Gunsmoke
Pike (2) (aka: Dirty Sally (2))
TV Flash files “Pike (2) (aka: Dirty Sally (2))” as the last listed hour of season 16 — Gunsmoke (1955–1975) on CBS, season 16, episode 24, aired 1971-03-08, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S16E24: listed hour 539 of 635 in the Gunsmoke guide, last listed hour of season 16. It aired 1971-03-08 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Pike (1) (aka: Dirty Sally (1))” (S16E23). Next is “The Lost” (S17E01). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Dirty Sally becomes smitten with the outlaw Pike as he continues to heal up and the gang begins tracking Pike down.The friendship between the two grows as Pike is faced with leaving or standing his ground with the gang.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Pike (2) (aka: Dirty Sally (2)) sit in the Gunsmoke guide?
S16E24 is listed hour 539 of 635 — last listed hour of season 16, season 16 episode 24.
When did Gunsmoke S16E24 air?
Pike (2) (aka: Dirty Sally (2)) aired 1971-03-08 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
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