Gunsmoke
Jesse
TV Flash files “Jesse” as hour 585 of 635 in the TV Flash guide — Gunsmoke (1955–1975) on CBS, season 18, episode 22, aired 1973-02-19, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S18E22: listed hour 585 of 635 in the Gunsmoke guide, hour 22 of 24 in season 18. It aired 1973-02-19 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Kimbro” (S18E21). Next is “Talbot” (S18E23). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Festus Haggen and Newly O'Brien meet an old friend of Festus, Jesse Dillard, an African-American cattle drive cook. Their confab is interrupted by U. S. Marshal Halstead, who has a warrant for Jesse's arrest, charging him with jail break. Jesse goes along peaceably, explaining that he killed his employer for shorting his wages and for a racially motivated flogging. Instead of the normal sentence of six to twelve months, Jesse had been given ten years at hard labor because of his race. Pete Murphy and a few drovers try to rescue Jesse, accidentally shooting the marshal. Dave Carpenter, the owner of the herd and Jesse's boss, rides in with the rest of the drovers to save Jesse from the marshal, who soon dies. Festus is conflicted between his sense of duty and his loyalty to Jesse.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Jesse sit in the Gunsmoke guide?
S18E22 is listed hour 585 of 635 — hour 22 of 24 in season 18, season 18 episode 22.
When did Gunsmoke S18E22 air?
Jesse aired 1973-02-19 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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- 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…