon is hit in the side. However, Dillon and Chester manage to shoot down all five members of Tasker’s gang. Mrs. Randolph witness the entire battle and apologizes to Dillon since she realizes he was only doing his job. He offers to make sure that Blackie and her son both get marked graves on Boot Hill. Joe Scudero is gang member Munro. 11/17/23
• 039. Alarm at Pleasant Valley – 8/25/1956
  • While riding back to Dodge City from Pawnee, Matt and Chester come upon a burning homestead and find that the entire Claybourne family has been murdered by rogue members of the Kiowa tribe. As the men are getting ready to bury the family, members of the U.S. Cavalry ride up and take over the burial. They had been hot on the trail of the Kiowa and had hoped to catch them before they caused any more death and destruction. Dillon offers to ride with them and assist, but the Lieutenant (Dan Blocker) says that they Cavalry needs no help. As Dillon and Chester head back toward Dodge, they happen upon a family with a beautiful new homestead, but the family appears to be leaving. The men introduce themselves as Sam Fraser (Lew Brown), his wife Alice (Dorothy Schuyler), his brother Tad (Bill White Jr.) and his Ma (Helen Wallace). They are planning to abandon the homestead and head to California, but since Alice is pregnant, they intend to stay in Dodge until the baby is born. Sam explains that he doesn’t want his wife and baby living in fear of Indian attacks. His Ma argues that her husband just settled this area and wanted to live all of his days her, but since he just died three days ago, he had very few days to enjoy it. She is in favor of staying so that she can be buried alongside her husband. Matt cautioned that he would come up against Indians at some point in his life and will be forced to fight. He also says there are many places to settle between there and California. Chester adds that all of the gold out West has been claimed for the most part. When it becomes clear that Sam won’t budge in his position, the family gets loaded up, and Dillon and Chester offer to ride with them to make sure they safely get back to Dodge. Once they set out, it is only a matter of minutes before they spot the group of rogue Kiowa tribe members which number around ten. They retreat back to the homestead, while the Kiowa surround them and start to approach. Once the Kiowa hears the sound of Chester’s rifle, they retreat as well, but surround the homestead. Mary goes into labor and Ma tends to her. When Tad comes out to get more water, on Kiowa fires on him and hits him in the shoulder. Matt gets the idea to burn the wagon in order to signal the Cavalry to come to the rescue, and Sam reluctantly agrees. The men take cover and watch from afar, so when the Kiowa finally decide to charge, they are prepared. The men manage to shoot and kill most of the Kiowa men, but two of them escape over the hill. As Matt and Chester prepare to head out again, they offer to send a wagon, but Sam tells them that there is no hurry as they are now planning to stay at their homestead, which their father had named Pleasant Valley. The Cavalry then shows up and asks if there was trouble. Marshall Dillon points out the dead Indians, and tells them about the two that escaped, recommending that the Cavalry round them up. 11/18/23

SEASON 2

• 040. Cow Doctor – 9/8/1956
  • Chester asks Kitty to stop by and visit the Marshall’s office, hoping to soften the blow of Chester mentioning that he’d like to visit an old Army friend, the mess hall chef at Fort Dodge, for a couple of days. Meanwhile, a young boy named Jerry Pitcher (Tommy Kirk) rides into town to request that Doc come and visit his father Ben (Robert H. Harris). Matt offers to go with Doc because he is suspicious about Ben’s intentions since he is dead set against doctors and will never let Doc work on him or his family. When they arrive to the farm, Mrs. Pitcher (Dorothy Adams) sends them to see Ben in the barn but won’t discuss his business. It turns out that Ben wants Doc to work on his cow, but still maintains that doctors know nothing about people. Doc is angry about being called to tend to an animal but agrees to help relieve the cow of its bloating. Ben tells Doc that if the cow dies, he won’t pay him. Before they leave the Pitcher farm, Jerry returns and tells Doc that everyone had been looking for him back in Dodge when old Mrs. Hill fainted in the street and fell through the General Store window and died because no one could stop her arm from bleeding. Doc gets angry and punches Ben. In retaliation, Ben pulls a knife on Doc and stabs him in the abdomen. Matt pistol whips Ben and knocks him, then takes Doc into the house to try and treat him. Doc talks him through tying up a couple of veins and then sewing him up to prevent him from bleeding to death. Matt warns Ben that if Doc dies, he’ll come back as a citizen and kill him. When Doc is strong enough to travel, Matt brings him back to Dodge and he and Kitty make him convalesce for several days. They receive another visit from Jerry, who tells Doc that his father is very sick, and he has come on his own to plead with Doc to heal him. Although Matt and Kitty warn him about traveling, Doc says he needs to try and save him, so they make the painful journey to his house. Mrs. Pitcher tries to stop them from going in, but Matt insists that Doc be able to see Ben. She even tries to stop them with a rifle, but Jerry stops her. As Mrs. Pitcher and Matt wait through the night, Mrs. Pitcher comes to the conclusion that she doesn’t want to lose her husband. Doc is able to help Ben recover from his illness. Once Ben wakes up, he asks to see Doc, then tells him that he understands that Doc might have helped him recover, but states that he still won’t pay Doc’s bill because his horse died. Matt is furious with Ben, but Doc insists that they simply get out of there. Mrs. Pitcher tells Doc that it was an honor to have him in her home but can say no more. Matt agrees that this was probably better than payment after all. 11/19/23
• 041. Brush at Elkader – 9/15/1956
  • One night as a man named Ben Williams leaves the saloon, he is gunned down in cold blood by a man nobody sees. After Williams dies, Marshall Dillon arrives on the scene and tells Matt that Williams has been talking in the bar about a man named Lou Shippen (Paul Lambert) from the town of Elkader having it in for him. Matt and Chester head to Elkader to investigate Shippen. However, when they attempt to park their horses with the liveryman (Malcolm Atterbury), as soon as he gets wind of who Marshall Dillon is, he tries to tell him that there is no room in the stable for their horses. Likewise, when Dillon and Chester try to check in at the hotel, the desk clerk (Alfred Linder) changes his mind about the availability of room when he hears who Dillon is. Since clearly everyone is petrified of Shippen, and Matt has no idea what he looks like, he goes to the telegraph office to get the clerk Will Hinkle (Gage Clarke) to wire Jebel Rainsey, a feed clerk from Dodge who formerly lived in Elkader and now lives in Wichita to get a description of Shippen. Once Hinkle realizes who Dillon is and who he is after, he too chickens out and only pretends to send the telegram. Since Matt can’t force him, he heads over to the local saloon, where the bartender (Dennis Cross) also claims to have no idea who Shippen is. Matt then announces that he will soon know who Shippen is since Hinkle sent the telegram. Hinkle denies it, but Matt insists that he did. Hinkle meets Matt outside and asks him for protection, but Matt tells him to go on back to his place and not worry. Matt and Chester then stake out his place, until Lou Shippen shows up. When Matt calls his name, Shippen pulls a gun on him and is immediately shot. As he is dying, he admits that Marshall Dillon got the better of him. When Dillon asks him why he killed Ben Williams, he tells him that he just never cared for him. Hinkle tells Matt that he was on his side all along, and Matt tells him that he can tell his friends that they can crawl out from under their rocks now. 3/24/24
• 042. Custer – 9/22/1956
  • A man going by the name of Joe Trimble (Brian G. Hutton) beats a man named Granby to death in his house while looking for his money but find nothing. Meanwhile, Marshall Dillon and Chester are heading back to Dodge after being away for ten days. The consider stopping in to see Granby, but before they head that way, the run into a Trimble, who has some of Granby’s horses with him. Trimble says he found the horses but refuses to ride back to Granby’s place to return them. However, Matt insists that he come with them, and when they arrive, the find Granby dead. Matt places Trimble under arrest and brings him back to Dodge so that he can stand trial in Hays, despite the fact that there is only circumstantial evidence against him. Major Banker (Richard Keith) rides into Dodge to tell Marshall Dillon that they are looking for a deserter from Fort Lincoln, whose name is actually Joe Gale but fits Trimble’s description. Matt refuses to let him go until after has stood trial for murder. At the trial, the judge (Herbert Lytton) gives instructions to the jury that seem to favor conviction, but they find Trimble not guilty, so Matt brings him back to Dodge and holds him to turn over to Banker. However, by now Banker says he wishes that he would have been found guilty because he is no longer going to stand trial as his unit in the Dakotas will need every man they can get. His unit will be going on an expedition against the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne. They will be looking to find Sitting Bull under the leadership of General George Custer at Little Bighorn. 3/24/24
• 043. The Round Up – 9/29/1956
  • After getting swindled by a pair of card sharps, Chester is tossed from a window after screaming at them. Doc and Matt bring him back to the station to rest. Meanwhile, a group of townsmen including storeowner Summers (Barney Phillips) and saloon owner Torp (Jacques Aubuchon), visit Marshall Dillon to advise him to deputize about twenty men to keep peace during the roundup that will be taking place with cowboys and homesteaders letting loose in the saloons. Dillon tells him that he will handle enforcing the law, speculates that having deputies will cause even more trouble, and accuses Trop of wanting his potential deputy friends to shut down the other saloons so that he will have the only open tables in town. Kitty later reports that Torp and his men cut cards to have someone kill Dillon so that he will have free reign in the town. Matt’s old friend Zel Blatnik (Michael Hinn), whose life Matt once saved, shows up in town, having heard the rumors about Torp and his men having it in for Matt, and asks to be deputized to help him get through the night. Matt is reluctant, but eventually agrees he can use the help, especially with Chester out of commission. That night, as things begin to get wild, Matt generally lets the men let loose and have fun but interrupts a couple of men who insist on pulling out their guns. After hearing a gunshot in the saloon, Matt rushes in and finds Torp and his men. Trop gets the draw on Matt and shoots him in the shoulder, and Matt reciprocates by shooting Trop, two of his men, and another man that enters behind him. Summers notifies Matt that man he shot behind him was wearing a badge. It turns out to be Zel, who tells Matt as he lies dying, that it was his own fault for surprising Matt when he enters. Matt carries his body back to his office and decides to shut down all of Front Street. Although both Doc and Kitty advise him against it, he manages to clear out everyone, pistol whipping anyone who defies him, and standing up to Torp’s remaining man Rydell (John Dierkes) who would like to kill him. When Rydell backs down, Matt tells him to get out of town. Eventually, Front Street looks completely deserted. The next morning, Matt and Chester bury Zel. Matt puts his first notch in his gun so that he will be reminded of what happened every time he looks at it. John Patrick is ‘Dad’. NOTE: Mason Curry is credited as ‘Jake’ but does not appear in the episode. 3/25/24
• 044. Young Man with a Gun – 10/20/1956
  • Chester comes asking Matt to borrow some money, telling him that he got cheated during a card game by a man named Sam Kertcher (Fredd Wayne), who didn’t seem to want to cheat anyone other than him. Matt recognizes his name as a gunfighter and goes to see him at the saloon. Kertcher tells Matt that Chester was telling him the truth and that this seemed like the easiest way to meet him, then tells him that he came to town to kill him for no other reason than that Matt has a reputation. Matt tries to tell him that he’s a lawman and not a gunfighter, but Kertcher insists on facing him the next morning in a gun battle. Chester tries to convince Matt to run, and Doc tries to convince him to shoot Kertcher through the window, but Matt insists on facing him. As they walk toward each other on the street, Matt draws first and kills Kertcher. Doc tells him that he was worried that Matt might get noble and not draw first, but Matt says that he wouldn’t be noble with a man like Kertcher. The next week, a new fifteen-year-old boy named Peyt (Jack Dimond) comes into town looking for work, and Matt buys him a steak for breakfast. He recommends that Peyt get a job with Emmett Bower punching cattle. Peyt agrees he will need work, but his ultimate goal is to buy a gun and become a gunfighter. Matt tries to dissuade him from that lifestyle, but the boy is hellbent. Several weeks later, Peyt visits Marshall Dillon and pays him back for the steak, then reveals that he is quitting his job now that he has enough money for a gun. He wants to start practicing so that he can kill the man he came for… Marshall Dillon. He tells him that he is Sam Kertcher’s younger brother and that he heard that the Marshall drew first on him and now wants to avenge him. Dillon tells him that his brother was not a good man, and only was gunning for him as part of his sick game. He also warns Peyt that if he comes after him, he will not hesitate to gun him down like he did his brother. Nevertheless, Peyton begins shooting at a target day after day. Doc and Chester go spy on him to see how he is doing, and Doc tells him that he can practice for years and years and still not be able to defeat Dillon. After months of practice, Peyt gets good enough to hit the center of his target consistently. He goes into town and runs into Jack Rynning (Clegg Hoyt) and his friend Spencer (Sid Clute). Jack starts picking on Peyt and telling him that he is too young for a gun and if he wants to keep wearing it, he’d better use it. Peyt refuses to take the gun off, provoking a stand-off with Jack. Marshall Dillon walks in to witness Jack pull his gun on Peyt, and Peyt too frozen to react. Dillon quickly shoots Jack in the arm in order to save Peyt’s life. Peyt realizes he was a second away from death and doesn’t know why he froze. He thanks Dillon for saving his life, and then gives him his gun to keep, telling Dillon that he is going to try to return to work for Bower. 3/26/24
• 045. Indian White – 10/27/1956
  • Colonel Honeyman (Alexander Lockwood) arrests some Cheyenne Indians and find a white boy among them who goes by the name Vihocan (Peter Votrian), which means “white boy” in the Cheyenne language. Millinery Salon owner Mary Cullen (Marian Seldes) claims that Vihocan is her long-lost son Dennis, who was taken from her when her husband was killed at Medicine River. After Honeyman agrees to let her keep the boy, she privately confesses to Matt that the boy is not her son, but she wishes to take care of him the way she hopes someone else would do for her son. Kitty tries to offer her support of Mrs. Cullen by buying lots of hats from her shop. Matt spots shipowner Ross (Stanley Adams) throwing Dennis out of his shop for trying to buy bullets for Mr. Cullen’s rifle. Dennis then gets into a fight by a bigoted Dodge City citizen named Dutchholder (Clegg Hoyt), and when another cowboy (Kenneth Alton) throws Dennis a knife, the fight nearly turns deadly until Matt interrupts. Dennis takes a swipe and cuts Dutchholder’s arm. Matt brings him back to his mother and warns her that he was trying to buy bullets for his late father’s gun. She admits that she is at her wit’s end, as she has had a rough time getting him past his savage ways. Matt informs Mrs. Cullen that the Cheyenne Indians who were arrested have escaped prison, and with the town on edge, he advises she keep Dennis indoors or he may have to lock him up for his own protection. Mrs. Cullen determines that Dennis has stolen money from her to try and buy the bullets. Colonel Honeyman also comes into the shop with the news that Chief Little Wolf (Abel Fernandez) has left his reservation with 300 of his people and will likely rendezvous with the Cheyenne prisoners who escaped. He believes Dennis would know the rendezvous point, but Dennis claims that he does not. That night, Dennis steals the rifle and leaves home, so Matt and Chester go out to try and find him the next morning. The eventually spot him overlooking a ravine, and when Dennis finds out that the Army is not with Marshall Dillon, he calls out the group of Indians who are just out of sight. Chief Little Wolf rides down and speaks to Dillon and Chester and tells them that it is up to Vihocan if he wants to return to his white mother or to go on with the Cheyenne. He tells Dillon that if he tries to go against his wishes, they will kill him. Ultimately, Dennis chooses to return to the Cheyenne. The Indians all cheer and yell out a phrase that means Medicine Creek white boy, indicating that Dennis really was Mrs. Cullen’s son after all. Knowing that the illness and the army will eventually wipe the Cheyenne out, Matt chooses not to tell Mrs. Cullen the truth about Dennis. George Archambeault is the citizen who yells to ‘let him fight’. 3/26/24
• 046. How to Cure a Friend – 1/15/1956
  • It’s a quiet morning in Dodge, and Doc Milburn is heading out to deliver the eighth baby for the Carter family. Matt walks over to get a haircut from Frank Teeters (Jess Kirkpatrick). During his cut, Teeters tells Matt that he’s heard tale from two Texas men that came through town that there will be a cheating gambling man named Nick Search (Andrew Duggan) coming to town. Nick is an old friend of Matt’s whose life Matt once saved when a man tries to shoot him in the back, and he is surprised to hear that he is a cheat. The rumor also follows Search that he is an incredibly fast gunman. When Search arrives in town, Matt has a chat with him, and Search assures him that he is above board and that the Texas men were just sore losers. Search looks up Bill Pence who is running the Long Branch to look for a table he can run. Pence has also heard the rumors about Search, so Matt vouches for Search to Pence. Chester hears that some people in town are saying that Matt only vouched for Search because he is afraid that Search can outdraw him. Search comes to visit Matt and tells him that he is actually having trouble breaking even, especially since a rich man named Enoch Mills (Simon Oakland) has such a huge bankroll. The next time Mills comes into the Long Branch to gamble, he brings $5000 to wipe Search out. They get a private room to play their game, but when Matt hears about it, he decides to insist on being in the room with them. Search demands that Matt leave, but Matt tells him that if his next draw creates a straight flush, he is through in Dodge. Sure enough, the next two cards in the dealer cards give Search the royal flush he needs to take a huge pot. Matt tells Branch that the game is over and tells Mills to pick up the money. Search draws his gun on Matt, but Matt fires off a shot and injures Search’s hand. Although Search tells Matt that he will kill him for revenge, after Doc tells Search that he will never be able to shoot a gun or hold a deck in his right hand again, Search says he feels a sense of relief. He says he’ll have no more slow-playing a victim in order to take the big score and will finally be able to get up early enough for breakfast. Matt, Doc, and Search all have a drink together as his first breakfast. 3/30/24
• 047. Legal Revenge – 11/17/1956
  • While delivering a baby in the area, Doc stops i to see new homesteaders named Tibbs. The wife, Flory Tibbs (Cloris Leachman), is cold with Doc and acts as if she doesn’t want him there. She tells him that her husband Ben is out working in the field, but Doc hears the husband tell her to let him in. Doc comes in to find him bedridden with a laceration on his leg which he claims was caused by a wood-chopping accident. Doc also notices that he is holding a gun under his bed covers. Doc tends to the wound and shows Flory how to look after it, then heads back to Dodge and tells Marshall Dillon about the incident. He decides to ride out there with Chester, but when they arrive, both Flory and her husband act equally suspicious. Flory doesn’t want to let them inside until Matt insists. The man asks Matt sit up with him all night, but Flory doesn’t want Matt there. Matt also offers to take him into Dodge the next day to further look after his wounds, and the man accepts. After discussing it with Chester further, he decides to go back into the house ane reveal his identity as a Marshall and take him back to Dodge to get him away from Flory. The man is anxious to go with them, but once Matt tells him that he is a Marshall, the man starts to back away from wanting to be moved. Matt is then called by Chester, who is held at rifle point by Flory. She tells them to get on their horses and leave them alone, but Matt and Chester only ride just outside of the camp. They decide to stay the night and return in the middle of the night to try and get the man out of this situation. All they have to eat all nigh is the German cheese that Chester brought. When they finally take a chance that Flory has fallen asleep, they return to the house. Flory is awake and tells Marshall Dillon that her husband died in the night. She also tells Matt that the man was not her husband Ben, but a stranger named George Basset (Philip Bourneuf), who had broken in and killed her husband before she vowed to kill him for what he did. Now that she has had her revenge, she tells Matt that he can take her in, but guarantees he won’t be holding her for very long. Sure enough, Matt gets a telegraph from Bob (Robert Strong), the postal clerk, indicating that George Basset had a ‘dead or alive’ warrant on his head for $1000. Matt immediately releases her from jail and tells her that she has a reward coming. Flory asks Matt to say what she is thinking: that she doesn’t want any of the reward money as it will help her feel cleaner without it. 3/31/24
• 048. The Mistake – 11/24/1956
  • While chatting with Kitty about her horseback ride out to Sand Springs that morning, Marshall Dillon is called by Chester to come see about Earl Haney (Gene O’Donnell), the new Faro dealer at the Long Branch, who had been robbed, beaten, and left behind the saloon. With Doc away on a house call until that afternoon, he is unavailable to assist. Haney is just conscious enough to tell Matt that his attacker had black hair and mustache and was wearing a red shirt. Matt believes this could be Jim Bostick (Touch Connors aka Mike Connors), who has been nothing but trouble since coming into town and has a recent run of bad luck while gambling. When Matt confronts Bostick, he denies the allegations and says he was playing poker all night. However, he admits that he had left the table during the time of the attack and had gone to see Doc for stomach pains. With Doc out of town, Matt has no way to corroborate this alibi, so he has Chester put him in jail, even though Bostick claims that he has to leave for Coldwater that morning. Matt then returns to Haney, but he has died. When Matt goes back to the office, he finds Chester locked in the jail, having been overtaken by Bostick. Matt and Chester set out to look for Bostick right away, ignoring Chester’s suggestion that they check to see if Doc is back. Matt and Chester spend the cold night looking for Bostick and eventually find a horse that they believe is his. They wait near the horse, and Matt surprises him and demands he return to Dodge with him. Bostick maintains his innocence and refuses to come with Matt, warning him that he will draw on him if he comes any closer. Matt refuses to yield so Bostick draws on him, but Matt is faster and shoots Bostick in the shoulder. They return to Dodge and put Bostick back in jail, but Chester then learns two important pieces of information. Earl Haney’s replacement Ken Scoles was killed by a robber with black hair and a red shirt, but Scoles managed to kill the attacker before he died. Doc also corroborates that Bostick had come to see him in the middle of the night. Matt releases Bostick and apologizes to him for being wrong. Matt clearly feels guilty for the situation, but Doc and Chester comfort him, with Doc pointing out that not every man is big enough to own up to his mistakes the way Matt is. Cyril Delevanti is the hearse driver. Robert Hinkle is the rider who tells Matt that he passed a man fitting Bostick’s description. 3/31/24
• 049. Greater Love – 12/1/1956
  • Doc is in a particularly bad mood one morning and complains about his job in Dodge City. He tells Matt and Chester that he wants to leave for San Francisco. Their chat is interrupted when the stagecoach rides with the driver Hank (Ray Bennett) and a dead guard. Hank tells Marshall Dillon that their stagecoach was attacked by three men in an attempted robbery, and although they managed to shoot two of the three, the three men escaped Hank identifies one of the men as Howard Brant, who had seemed like a nice fellow who just moved to the area with his wife (Amzie Strickland) a couple of weeks earlier. Doc accompanies Matt and Chester to his house, where his wife claims that he isn’t there. However, a trail of blood into the house indicates otherwise, so she admits that he has been shot after leaving with two old acquaintances Jed Butler and Rod Blake had come to see Howard and talk him into doing something nefarious. Doc agrees to stay with the Brants to try and help Howard heal, while the Marshall begins his hunt for Butler and Blake. Two days later, Chester informs Matt that he just saw Mrs. Brant bringing her wagon into town with her husband’s body in it. They go to see her to help her bury her husband, and she tells them that Doc had left earlier that day to ride into town to make arrangements with the undertaker. Chester stays to bury Brant, while Matt goes to see his Indian friend Tobeel (Frank DeCova). For some money, Tobeel tells Matt that he believes that Doc was kidnapped by two men and leads him to their location. Matt can see that Butler (Claude Akins) is inside holding a single barreled shotgun on Doc, insisting that he fix up Blake, and warns him that if Blake dies, he will kill Doc. Matt sends Tobeel around the back and tells him that if Butler fires his gun to come in shooting. Matt knocks on the door and goes in unarmed, telling him that if he hears one shot, he will come in shooting. It becomes clear that Matt is willing to take the bullet on behalf of Doc, a notion that dumbfounds Butler. It also becomes obvious that Doc is trying to provoke Butler to shoot him instead of Matt. Butler laments the fact that he has never had anyone in his life who would have laid down his life for him. He decides to put down his rifle and let Matt take him in. He says he’s never known any one like Matt and Doc, and wonders if they might be crazy. 8/8/24
• 050. No Indians – 12/8/1956
  • While Chester and Doc are chatting, Chester points out a girl named Arie O’Dell (Fintan Meyler), the daughter of a blacksmith he’s interested in dating. When Chester approaches her and asks her to go fishing with him, she tells him that she is too fearful of the Pawnee Indians who have been wreaking havoc recently. Chester says he’ll protect her, so she agrees to go if it is okay with her father. Meanwhile, a settler named Sam Butler (Dick Rich) rides into town with his family, telling everyone that the Pawnee have just massacred another family, and he and his family are planning to head back east to get away from such danger. He tells everyone in town that he blames the law for not getting involved. When Chester tells Matt what Butler is saying, Matt speaks to him to find out more details about the murder. When he finds out that the Indians scalped the family after attacking them away from their homes, Matt gets suspicious about the circumstances of the murder. He hooks up with Army Captain Starr (Herbert Rudley) to join him while they investigate the recent murders and help catch the Indian killers. However, when they find another family murdered, Matt points out many inconsistencies with how Indians would do it. He argues they wouldn’t use bullets instead of arrows, that they wouldn’t wipe away their footprints since they wear moccasins, and that they wouldn’t murdered 12 or 13-year-old boys, but would try to convert them into Pawnee. Now believing that the killers are white men and common horse thieves, Matt and Chester move into an abandoned house to try to lure the men in. One morning, a drifter named Stapp (Mickey Simpson) shows up and tells them that he got lost overnight. Matt comes to suspect him for not watering his horse before drinking the coffee they offered him. Matt throws coffee in his face and knocks him out, then finds a ribbon that looks like the one found on a doll belonging to the little girl who they had found scalped. They tie up Stapp and then wait for his friends to show up. When Matt spots six of them coming, he decides that the only way to take them is to ambush them and kills them all. Even though Chester admits that he doesn’t think it is right, Matt says he wants all six of them dead. While firing upon the men, four of them fall, but two of them, Jake (Joel Ashley) and Cran (K.L. Smith) beg to surrender. Matt shows mercy and decides to keep them alive to face trial, but the men claim that Matt will hang for ambushing them when they didn’t do anything. However, when Matt shows them the ribbon, they all yell at Stapp for being so stupid and keeping a souvenir. Matt tells Stapp that he wishes that he hadn’t been the one who showed up first, as he wishes he would have been one of the ones he shot. 8/9/24
• 051. Spring Term – 12/15/1956
  • A shot rings out one night in Dodge City and man named Dane Shaw (Ross Ford) falls in the street, having been shot in the back but an unseen assailant. Before he is taken for treatment to Doc, he tells Marshall Dillon that he heard the shooter mention “Stone” as the shot rang out. When Matt sees that Shaw had a hat similar to his and realizes that they are both the same size, Matt deduces that there might be a man named Danch in town looking for revenge on him, since he had always blamed Matt for the death of his friend Stone. Matt and Chester start looking all over town to see if anyone fitting Danch’s description of a big scar on his face has been around town. When Chester questions Mr. Uzzell at the Dodge House, a man named Bill Lee (Harry Townes) who was planning to check out suddenly changes his mind when he hears that Matt is still alive. Later than night, Lee follows Matt out of the Long Branch with a gun, but Matt spots him and is able to surprise and overpower him. He throws Lee in jail and accuses him of shooting Dane Shaw. Lee maintains his innocence and says that he wasn’t there to hurt anyone and had never heard of anyone named Danch. Matt holds him in jail anyway, even though Chester starts to believe that Lee might be innocent. Matt hopes that Danch will hear that they’ve captured Lee, who has been hired to kill him. When he goes to take Dane his hat, he is intercepted by Doc who tells Matt that Dane has died. Matt becomes even more furious, knowing that the innocent Dane Shaw died in his place. Matt releases Lee and tells him to take his gun and leave but warns him that he is going to kill to him. He tells him to take his gun into the street and tells him that if he doesn’t go outside, he will shoot him in the office. Lee finally breaks down in fear and tells Matt that he isn’t going to die for Danch, and blames him for getting into the mess, finally admitting that Danch hired him and that he is locating in Wagonbed Springs. Matt and Chester head to Wagonbed Springs and inquire the local bartender (Stanley Adams) about Danch’s whereabouts. He tells Matt that Danch was there but had left the day before for Texas. Matt doesn’t believe the bartender, so he steaks out the place until the bartender leaves and then follows him to Danch’s house. Matt then warns Danch (Paul Newlan) through the door that they are going to face each other, but he allows the bartender to leave. Danch says he’s coming out armed since he knows he will be hanged anyway and hopes to kill Matt first. Matt gets the upper hand when Danch exits and hits him with several round of bullets. The bartender says he’ll swear that Danch fired first. Matt tells the bartender that since he got paid by Danch, he can now bury him. Jack Kruschen is Jed. H.M. Wynant is Barker, who helps carry Dane to Doc’s. Clayton Post is the drunk citizen. 8/10/24
• 052. Poor Pearl – 12/22/1956
  • Chester and Doc are amused by a man named Willie Calhoun (Denver Pyle) who comes into town frequently from Spring Point to see a saloon gal named Pearl Bender (Constance Ford), with whom he is smitten. He starts his visit with a visit to the tonsorial parlor where he takes a bath and gets a shave from the barber Frank Teeters. He tells everyone how happy he is, but when he sees Webb Thorne (Michael Emmet) return to town from Abilene, suddenly he isn’t so happy. Webb had been dating Pearl when he was a dealer at the Long Branch but had left town for quite some time. Willie knows that Webb had threatened to kill anyone who tries to take Pearl away. This doesn’t stop Willie from asking Pearl to marry him, but she turns him down and says that Webb will kill him or her if she ever would agree to that. He tells her not to worry and that he would return to get her so they can be married. When Marshall Dillons spots Willie carrying his rifle in the street, he confiscates it and tells Chester to take him back to his office. He then arranges for Pearl and Webb to meet them there, and he lays it out on the line for her to decide who she wants, guaranteeing the men that there will be no repercussions from either of them. Pearl tells Willie once again that she can’t marry him, so Matt sends him home without his rifle and tells him to stay away from Dodge until he cools off. Webb follows Pearl back to her room, only to get smacked in the face by her. She tells him that she isn’t going to marry Willie but doesn’t want to see Webb either. He tells her that he had tries to get away from her, but realizes he loves her and wants to marry her immediately. She is finally happy with this, and the two get married. A month later, Chester returns Willie’s rifle to him, but Willie doesn’t offer up any small talk. That night, Willie returns to Dodge with his rifle and asks Sam the bartender where Webb lives. He then goes to his house and shoots Pearl through the window, and yells that this will show her. Before she dies, she is able to tell Matt that it was Willie who shot her and yelled through the window. Matt and Chester go to arrest Willie but are unable to find him, until he comes out of nowhere and holds his gun on Matt. He refuses to comply with Willie and calls him a woman-killer, but then realizes that this is news to Willie, who confesses that he went to kill Webb, not knowing that he had shot Pearl, nor the fact that they had even gotten married. Matt lets him sit by himself for a few minutes before taking him in. Jimmie McGough is Jimmie, the kid who delivers Pearl’s dress. John Hamilton is Big John, Frank’s other customer. 8/10/24
• 053. Cholera – 12/29/1956
  • On a hot afternoon, Chester spots the boy Billy McCready (Gordon Gebert) messing with the traces on a wagon on the street. When he and Marshal Dillon investigate, they see that the harnesses have been nearly cut through. The owners of the wagon, Jim (Bartlett Robinson) and Jenny Gabriel (Peg Hillias) show up and tells Matt that they have been constantly harassed by their neighbor McCready (Paul Fix), his son Billy, and their farmhand Bart (Stuart Whitman) who wants the water on his property for his cattle. When the Gabriels return home, they see that they have company and assume that it is Jenny’s sister and her family from Philadelphia, but when they enter their home, they find that McCready and his men have stacked up some of their belongings and were getting ready to burn it. After warning them to get off the land, McCready gets ready to light the fire when Marshal Dillon shows up and stops him, warning him that if he harassed the Gabriels again, he would lock them up. Later, Gabriel rushes into town to tell Doc that his son David (John Smith) is very sick and is showing the same symptoms that his cousin had shown after arriving from Philadelphia. She had died after her arrival, and now he’s afraid for David’s life. Doc tells them what to do to make sure that the illness doesn’t spread and tells him that he will be out there as soon as he helps set a broken leg for another man. That night, Gabriel returns to town to tell Marshal Dillon that Doc never showed up. Dillon and Chester ride out to their home where David is getting worse by the hour. McCready and Bart ride up, and Matt accuses them of kidnapping Doc to prevent him from helping David. Mrs. Gabriel has had that same thought and has taken it upon herself to give McCready’s son Billy a drink of water the night before when he came by after being on the prairie for a couple of days, and she used the same cup from which David had been drinking. McCready then recalls that Billy wasn’t feeling well that morning, so fearing for the boy’s life, he agrees to take Matt to Doc so that he can help his boy. Once they retrieve him, Doc spends the afternoon with David, but it is to no avail, as David dies. McCready falls into a panic for his boy, blaming both Doc and Jenny Gabriel for his illness. As Doc is finally getting ready to go see Billy, Bart rides up and tells them all that Billy has died too. Jenny feels guilty for killing him, and McCready continues to blame others, but Doc interrupts them both and says that they would have both died whether he got to them or not, as science has not yet discovered how to stop the cholera from killing. As McCready rides off, Chester asks Matt whether they should do something about him, but Matt replies that he has already been tried, judged, and sentenced.      8/10/24
• 054. Pucket’s New Year – 1/5/1957
  • While riding across the freezing cold prairie toward 30 miles of miserable travel back to Dodge City, Matt and Chester happen upon a wagon that appears to be abandoned. As they investigate, and old man named Ira Pucket (Edgar Stehli) appears inside the wagon and pulls a gun on Matt. After Matt identifies himself as a U.S. Marshal, Pucket confides in Matt that he is a buffalo hunter who was abandoned by his skinner Jed Larner (Grant Withers), who took his saddle horse and left him to die in the cold after he injured his foot. Matt offers to bring him back to Dodge to see Doc, but Pucket keeps talking about killing Larner. Matt warns him that he doesn’t want to drag him back there just to hang. After Doc treats him, he tells him that he had to remove most of his foot and that his buffalo hunting days are over. Instead of being grateful, he is more bitter than ever and vows to kill Larner again. Six weeks later, it is a new year and Pucket is able to walk with the use of a cane, but is still angry and vengeful toward Larner, no matter what Matt says or does. Matt finally does run into Larner when he comes into town, and he immediately tells him to leave Dodge, then warns him that if he doesn’t comply, he’ll tell everyone in town what he did to Ira Pucket. Larner agrees to leave, but Pucket sees him and is furious with Matt for not holding him. Matt tells him that he is talking like an animal and that he needs to move on and get himself a job in town. Pucket scampers off yelling at Matt, and later Matt and Chester see him entering Mr. Botkin’s (Richard Deacon) bank with his shotgun. Matt has Chester drive Pucket’s wagon away, so that when he comes out with a bagful of money, he has nowhere to go. Matt asks Chester to take Pucket to jail, and then he has a conversation with Mr. Botkin. He is able to talk Botkin out of pressing charges, and he convinces Pucket that many people have helped him and stuck their neck out for him. Pucket finally agrees that Matt is right. Matt agrees to release him if he promises to get a job. Matt sets him up to ride shotgun as the guard next to the stagecoach driver Jim (Rocky Shahan). Pucket tells Matt how excited he is, and how he hopes that they get held up. 8/12/24
• 055. The Cover Up – 1/12/1957
  • Miss Kitty stops by to visit with Matt in her new riding skirt, and they notice that Sara Baxton (Vivi Janiss) is in town, waiting on her husband in the Long Branch. They discuss how her husband Sam (Tyler McVey) treats her rough and has caused her to age prematurely. Meanwhile, Chester reports that Erik Hoffer (Roy Engel) is also in the Long Branch and intends to kill his neighbor Zack Ritter (Theodore Marcuse), whom he claims is letting his cattle eat his corn. Baxton reminds Hoffer that both he and Ritter are squatting on his property as it is and that his 3000 heads of cattle may just run right over him. After Baxton leaves, Zack Ritter enters the bar, and Hoffer attempts to shoot him. Matt stops him, but the bullet grazes his arm in the process. Matt has Chester lock him up, but Ritter decides to not press charges, as he knows that Hoffer has farming to do and believes that God will handle the judgement. The next day, Zack Ritter is shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Ritter’s neighbor, another squatter named Jed Bates (Malcolm Atturbury) reports that he found Ritter’s body. Matt assumes that Hoffer has killed him, but when he arrives at Hoffer’s home, he finds that he has also been shot. Before he dies, he tells Matt that the killer was Sam Baxton. He is also surprised when he finds out that Ritter has been killed. Matt and Chester go to see Baxton and are greeted by his wife Sara. Although she tries to claim that Sam was with her all day, Matt takes Baxton and locks him up. While he is in the jail, Jed Bates is spotted leaving town and reports to Matt that the fourth squatter on Baxton’s land, Jim Fowler, had just been shot and killed as well. Thinking that this exonerates Baxton, they had beck to the jail to set him free, but they find Sara Baxton waiting there. Matt tells her that she can’t let her husband out yet until they find some more evidence. Matt and Chester then take Baxton over to Bates’ abandoned place and set up a dummy to make it look like Bates is in the cabin. Baxton then spots someone outside with a shotgun, and he manages to grab a shotgun inside the cabin and shoot the person, which turns out to be his wife, Sara. He then tries to blame all of the murders on Sara, but Matt knows that the only person she killed was Fowler. He tells Baxton that he made a big mistake shooting her because she loved him so much that she would have confessed to all of the murders to save him. He says the only thing he hasn’t figured out was how she could have loved a man like him. 8/12/24
• 056. Sins of the Father – 1/19/1957
  • A man known as Big Dan Daggitt (Peter Whitney) comes to check in at the Dodge House with his wife, but when the manager Dobie (Gage Clarke) realizes that Daggitt’s wife Rose (Angie Dickinson) is an Arapahoe Indian, he immediately wants them to leave. Dobie tries to get Marshall Dillon to help throw them out of his hotel, but once Matt meets them, he tells Dobie that he has no good reason to throw them out and warns him not to try anything. Dobie becomes even more fired up when he finds out that Rose’s father was Chief Yellow Horse, who led a charge in the area and killed many men. Matt reiterates that she had nothing to do with the crimes of her father and should be left alone. An enraged Dobie then tries to fire up the men in town to run her out, but he doesn’t get much cooperation. However, two men (Ted Smile, Len Lesser) clearly find Rose to be attractive. Rose faces more racism when a townsman named Rodin (Paul Wexler) insists that he get service before she does at Wilbur Jonas’s General Merchandise Supplies store. However, when Rodin learns that Daggitt is her husband, he quickly backs off. The next morning, Daggitt visits Matt at his office to tell him that he went out for a walk early in the morning and came home to find that Rose was gone. He is worried, and everyone looks all over town to find her. Doc winds up returning with her in his coach, having found her with an injured foot out on the prairie. Rose tells them that two men blindfolded her and took her out of town, strapped her to a horse, and then beat on her before leaving her on her own. She says she never got a look at the men but would recognize them by the way they walk. Daggitt is furious and wants blood, but Matt warns him not to get in trouble for murder. Daggitt and Rose spend three days sitting outside listening for the sound of the men’s footsteps, but never hear them. That night when they go to their room, Rose hears the men outside in the hallway. She sends her husband to go see Doc and get her some headache medicine, and when the men see him leave, they come to her door. She tells them to come in, and then shoots them both with his shotgun. Matt and Daggitt both return to their room, and Matt sees that they had rope to tie her up, so he calls the entire incident self-defense. Dobie realizes that this was mostly his fault, as these two men were the two that he had talked to about running her out of town, who found her attractive. He apologizes to Rose, and she tells him that she doesn’t blame him. 8/13/24

SEASON 4

• 128. How to Kill a Friend – 11/22/1958
  • Two men named Ben Corder (Philip Abbott) and Harry Duggan (James Westerfield) come into town and get word to Marshall Dillon that they urgently want to see them. When he comes to their hotel room, they tell him that they are professional gamblers and wanted to let him know that he should expect some men to feel cheated after losing money to them. When they mention that the Marshall will be well-paid, he tells them that trying to bribe him is their first mistake and that if they make another one, they will be thrown out of town. That night, an unseen man with a rifle takes a shot at Dillon through the Marshall’s office window. Matt believes it is the gamblers, but after they later approach him and insinuate that if he played ball with them he would be much safer, he becomes sure it was them and tells them to leave Dodge. The men angrily leave, but later return with a tough gunman named Toque Morlan (Pat Conway), who threatens Matt and tells him to either let the men open their gambling operation at the Lady Gay, leave town, or be killed. Matt and Toque recognize each other, as they were former friends who were beaten by a mob in Silver City when they mistook them for horse thieves. Togque now has a vendetta against lawmen as he believes that the lawman in Silver City helped the mob. Matt tires to tell him more about the Sheriff, but Toque won’t listen. Later, Kitty invites Toque to the Long Branch and tells him that the Sheriff had actually tries to stop the mob and was subsequently killed by them. Matt approaches Toque and offers to match the gamblers’ $500 payment to him to call off the fight between them. Toque initially refuses, but when it comes time to stand off against the Marshall, Toque tells Corder and Duggan that he is not going to take their money or complete the job. As they are calling him a coward, two men named Jim (Gregg Palmer) and Pete (Charles Devin) exit a saloon, and a drunk Pete bumps into Toque. As they exchange words, it appears as if Pete is going for his gun and is shot and killed by Toque. Jim protests that Pete didn’t have a gun, so Marshall Dillon tells Toque he will have to put him in jail to stand trial. Pete says he will not go to jail and draws his gun on Dillon, but Dillon is faster and shoots him down. Before Toque dies, he tells the Marshall that he was going to come see him and tell him that the fight was off. Dillon tells him that he decided it a little too late, and Toque replies that he doesn’t even care anymore. Dillon tells Corder and Duggan to get out of Dodge. 3/30/24

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 24th, 2000 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.