Gunsmoke: Season 8
Season 8 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 7.
- 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 8 Progress Shield
The Search
Sep 15, 1962 · 45 min
A young man named Cale may have earned Marshal Dillon's respect, but Tate Gifford says Cale has just ridden off on a stolen horse - Tate's horse.
Call Me Dodie
Sep 22, 1962 · 45 min
An adolescent escapee from a cruel orphanage knows she has a lot to learn, and she starts learning it from the rough-and-tumble characters and loafers she encounters in Dodge.
Quint Asper Comes Home
Sep 29, 1962 · 45 min
A half-Comanche has joined his mother's tribe in killing whites to avenge the murder of his father, but Matt sees the good in the man and the chance to re-integrate him, perhaps, i
Root Down
Oct 6, 1962 · 45 min
Chester may find himself entrapped into marriage with a drifter's daughter who isn't particular about how she lands a husband.
Jenny
Oct 13, 1962 · 45 min
A bank robber hides out in Dodge, bringing along his girl. While he's gambling away his loot, his girl casts her eye on Matt.
Collie's Free
Oct 20, 1962 · 45 min
Released after eight bitter years in prison, Collie Patten has difficulty adjusting to the fact that things have inevitably changed with respect to his relationships with his wife,
The Ditch
Oct 27, 1962 · 45 min
A young woman who's heir to her father's land decides to carry out his plan to build a ditch that will impair her neighbors' access to water and perhaps trigger a range war.
The Trappers
Nov 3, 1962 · 45 min
A trapper leaves his friend dying alone in order to save his own life, only later to stumble across that friend in Dodge, very much alive and wanting him dead.
Phoebe Strunk
Nov 10, 1962 · 45 min
A band of ne'er-do-wells, led by their mother, see in town a young woman that pleases them and decide to take her by force.
The Hunger
Nov 17, 1962 · 45 min
Matt and Doc come to the rescue of a farm wife and daughter who essentially are kept as prisoners by the farmer and his son.
Abe Blocker
Nov 24, 1962 · 45 min
Civilization is moving in on the isolation of a rugged pioneer friend of Matt's, and he starts using lethal force against the settlers encroaching on the land he regards as his.
The Way It Is
Dec 1, 1962 · 45 min
While Matt is out of town, putting lawman's business ahead of Kitty yet again, a new man in her life has plenty of time and attention to give--perhaps too much attention.
Us Haggens
Dec 8, 1962 · 45 min
When a boy witnesses his grandfather's murder, it sends Matt looking for a new found companion's uncle. Festus Haggen is tracking his uncle for killing his twin brother Fergus. M
Uncle Sunday
Dec 15, 1962 · 45 min
Chester gets a letter from his uncle Sunday, a 'crook', on his upcoming trip to Dodge city. When he arrives with a niece, he finds he has to watch them both or what they have plann
False Front
Dec 22, 1962 · 45 min
A slick city reporter sets out to prove that even a milquetoast can pass for a feared gunfighter, if a few well-placed tidbits of rumor precede him.
Old Comrade
Dec 29, 1962 · 45 min
The "town fool" has a chance to change his life when he learns that a famous general, now on his deathbed, believes him to be his long-lost son.
Louie Pheeters
Jan 5, 1963 · 45 min
The town drunk who saw a man drowned, believes it was dream, until he meets up with the guy who did the drowning.
The Renegades
Jan 12, 1963 · 45 min
Quint says that white renegades, not Indians, are the cause of recent raids around Dodge. Working shotgun on the stage, he proves his point when he is attacked, then pursued by tho
Cotter's Girl
Jan 19, 1963 · 45 min
A father's dying request is that Matt go to retrieve his daughter. Expecting to find a little girl, Matt finds a near-grown woman, but one who's wild and desperately in need of civ
The Bad One
Jan 26, 1963 · 45 min
When a young pretty farm woman becomes attracted to and sees some good in a would-be robber, she refuses to identify him.
The Cousin
Feb 2, 1963 · 45 min
Chance Hopper is Matt's young foster brother, torn between loyalty to Matt and to his partners in crime, who are counting on Chance to divert Matt from their course and make good t
Shona
Feb 9, 1963 · 45 min
Gib Dawson brings his beautiful Indian wife, Shona, in to Dodge for treatment of a badly infected hand wound, at a time when racial tensions are running high against the Comanches.
Ash
Feb 16, 1963 · 45 min
The friendship between business partners is jeopardized when one of them sustains a head injury, changing his personality. The injured man threatens to kill West's character, the f
Blind Man's Bluff
Feb 23, 1963 · 45 min
Billy Poe is falsely accused of murder by a dying man, and flees to another town while Matt follows him, and encounters dangerous resistance from other men who hate lawmen.
Quint's Indian
Mar 1, 1963 · 45 min
Two ne'er-do-wells come to town and soon cook up a plot under which half-Comanche blacksmith Quint Asper is framed for the theft of a horse. The atmosphere in Dodge quickly becomes
Anybody Can Kill a Marshal
Mar 8, 1963 · 45 min
Two men want to rob the bank in Dodge, but are unwilling to try it while Matt lives. A man agrees to accept the job of killing the marshal, attaching some rather peculiar condition
Two of a Kind
Mar 16, 1963 · 45 min
O'Ryan and Finnegan, feuding over a girl they both knew back home, are caught in a legal loophole to take ownership of a mine and land they both own. When Matt is forced in the mid
I Call Him Wonder
Mar 23, 1963 · 45 min
An orphaned Indian boy latches on to a cowboy in need of work and the two of them find all doors closed to them in Dodge.
With a Smile
Mar 30, 1963 · 45 min
A rancher's spoiled son believes even after he is convicted of murder that his father's wealth and influence will save him from the hangman.
The Far Places
Apr 6, 1963 · 45 min
A rancher's widow regrets having spent her life away from the bright lights of a city, and is desperate that her son not share her fate.
Panacea Sykes
Apr 13, 1963 · 45 min
Kitty welcomes her mentor from New Orleans, but the colorful old lady takes liberties with the truth and with Kitty's possessions.
Tell Chester
Apr 20, 1963 · 45 min
Chester is smitten with Polly, but she has eyes only for Wade, a man new in town and newly her father's employee. Knowing little about Wade, Polly agrees quickly to marry him, but
Quint-Cident
Apr 27, 1963 · 45 min
A woman newly widowed is powerfully attracted to Quint, but when he gently turns her down, she vows to make him pay for scorning a white woman.
Old York
May 4, 1963 · 45 min
Pardoned for his Civil War service, an old outlaw finds his way to Dodge, where there's a lawman who's in his debt.
Daddy Went Away
May 11, 1963 · 45 min
Chester is sweet on a widow dressmaker. When the widow is not only intent on marriage but eager to make changes in Chester as well, he has second thoughts--especially after a talk
The Odyssey of Jubal Tanner
May 18, 1963 · 45 min
Aaron, sweet on saloon girl Leah and wanting to make her his wife, is attacked and killed by Colie Fletcher. When Matt goes after him, Colie runs into Jubal Tanner, wounds him, and
Jeb
May 25, 1963 · 45 min
A prized Appaloosa, grazing alone and apparently without owner on the prairie, proves to be the ruin of more than one man.
The Quest for Asa Janin
Jun 1, 1963 · 45 min
A young man is convicted of killing the saloon girl he wanted for his own. Matt is so sure that the young man is really innocent that he goes on the road after another suspect to p