Gunsmoke: Season 3
Season 3 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 2.
- 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 3 Progress Shield
Crack-Up
Sep 14, 1957 · 26 min
Matt learns there is a hired killer in Dodge City, the hired killer gives Matt a challenge to find out who paid Nate Springer to kill Matt.
Gun for Chester
Sep 21, 1957 · 26 min
Chester believes Asa Ledbetter is out to kill him. After Chester is shot, he tells Matt Asa Ledbetter shot him. Matt worries that Chester may be working too hard on finding Asa Led
Blood Money
Sep 28, 1957 · 26 min
After Harry Spencer's life is saved Matt receives a wanted poster for Joe Sharpe who robbed a bank. Matt learns that Joe and Shape left Dodge so Sharpe could try and get the reward
Kitty's Outlaw
Oct 5, 1957 · 26 min
Doc, Chester, and Matt suspect Kitty of helping a bank robber when she invites Matt to an out of the way spot for dinner. What they didn't know was that the bank robber was the fi
Potato Road
Oct 12, 1957 · 26 min
Budge wants the Marshall to arrest his Pa for murder but when they get to Budge's house they get captured by Bud & his Ma so they can rob the bank.
Mavis McCloud
Oct 26, 1957 · 26 min
Mavis McCloud comes to Dodge to get married. She marries Barny but Lou Staley comes looking for Mavis and wants to kill Barney and the Marshall.
Born to Hang
Nov 2, 1957 · 26 min
Joe Digger wants to kill the two men who tried to lynch him.
Romeo
Nov 9, 1957 · 26 min
A powerful landowner threatens to wipe out Dodge when his daughter falls in love with the son of his archenemy. Matt has to find a way to stop it.
Never Pester Chester
Nov 16, 1957 · 26 min
When Matt sends Chester out to handle a rowdy couple of cow pokers, Chester ends up nearly dead. Matt is so guilt ridden he vows to find the men who did it and make them pay.
Fingered
Nov 23, 1957 · 26 min
The people of Dodge gets suspicious of Jim Cobbett (John Larch) when his second wife (Virginia Christine) vanishes just like his first (Karl Swenson appears).
How to Kill a Woman
Nov 30, 1957 · 26 min
Pernell Roberts appears in this episode, as Matt tries to find a killer who robbed the stagecoach.
Cows and Cribs
Dec 7, 1957 · 26 min
The whole town is caught up in a mystery: where does Joe Nadler get all his money---and where does he go to spend it?
Doc's Reward
Dec 14, 1957 · 26 min
Doc kills a man who shoots his horse. The man's brother comes looking for Doc because he thinks Doc killed his brother for reward money.
Kitty Lost
Dec 21, 1957 · 26 min
An eastern dude asks Kitty if she'd like to take a midnight drive, but when she doesn't return the next day, Matt goes looking.
Twelfth Night
Dec 28, 1957 · 26 min
A hillbilly arrives in Dodge looking to continue a feud started back in the hills of Virginia.
Joe Phy
Jan 4, 1958 · 26 min
Matt goes to Elkader after the man who shot him and runs into Joe Phy "US Marshall".
Buffalo Man
Jan 11, 1958 · 26 min
Matt & Chester are taken prisoner by two buffalo hunters who are hunting buffalo in Indian territory. The hunters leave them tied to a wagon in hopes that the Indians will kill the
Kitty Caught
Jan 18, 1958 · 26 min
The Gunner brothers rob the bank in Dodge and take Kitty hostage.
Claustrophobia
Jan 25, 1958 · 26 min
Ollie Ridgers is a free spirited man who hates towns and lives free on the prairie. His friend Jim Branch convinces Ollie to go into Dodge for a good time at Miss Kitty's saloon.
Ma Tennis
Feb 1, 1958 · 26 min
Andy Tennis kills a gambler. Matt arrests him but Andy's mother breaks him out of jail.
Sunday Supplement
Feb 8, 1958 · 26 min
Clifton Bunker and Samuel Spring, writers from New York, come to Dodge looking for a story. Finding none they stir up trouble to get a story.
Wild West
Feb 15, 1958 · 26 min
Hattie throws in with two men to kill her husband and then sell his ranch for the money. Yorky Kelley sees the men ride off with his father and trails them till his horse breaks a
The Cabin
Feb 22, 1958 · 26 min
Matt get caught in a blizzard then finds shelter in a cabin but finds more than he bargained for.
Dirt
Mar 1, 1958 · 26 min
Nat Seiber and Polly Troyman are to be married. When Polly's younger Brother finds out that Nat had visited another woman (Beulah)late one evening at her house, Polly's Brother (
Dooley Surrenders
Mar 8, 1958 · 26 min
Hide skinner Emmett Dooley thinks he killed a man while drunk and turns himself in.
Joke's on Us
Mar 15, 1958 · 26 min
Jake Kaiser and some other ranchers hung Frank Tillman thinking he was a horse thief but they were wrong. Tillman's wife and son won't tell the Marshall who did it.
Bottleman
Mar 22, 1958 · 26 min
Tom Cassidy (a drunk) tries to kill Dan Clell (a new gambler) in town.
Laughing Gas
Mar 29, 1958 · 26 min
Ernie Stubblefield trying to put his past behind him changes his name to Earl Stafford and is traveling with a laughing gas show. Cloud Marsh tries the gas and gets laughed at by t
Texas Cowboys
Apr 5, 1958 · 26 min
The friends of a murdered Texan decide to take the law into their own hands.
Amy's Good Deed
Apr 12, 1958 · 26 min
Amy Slatter comes to Dodge to try and get Matt to kill her because in the Dakota territory Matt had to kill her brother.
Hanging Man
Apr 19, 1958 · 26 min
Someone keeps hanging people in Dodge and making it look like suicide.
Innocent Broad
Apr 26, 1958 · 26 min
A woman's boyfriend causes trouble for Matt with his constant fits of jealousy.
The Big Con
May 3, 1958 · 26 min
Mr. Shaneway wants Mr. Pap at the bank to loan him $20,000 for a poker bet. When the con begins to unfold, Doc gets kidnapped.
Widow's Mite
May 10, 1958 · 26 min
Gambler Leach Fields marries Zach Morton's widow Ada thinking she knows where the money Zach stole is.
Chester's Hanging
May 17, 1958 · 26 min
Matt arrests James Cando. Cando tells Lee Binders to break him out. In the attempt to get him out Cando tries to hang Chester.
Carmen
May 24, 1958 · 26 min
A secret Army payroll is stolen and two soldiers killed. The Major threatens Matt with martial law if the thieves aren't caught. Matt suspects Jenny Lane, a new girl at the Long Br
Overland Express
May 31, 1958 · 26 min
Matt and Chester track Nation for a killing in Dodge. Nation kills their horses then gives himself up. They wind up having to take a stage back to Dodge. Nation recognizes a man on
The Gentleman
Jun 7, 1958 · 26 min
Marcus France, a "Gentleman Gambler" comes to Dodge and falls in love with Bonnie Damon. Tiller Evans thinks Bonnie is his girl. Matt has to keep Tiller from killing France.