Gunsmoke
One for the Road
TV Flash files “One for the Road” as hour 558 of 635 in the TV Flash guide — Gunsmoke (1955–1975) on CBS, season 17, episode 19, aired 1972-01-24, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S17E19: listed hour 558 of 635 in the Gunsmoke guide, hour 19 of 24 in season 17. It aired 1972-01-24 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Tara” (S17E18). Next is “The Predators” (S17E20). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
"Dirty Sally" Fergus takes in an old drunken drifter with a surprisingly cultured wardrobe and manners. The old fellow is on the run, as it turns out. He once was an extremely wealthy Eastern businessman, but Demon Rum ruined him. Sally gets him sobered up and to show some self-respect. But into the picture comes the man's disapproving daughter, who wants him committed to an asylum because of his past drunken antics. She's not all bad -- but her boyfriend, who is traveling with her, is. Unbeknownst to her, the boyfriend has his eye on what's left of the old man's fortune, which is still considerable. He went along with her plans to commit him because she would control his estate (and then he would marry her and take over her property rights), but that's taking too long. Now he just wants to assassinate the old man outright. Matt temporarily frustrates the killer's plan by taking the old man into custody and -- with Sally's help -- getting him to prove his competency in court. The daughter is mollified when the old man gives her some money, but the boyfriend drops all pretense and goes after Sally and her friend with a rifle.
Viewer FAQ
Where does One for the Road sit in the Gunsmoke guide?
S17E19 is listed hour 558 of 635 — hour 19 of 24 in season 17, season 17 episode 19.
When did Gunsmoke S17E19 air?
One for the Road aired 1972-01-24 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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- Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell
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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…