The WORST episodes of Gunsmoke
Every episode of Gunsmoke ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Gunsmoke!
Marshal Matt Dillon keeps the peace in the rough and tumble Dodge City.
#1 - Kitty's Love Affair
Season 19 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/22/1973
Kitty and Matt are off for St. Louis, until Matt is summoned back on business. Upset with him, Kitty sets off for herself meeting a gunslinger on the stage who ends up saving her life. He goes back to Dodge with her and proceeds to court her. Kitty has a hard decision. Leave Matt after 18 years of a relationship or stay with Stambridge.
#2 - The Gun
Season 16 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/9/1970
After a young man kills a gunfighter he becomes the victim of publicity.
#3 - The Hiders
Season 20 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/13/1975
When a young teenager from a group of squatters decides he can do better than stealing, he changes his ways. But the leader of the squatters will try to manipulate the young man with the people that has treated him the best.
#4 - O'Quillian
Season 14 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/28/1968
Leary O'Quillan kills a card cheat in self defense and is pursued to Dodge by the man's brother, Clay Tynan.
#5 - Jubilee
Season 18 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/18/1972
A man neglects his family in favor of raising his prize possession: a race horse
#6 - Tara
Season 17 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/17/1972
Newly falls in love with a woman who could put him in danger, once her past is known.
#7 - The Wreckers
Season 13 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/11/1967
With a well earned vacation disturbed by the arrest of a hardened criminal, Matt and Kitty head back to Dodge. The stage they are on is sabotaged and end up wrecking. Kitty is quick witted enough to switch identities between Matt and the prisoner before the outlaws get to them. Thinking Dillon is dying and Matt is really Monk Wiley, they go on planning to extort money from Dodge to get Dillon back alive.
#8 - The Goldtakers
Season 12 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1966
A group of outlaws murder soldiers of a gold transport, put on their uniforms, then commandeer the blacksmith's shop in Dodge to extract the gold from its alloy.
#9 - Mail Drop
Season 12 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/28/1967
A young boy comes to Dodge looking for his father. What he finds is that his father is a wanted outlaw on the run.
#10 - Nitro! (1) (Tiger by the Tail)
Season 12 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/8/1967
A gang hires a jobless man to extract nitroglycerin from dynamite, so they can much more effectively blow open safes.
#11 - The Deserter
Season 5 - Episode 38 - Aired 6/4/1960
Matt is on the trail of a badly wounded corporal for robbing the army payroll and falls into a trap when the father of the corporal gets the drop on him and wounds Chester.
#12 - Honor Before Justice
Season 11 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/5/1966
The Osage Council has found Two Bears guilty of murder. His daughter rides into Dodge seeking Matt's help but he's out of town chasing horse thieves so Thad tries to help. He finds out that he and Matt are really riding the same trail.
#13 - Island in the Desert (1)
Season 20 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/2/1974
Festus, in the desert hunting escaped killer Gard Dixon is wounded by the outlaw. He is found by Ben Snow, a half-crazy hermit who has been living in the desert with his gold for many years.
#14 - Bad Seed
Season 6 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/4/1961
Matt rescues teen-aged Trudy Trent from a life of isolated poverty with her incestuous and alcoholic father, but he subsequently learns that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" when he rejects her misguided romantic overtures toward him.
#15 - Old Faces
Season 6 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/18/1961
Hot-headed Tom's new wife used to be a river-boat girl, and when a gunman from her old life recognizes her, a battle between the two men is brewing.
#16 - My Father, My Son
Season 11 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/23/1966
Fast gunman Jim Barrett kills a man in self defense. Now the man's father and brothers are gunning for him, in addition to a young man who wants Barrett dead for a different reason.
#17 - A Noose for Dobie Price
Season 13 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/4/1968
Matt and former outlaw Elihu Gorman go after Dobie Price who has just broken jail.
#18 - The Bobsy Twins
Season 5 - Episode 36 - Aired 5/21/1960
Two brothers have decided that it is their mission to rid the West of Indians.
#19 - Nitro! (2) (Tiger by the Tail)
Season 12 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/15/1967
The man extracting nitroglycerin from dynamite for the gang, begins to lose his nerve in the extremely dangerous process.
#20 - Prime of Life
Season 11 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/7/1966
Kyle Stoner is fast with a gun and likes to prove it. When he mixes with the wrong crowd and goes up against Matt, his father gets involved and he is a friend as well as an ex-lawman.
#21 - The Boys
Season 7 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/26/1962
The market for snake oil is on the decline, so a peddler and his sons expand their con game with murder.
#22 - Outlaw's Woman
Season 11 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/11/1965
After a risky train robbery and with two posses on their trail, four men hurriedly ride to some fresh horses. Dillon wounds one of the gang carrying the stolen money and it turns out to be a young woman.
#23 - Women for Sale (1)
Season 19 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/1973
Matt becomes involved in investigating the disappearance of female settlers and travelers in the region. He links it to a band of renegade Native Americans, who plan to sell the women as sex slaves to a band of ruthless white mercenaries.
#24 - Bad Sheriff
Season 6 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/7/1961
A man shoots his partner, flees, and is caught by two men claiming to be lawmen.
#25 - Brother Love
Season 6 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/31/1960
In a family that believes in taking care of its own--including administering punishment within the family for crime--one of two grown brothers appears to have committed murder, but which one?