Few shows have run on network television for as long asGunsmokeran on CBS. For twenty years,the Western series braved television setsafter firstjumping from a radio drama to the screen, and later from black-and-white to technicolor. StarringJames Arnessas the recognizable Marshal Matt Dillon, it seemed likeGunsmokewould go on forever, or at least for as long as the cast and crew were willing to stick around. But all good things eventually come to an end, andin 1975,Gunsmokewas unceremoniously cancelled by CBS, ending the series with a strange episode that felt more like an aside than a proper finale. Here’s what happened.
Marshal Matt Dillon keeps the peace in rough-and-tumble Dodge City.
How Does the Classic TV Western ‘Gunsmoke’ End?
Believe it or not,Gunsmokeended after 20 full seasons with not with a bang but with a whimper. Rather, the series fell into obscurity without hardly any fuss at all. The final episode aired, a strange standalone called “The Sharecroppers,” thatfelt more like your standard filler episode rather than a triumphant finale to over two decades' worth of television. When you consider thatGunsmokewas a radio drama even before that, it’s clear that this long-running series had a lot of life in it during its run, having outlasted most other Western television shows at the time, includingThe Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, which premiered only four days prior. But unlikeWyatt Earp,Gunsmokeran longer than any Western could dream, far outlasting evenBonanza, which ended in 1973.
ButGunsmoke’s impromptu finale, which premiered on June 10, 2025,was a pretty underwhelming way to end the series considering its impressive longevity. “The Sharecroppers” follows a young woman named Av Marie Pugh (Susanne Benton) who fights hard to get her lazy family to plant their crops and make them a living, including their father Dibble, who is played by none other thanLittle House on the PrairiestarVictor French. But after Deputy Festus Haggen (Ken Curtis) accidentally shoots Av Marie’s brother, he feels compelled to help the Pughs before they are run off their land by their landlord Linder Hogue (Jacques Aubuchon) and his son, Toby (futureTronstarBruce Boxleitner). There’s some relational drama in there too between Av Marie and Toby, and a weird moment where Av Marie hits on Festus to make her beau jealous, but thankfully, it doesn’t go much further than that.
Things all turn out for the best in the end. Festus helps save the Pugh family’s welfare, Av Marie and Toby get married and plan to leave for California, and Dibble even gets up from under his tree,but the rest of theGunsmokeleads have nothing to do at all. Marshal Dillon (Arness), Doc (Milburn Stone), and Newly O’Brian (Buck Taylor) strangely only appear in a single scene, and for a show that was once titledMarshal Dillon, it feels a bit anticlimactic to choose a Festus-focused episode to end Season 20.But it didn’t seem like even the show itself knew it was ending. “Stay tuned to exciting scenes from our nextGunsmoke,” the announcer calls during the episode’s credits. Only this time, there would be no next episode.
‘Gunsmoke’ Was Cancelled Abruptly Before Season 21
But the real reasonGunsmokeended the way it did wasn’t because the writers didn’t want to give the Western series a proper ending, but rather becauseCBS had been trying to give Marshal Dillon and his friends the axe for years. But to make things even worse,according toDavid R. Greenlandin his bookThe Gunsmoke Chronicles: A New History of Television’s Greatest Western, the network canceled the series just as production was about to start on an upcoming (and yet unrealized) Season 21. No doubt, “The Sharecroppers” was a lousy note to end on, butSeason 20 still had some notable episodes, proving that Marshal Dillon still had some life left in him. Sadly, CBS didn’t quite see it that way, and they didn’t even have the decency to let the cast and crew know.
“CBS has done something Indians, bad guys, bad whisky and not even CBS could do earlier: Kill off U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon,” the Associated Press wrote back in April 1975 (as noted by Greenland inThe Gunsmoke Chronicles), just weeks after the lackluster finale aired. “A few years ago CBS tried to remove the show but was met by such audience protests that the network had to renew the series.” Previously,Gilligan’s Islandwas cancelled to keepGunsmokeon the air because then-CBS PresidentWilliam S. Paleyand his wife were big fans of the Western drama. But this time around, there would be no eleventh-hour save, and the cancellation stuck.Gunsmokeevaporated from the air without a sound.
“All of us were ready, psychologically, for one more season ofGunsmoke,” series starJames Arness revealed only a few years later. “CBS has led us downstream and then, when we were down to the wire, they dropped the ax.” Interestingly, “The Sharecroppers” wasn’t the last episode thatGunsmokeproduced. According to actorWilliam Smith, the episode “Hard Labor” was the last episode filmed, which might have been a more fitting and well-rounded end to Marshal Dillon’stelevision exploits. But alas, “The Sharecroppers” was chosen to round out Season 20 (which is honestly a pretty strange move in itself, regardless of it also being the defacto series finale),leavingGunsmokefans everywhere underwhelmed and confused.
What Led to Shows Like ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Bonanza’ Getting Cancelled?
Television went in a different direction in the early 1970s.
‘Gunsmoke’ Continued as TV Movies
Thankfully,Gunsmoke’s cancellation didn’t mean we saw the very last of Marshal Dillon and his friends, though most of them wouldn’t return for more. “We finished the 20th year, we all expected to go on for another season, or two, or three,“James Arness admitted years later, so by the timeGunsmoke: Return to Dodgeaired over a decade later, nobody was surprised to see Marshal Dillon back in the saddle. Former cast membersAmanda Blakeand Buck Taylor even returned as Kitty Russell and Newly O’Brien forReturn to Dodge, though Ken Curtis (Festus Haggen) reportedly declined. Sadly, Milburn Stone (Doc) died in 1980.Return to Dodgeproved successful enough thatGunsmokewas revived for four more made-for-TV movies.The Last Apacheaired in 1990,To the Last Manin 1992,The Long Ridein 1993, and the final on-screen adventure,One Man’s Justicein 1994.
Though the rest of the long-runningGunsmokecast didn’t return for the subsequent TV movies (and former cast members such asDennis Weaver(Chester Goode) andBurt Reynoldsdidn’t either),James Arness continued with Marshal Dillon until the end.One Man’s Justiceserved not only as the end of theGunsmokesaga but as the very last acting credit in Arness' nearly 50-year-long career. The actor (who was in his 70s at the time) retired after playing Dillon in an impressive 635 episodes of television and five subsequent features.Arness died in 2011 at 88 years old, having lived a full life as a Western star.
Famed Western authorLouis L’Amouronce calledGunsmokethe “best video westerns to date” due to its commitment to authenticity compared to some of its television counterparts, and while the show might not have gone out with a bang, Marshal Dillon did get his due in the end (viaThe Gunsmoke Chronicles). Even if it took an extra decade to get there,Gunsmokewouldn’t let anyone, not even CBS, bury it without a fight. As far aslong-running Westernsgo, there’s a reason thatGunsmokeremains at the top. To this day, there isn’t another Western series that’s outlastedMarshal Dillon, and that’s unlikely to ever change.
Gunsmokeis available to watch on Paramount+ in the U.S.
Watch on Paramount+
