Gunsmoke: Season 12
Season 12 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Gunsmoke Season 11.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 12 Progress Shield
Snap Decision
Sep 17, 1966 · 45 min
Disturbed over being forced to kill a prisoner who was trying to save his life, Matt Dillion turns in his badge.
The Goldtakers
Sep 24, 1966 · 45 min
A gang of thieves commandeers the Dodge City blacksmith shop to divide a gigantic bar of gold.
The Jailer
Oct 1, 1966 · 45 min
Six years after her husband's hanging, Ma Stone plots her revenge against Matt Dillon by first kidnapping Kitty to use as a lure and then jailing Matt to be hanged on the morning o
The Mission
Oct 8, 1966 · 45 min
Marshal Dillon is helped by an apparently friendly young runaway who later faces him as a deadly adversary.
The Good People
Oct 15, 1966 · 45 min
A respectable rancher and his son hang an innocent man and allow a bewhiskered bounty hunter to go on trial for the murder.
Gunfighter, R.I.P.
Oct 22, 1966 · 45 min
A gunfighter (McGavin) hired to murder Matt Dillion gets wounded while trying to save the life of an elderly Chinese man.
The Wrong Man
Oct 29, 1966 · 45 min
Hootie Kyle is a poor but honest farmer whose credit has run out. Matt Dillon and Festus lend him some money, then he gets swindled out of it in a poker game. Later Hootie gets cir
The Whispering Tree
Nov 12, 1966 · 45 min
After eight years in a prison for robbery a farmer returns home and hopes to find the stolen fortune he had buried under a tree.
The Well
Nov 19, 1966 · 45 min
All of Dodge City is suffering from a drought. A rainmaker (Guy Raymond) tries to put an end to it before the town's public well, their last source of water, runs dry.
Stage Stop
Nov 26, 1966 · 45 min
Doc Adams takes up arms to defend a gold shipment from bandits, first during a stagecoach ambush and then at a weigh station. He is aided by a blind man and a wounded man in the
The Newcomers
Dec 3, 1966 · 45 min
Lars Karlgren, a Scandinavian immigrant and his teenage son Petter, find the West even wilder than they had imagined when they settle in Dodge City. Petter gets framed for a murder
Quaker Girl
Dec 10, 1966 · 45 min
The identity of a criminal is confused with that of deputy marshal Thad, when a Quaker party rescues the pair from a do-or-die fight.
The Moonstone
Dec 17, 1966 · 45 min
A young farmer's former partner-in-crime, girlfriend and slow-witted brother figure in the discovery of his forgotten past.
Champion of the World
Dec 24, 1966 · 45 min
Bull Bannock (Alan Hale), retired heavyweight champion of the world, attempts to make a home for himself in Dodge City, and tries to buy Miss Kitty's Longbranch Saloon.
The Hanging
Dec 31, 1966 · 45 min
To Marshal Matt Dillon and his deputies falls their grimmest task in many years-- the hanging of a ruthless gunman.
Saturday Night
Jan 7, 1967 · 45 min
A vengeful prisoner poses a continual threat to the life of Marshal Matt Dillon.
Mad Dog
Jan 14, 1967 · 45 min
Festus Haggen is mistaken for a hired gunman and offered $300 to fight, and run out of town, the 3 sons of a man his cousin is accused of killing.
Muley
Jan 21, 1967 · 45 min
A young gunman (Zalman King) falls for one of Kitty's saloon girls (Lane Bradbury) while waiting to kill Marshal Matt Dillon and rob the bank.
Mail Drop
Jan 28, 1967 · 45 min
A boy (Eddie Hodges) comes to Dodge City in search of his father only to learn that he is a wanted criminal.
Old Friend
Feb 4, 1967 · 45 min
An embittered lawman (Fritz Weaver) seeks revenge against the men who destroyed his town and took away his wife.
Fandango
Feb 11, 1967 · 45 min
Matt Dillon tries to bring a man to justice in spite of an onslaught of an crazed vengeful lawman wishing to exact his own revenge.
The Returning
Feb 18, 1967 · 45 min
After eight years as a down-on-his-luck farmer, husband & father, and reformed outlaw (Michael Ansara) tries to make ends meet by rejoinning his old gang to rob the Dodge City frei
The Lure
Feb 25, 1967 · 45 min
Private detectives use Kitty and the daughter (Kim Darby) of an outlaw to trap the girl's fugitive father (Stephen McNally).
Noose of Gold
Mar 4, 1967 · 45 min
Deputy District Attorney Shephard will do anything to further his career, including having outlaw John Farron killed, instead of being able to give himself up.
The Favor
Mar 11, 1967 · 45 min
Kitty's conscience is torn between her sense of obligation to a man (James Daly) who saved her life and her concern for the law and Marshal Matt Dillon.
Mistaken Identity
Mar 18, 1967 · 45 min
Outlaw Ed Carstairs trades identities with a man dying of a snakebite wound, then is suprised when the man is brought into Dodge and seems to be recovering.
Ladies from St. Louis
Mar 25, 1967 · 45 min
A group of Nuns traveling out West nurse the wounds of outlaw Worth Sweeney, who was injured while defending them from his partners.
Nitro! (1)
Apr 8, 1967 · 45 min
Part 1: Down on his luck drifter is offered a dangerous, but profitable job of mixing nitroglycerine for outlaws who are using it to rob banks. George also falls in love with a sa
Nitro! (2)
Apr 15, 1967 · 45 min
Part 2: George wants to quit making the nitro, feeling that his luck is running out, but his outlaw partners won't let him.