Gunsmoke: Season 20
Season 20 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 19.
- 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 20 Progress Shield
Matt Dillon Must Die
Sep 9, 1974 · 45 min
A mountain family in an attempt to avenge the death of one of their own capture Matt.
Town in Chains
Sep 16, 1974 · 45 min
A group of bandits attempt to rob a town while masquerading as soldiers.
The Guns of Cibola Blanca (1)
Sep 23, 1974 · 45 min
Doc and fellow stage passenger, Lyla are captured by renegade comancheros.
The Guns of Cibola Blanca (2)
Sep 30, 1974 · 45 min
Matt, Festus and Newly attempt to rescue Doc and Lyla from Shindrow's camp.
Thirty a Month and Found
Oct 7, 1974 · 45 min
Matt houses a drunk Will & Friends in the jail they go looking for $300 that they think Bill took. Matt thinks it was a misunderstanding. Will doesn't want to tell Matt that they s
The Wiving
Oct 14, 1974 · 45 min
Jed Hockett(Harry Morgan), a farmer, orders his three boys to go to town and return with prospective brides.
The Iron Men
Oct 21, 1974 · 45 min
Matt and former lawman now turned alcoholic, Chauncey Demon go up against land baron Carl Ryker.
The Fourth Victim
Nov 4, 1974 · 45 min
A series of seemingly random killings have the citizens of Dodge City in near panic, but Dillon believes they are part of a pattern in which Doc is slated to be the next target.
The Tarnished Badge
Nov 11, 1974 · 45 min
Matt's friend, Sheriff Harker runs his town ruthlessly, punishing anyone disobeying him.
In Performance of Duty
Nov 18, 1974 · 45 min
Matt is frustrated by Judge Kendall's insistence that the letter of the law be maintained, which could result in Emmett Kaysinger and his boys, all known outlaws, be set free unles
Island in the Desert (1)
Dec 2, 1974 · 45 min
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
Island in the Desert (2)
Dec 9, 1974 · 45 min
While Matt and Newly hunt for Festus, Ben Snow and Festus attempt to haul his gold out of the desert.
The Colonel
Dec 16, 1974 · 45 min
Lee J. Cobb and his daughter Julie Cobb appear together for the first time when Cobb guest-stars as a once-proud military officer who is suddenly faced with a painful and unplanned
The Squaw
Jan 6, 1975 · 45 min
Fleeing from both Matt Dillon and his double-crossed partners, outlaw Gristy Calhoun discovers that his survival in the badlands depends on an Indian woman.
The Hiders
Jan 13, 1975 · 45 min
A farmer comes by and asks Sharp where is cow is, Matt tells the milk cow owner that he has no proof to arrest ""the hiders."" The farmer wants to go after them himself. Matt tells
Larkin
Jan 20, 1975 · 45 min
Newly finds himself in a strange alliance with a professional killer as he tries to return to Dodge City with his prisoner (Jaeckel) before they are both killed by a trio of bounty
The Fires of Ignorance
Jan 27, 1975 · 45 min
Henry Decory is a schoolteacher who makes a strong statement for compulsory education for frontier children as a stubborn father feels that books and education are a waste of time
The Angry Land
Feb 3, 1975 · 45 min
Matt takes a young orphan Bessie Sutherland after her parents were killed on the prairie, to live with her Aunt Rachel. Rachel tells Matt that because of the devastating experience
Brides and Grooms
Feb 10, 1975 · 45 min
Farmer Jed Hackett (Harry Morgan) decides it's time for his three sons marry the women they brought back from Dodge City.
Hard Labor
Feb 24, 1975 · 45 min
Matt Dillon is sentenced to life imprisonment of hard labor for shooting a fugitive in the town of Bedrock.
I Have Promises to Keep
Mar 3, 1975 · 45 min
Festus is caught in the middle when an Eastern preacher (David Wayne) wants to build a church for the Indians and the townspeople to share, but by all of whom that are filled with
The Busters
Mar 10, 1975 · 45 min
Two bronco busters try to raise money for a ranch in Montana, only to have the dream ruined when one of them gets a death threatening head injury when thrown off by a wild stallion
Manolo
Mar 17, 1975 · 45 min
Manolo (Robert Urich)is a Basque youth who is not recognized as a man in the eyes of his people because he refuses to fight his father Alejo (Nehemiah Persoff), a traditional Basqu
The Sharecroppers
Mar 31, 1975 · 45 min
A comedy of errors puts Festus behind a plow, farming for a family of shiftless sharecroppers.