Gunsmoke - The First Season (1955)
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A TV series doesn't get a more auspicious launch than did Gunsmoke, the first episode of which, broadcast on Sept. 10, 1955, was introduced by none other than John Wayne ("Some of you may have seen me before"). In this historic prologue (included in this first-season round-up), Wayne hypes Gunsmoke as "honest, adult, and realistic." Of James Arness, starring as United States Marshal Matt Dillon, Wayne predicts, "He'll be a big star, so you might as well get used to him." Viewers did more than get used to him. "Mr. Dillon," as his sidekick Chester (Dennis Weaver) calls him, became a television icon who literally stood tall as a steadfast, incorruptible symbol of justice through two of America's most tumultuous decades. The Bravo network ranked him among TV's 50 greatest characters. Gunsmoke was television's longest running Western, and Arness's 20-year stint as Dillon would be matched only by Kelsey Grammer's Frasier Crane (and, by the way, Milburn Stone, who costarred with Arness as crusty, "vinegar face" Doc Adams).

For those who grew up with Gunsmoke's full-hour color episodes, this first season will be something of a revelation. The show is in black and white, and, at a half-hour, lean and gritty. Not that Dodge City is Deadwood, by any means, but its reputation as "the Gomorrah of the plains," as Dillon notes in the first episode, is well earned. Most episodes begin with Dillon setting the stage, Dragnet-style, like a frontier Joe Friday. "A man will choose his gun quicker to make a point than he'll draw on his logic," he ruminates at one point. "That's where I come in." Gunsmoke has its share of shootouts and traditional Western action, but the best episodes are gripping psychological dramas. In "Reward for Matt," the embittered widow of a racist Dillon was forced to gun down puts a price on his head. In "The Killer," Dillon exposes a gunslinger (guest star Charles Bronson) for the coward he is. Even an otherwise light-hearted holiday episode, "Magnus," in which Chester's backwards, backwoods brother comes to visit, is darkened by a twisted man gunning for "wicked" dance hall woman Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake), queen of the Longbranch saloon (and a close friend of the marshal—just how close is only hinted at). John Wayne was right: More than 50 years later, Gunsmoke remains "the best thing of its kind to come along." --Donald Liebenson

Season 1 (1955-56)

39 episodes

#	Airdate	Prod. Code	Title	Overview
1	September 10, 1955	502	Matt Gets It	Marshal Dillon takes action against a notorious outlaw on a rampage. Note: This episode was introduced by John Wayne.
2	September 17, 1955	503	Hot Spell	Marshal Dillon must defend an indecent ex-con against the decent people of Dodge City.
3	October 1, 1955	505	Word of Honor	Doc is kidnapped and reluctantly gives his word to never reveal his captor’s identities.
4	October 8, 1955	505	Home Surgery	Marshal Dillon amputates an old man’s limb.
5	October 15, 1955	507	Obie Tater	A prospector named Obie Tater meets a gold-digger looking for a husband.
6	October 29, 1955	511	Night Visitor	A young boy is accused of crying wolf after allegedly witnessing a series of strange murders.
7	November 5, 1955	506	Smoking Out the Nolans	Marshal Dillon evicts a landlord’s tenants.
8	November 12, 1955	508	Kite’s Reward	A former outlaw realizes that there he still has a bounty on his head.
9	November 26, 1955	510	The Hunter	Buffalo hunter Jase Murdock is pursued into Indian territory by Marshall Dillon.
10	December 3, 1955	513	The Queue	A Chinese man vows revenge after being bullied.
11	December 10, 1955	517	General Parcley Smith	Dodge’s controversial new banker hires a brutal army veteran to guard the money.
12	December 24, 1955	512	Magnus	Chester’s uncouth brother arrives in Dodge for Christmas.
13	December 31, 1955	520	Reed Survives	A wife plans the death of her farmer husband.
14	January 7, 1956	515	Professor Lute Bones	Doc is angered by a traveling medicine man selling a popular, but ineffective tonic.
15	January 21, 1956	519	No Handcuffs	A deceitful lawman takes a prisoner from the Dodge city jailhouse without Marshal Dillon’s knowledge.
16	January 28, 1956	516	Reward for Matt	A widow places a $1,000 reward on the head of Marshall Dillon after he kills her husband during an attempted arrest.
17	February 4, 1956	518	Robin Hood	Marshall Dillon goes after a criminal who regularly escapes justice by bribing townsfolk.
18	February 18, 1956	514	Yorky	Matt helps a young boy who was victimized by horse thieves.
19	February 25, 1956	522	20-20	A farmer threatens to avenge his brother’s death, targeting the man who inspired Dillon to become a marshal.
20	March 3, 1956	526	Reunion ‘78	A man bails out a criminal who has been jailed for threatening to kill him.
21	March 17, 1956	509	Helping Hand	Miss Kitty tries to help a suspected cattle rustler who tries to involve the marshal in a street fight.
22	March 24, 1956	521	Tap Day for Kitty	A rancher comes to town with the intention of marrying Miss Kitty.
23	March 31, 1956	524	Indian Scout	Matt and Chester track down a scout named Amos Cartwright who allegedly led twenty-three soldiers to their deaths at the hands of the Comanches at Cold Creek.
24	April 14, 1956	525	The Pest Hole	Marshal Dillon and Doc investigate a typhoid outbreak and quarantine the townspeople in the jail.
25	April 28, 1956	523	The Big Broad	A female visitor to Dodge shoots a man who tries to kiss her.
26	May 12, 1956	501	Hack Prine	A friend of Marshal Dillon’s arrives in Dodge as a gunman hired to kill him.
27	May 19, 1956	527	Cooter	A naïve youth named Cooter is enticed into a gunfight with the marshal.
28	May 26, 1956	528	The Killer	A spineless gunman provokes bloodshed in Dodge. Note: Guest starring Charles Bronson
29	June 9, 1956	530	Doc’s Revenge	Although he is reluctant to say why, Doc is bent on revenge against a visitor to Dodge.
30	June 16, 1956	529	The Preacher	A boxer bullies a visitor to Dodge.
31	June 30, 1956	531	How to Die for Nothing	Marshal Dillon kills a drunk man after he draws his gun. The brother vows revenge.
32	June 23, 1956	534	Dutch George	A man who Marshal Dillon looked up to as a child is the leader of a gang of horse thieves.
33	July 7, 1956	534	Prairie Happy	An old man stirs up trouble in Dodge by spreading rumors of an Indian invasion.
34	July 14, 1956	535	Chester’s Mail Order Bride	A young woman who knows Chester through correspondence comes to meet him.
35	July 21, 1956	533	The Guitar	A visiting musician/Yankee-veteran visits Dodge and is bullied by Texans. The townspeople help.
36	July 18, 1956	536	Cara	Marshal Dillon’s old girlfriend visits Dodge to rob the bank.
37	August 4, 1956	537	Mr. and Mrs. Amber	A struggling farmer is harassed about crime by a religious zealot.
38	August 18, 1956	538	Unknown Grave	An old woman helps an outlaw who reminds her of her dead son.
39	August 25, 1956	539	Alarm at Pleasant Valley	Marshal Dillon and Chester discover a family fleeing from Indians.