Gunsmoke
Albert
TV Flash files “Albert” as hour 509 of 635 in the TV Flash guide — Gunsmoke (1955–1975) on CBS, season 15, episode 20, aired 1970-02-09, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S15E20: listed hour 509 of 635 in the Gunsmoke guide, hour 20 of 26 in season 15. It aired 1970-02-09 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Badge” (S15E19). Next is “Kiowa” (S15E21). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Albert Schiller (Milton Selzer) is losing his job as teller at the bank. When outlaws led by Jake Spence (William Schallert) are unsuccessful in robbing the bank, Albert takes $5,000 and blames it on the gang. Irate at the wrongful accusation, the robbers return and force Albert to join them by taking his wife Kate (Patricia Barry) prisoner. Worst of all, she is menaced by the sociopathic Nix (L. Q. Jones)
Viewer FAQ
Where does Albert sit in the Gunsmoke guide?
S15E20 is listed hour 509 of 635 — hour 20 of 26 in season 15, season 15 episode 20.
When did Gunsmoke S15E20 air?
Albert aired 1970-02-09 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the 1955 opener, where the marshal is not invincible. Then sample a later guest-star hour rather than marching through hundreds of titles in order.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Twenty seasons of Dodge as a civic appointment: a marshal who can lose, a chorus instead of gadgets, and adult-western hours that treat a gunfight as a verdict. Longevity here was weather, not catalog padding — weekly public work with dust still on the boots.
September 1955, CBS: a marshal takes a bullet in the first hour and the adult western stops being a kid’s hat commercial. Gunsmoke had already lived on radio, with a different voice in the badge. Television wanted a face the lens could trust. The lore still pours like bar whiskey — John Wayne pointing at James Arness, William Conrad left on the airwaves, a casting fight that was really a medium fight. Radio-to-TV is never a reprint. It is a negotiation about whose body gets to mean the law.
Filed against
- James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon
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- Milburn Stone as Doc Adams
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- Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode
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- Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen
Ken Curtis’s Festus Haggen is Gunsmoke’s later chorus — Dodge City as a weekly moral court, a marshal who can lose, adult-western hours that treat a gunfight as a verdict. Twenty seasons of civic work with dust on the boots. On TV Flash…