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The Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 8

Every episode of Gunsmoke Season 8 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Gunsmoke Season 8!

Binge this in 18h 45m•Peaking at 8.7/10

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 1 - The Search
    7.8/10(266 votes)

    #1 - The Search

    S8:E1

    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.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  2. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 2 - Call Me Dodie
    8.2/10(292 votes)

    #2 - Call Me Dodie

    S8:E2

    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.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  3. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 3 - Quint Asper Comes Home
    8.5/10(311 votes)

    #3 - Quint Asper Comes Home

    S8:E3

    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, into white society.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:John Meston

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  4. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 4 - Root Down
    6.9/10(251 votes)

    #4 - Root Down

    S8:E4

    Chester may find himself entrapped into marriage with a drifter's daughter who isn't particular about how she lands a husband.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  5. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 5 - Jenny
    7.7/10(248 votes)

    #5 - Jenny

    S8:E5

    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.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:John Meston

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  6. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 6 - Collie's Free
    7.7/10(245 votes)

    #6 - Collie's Free

    S8:E6

    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, his son, and the citizens of Dodge.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  7. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 7 - The Ditch
    7.7/10(236 votes)

    #7 - The Ditch

    S8:E7

    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.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 8 - The Trappers
    8.3/10(244 votes)

    #8 - The Trappers

    S8:E8

    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.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 9 - Phoebe Strunk
    7.6/10(288 votes)

    #9 - Phoebe Strunk

    S8:E9

    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.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:John Meston

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  10. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 10 - The Hunger
    8.7/10(306 votes)

    #10 - The Hunger

    S8:E10

    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.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 11 - Abe Blocker
    8.0/10(278 votes)

    #11 - Abe Blocker

    S8:E11

    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.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:John Meston

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  12. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 12 - The Way It Is
    8.2/10(275 votes)

    #12 - The Way It Is

    S8:E12

    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.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  13. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 13 - Us Haggens
    8.6/10(334 votes)

    #13 - Us Haggens

    S8:E13

    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. Matt is wary but learns to trust Festus when he's shot and in bad shape.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 14 - Uncle Sunday
    7.7/10(236 votes)

    #14 - Uncle Sunday

    S8:E14

    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 planned just might work, at his expense.

    Director:Joseph Sargent
    Writer:John Meston

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  15. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 15 - False Front
    7.9/10(222 votes)

    #15 - False Front

    S8:E15

    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.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:John Meston

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  16. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 16 - Old Comrade
    7.0/10(228 votes)

    #16 - Old Comrade

    S8:E16

    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.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 17 - Louie Pheeters
    8.0/10(233 votes)

    #17 - Louie Pheeters

    S8:E17

    The town drunk who saw a man drowned, believes it was dream, until he meets up with the guy who did the drowning.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:John Meston

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  18. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 18 - The Renegades
    8.7/10(269 votes)

    #18 - The Renegades

    S8:E18

    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 those renegades. His "Indian" skills save him and a colonel's daughter who has contempt for half-Comanche Quint.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:John Meston

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  19. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 19 - Cotter's Girl
    8.7/10(356 votes)

    #19 - Cotter's Girl

    S8:E19

    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 civilizing.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  20. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 20 - The Bad One
    7.4/10(225 votes)

    #20 - The Bad One

    S8:E20

    When a young pretty farm woman becomes attracted to and sees some good in a would-be robber, she refuses to identify him.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 21 - The Cousin
    7.6/10(240 votes)

    #21 - The Cousin

    S8:E21

    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 their getaway.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:Kathleen Hite

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  22. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 22 - Shona
    8.0/10(233 votes)

    #22 - Shona

    S8:E22

    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.

    Director:Ted Post
    Writer:John Meston

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  23. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 23 - Ash
    8.3/10(281 votes)

    #23 - Ash

    S8:E23

    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 fiancé of a young saloon woman.

    Director:Harry Harris
    Writer:John Meston

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  24. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 24 - Blind Man's Bluff
    8.3/10(262 votes)

    #24 - Blind Man's Bluff

    S8:E24

    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.

    Director:Ted Post
    Writer:John Meston

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  25. Gunsmoke Season 8 Episode 25 - Quint's Indian
    7.6/10(222 votes)

    #25 - Quint's Indian

    S8:E25

    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 dangerously ugly for Quint.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:John Meston

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Season 8 Ratings Summary

"The Search" is the best rated episode of "Gunsmoke" season 8. It scored 7.8/10 based on 266 votes. Directed by Harry Harris and written by Kathleen Hite, it aired on 9/15/1962. This episode is rated 0.4 points higher than the second-best, "Call Me Dodie".