GUNSMOKE Frequently Asked Questions
(in no particular order)
Was Chester’s stiff leg ever explained?
No. There is no episode that addresses this issue. The show creators intended that Chester have some sort of handicap, but Dennis Weaver is the one who chose the rigid leg, which he said he often regretted as it was difficult to maintain. He also said he never wore a brace and that it would have been dangerous to do so when riding.
There was a joke on the set that when the director yelled, “action!” Chester started limping and Matt stopped limping. (James Arness had a WW2 injury that caused him leg pain all his life.)
Was Miss Kitty’s mole/beauty mark real?
No. In the early episodes of Season 1, she did not have it. I read one account that said she had a tiny skin flaw, and it was decided to enhance it into a beauty mark, but I can’t confirm that. This would make sense though, because it was always in the same position.
Why did Matt and Kitty never marry?
In an interview, James Arness answered this by simply saying because “it would have changed the whole dynamic of the show.”
Think about it, and this makes total sense. It would not have been appropriate for him to have other love interests after that point, or old flames showing up in Dodge. And what is he gonna do when he’s chasing a bad guy on the prairie and it is 6 pm, run home because Kitty has dinner on the table?
Why did Festus always ride a mule and call him ‘Ruth’?
Because of a heroic mule named Ruth that he lost in the war, he vowed to name every mule thereafter ‘Ruth’. This was never explained on the series, but you can listen to Ken Curtis explain the story here: Bing Videos
Where did Matt Dillon ‘live’?
He slept at the jailhouse. There was only one episode in which he had a private room, and that was Jenny in Season 8.
Where did people use the bathroom in Dodge City or in jail? And why didn’t they ever show any horse poop on the street?
You won’t like the answer, but because it is a fictional TV show, they have creative license to show, or not show, whatever they want. Yes, all people and animals need to ‘go’, they just chose not to reference it.
Why didn’t they write characters out of the show instead of just letting them disappear?
Again, it was creative license. I’m sure they wanted to focus on what was ahead for the show, not on what was being left behind.
How many times was Matt shot?
The agreed-upon consensus is 56 times. This is the number of bullets he was hit with, not the number of occasions when he was shot at. It isn’t an exact science, because there are instances where Matt is being fired upon by multiple people and we never clearly see how many times he is hit. As in Hidalgo. But we know he is hit more than once in that episode because the grandfather says, “the bullets are out.”
Where did Matt and Chester get the shovels to dig all those graves?
I know it’s a stretch, but we must assume they either found one at the site, or they carried small fold-up ones in their saddle bags. I know, I know, their saddle bags were tiny, and they couldn’t fit in the coffee pot and frying pan either, but again, they were supposed to look lean and mean, not like minivans loaded for bear.
Are we to believe Miss Kitty was a Madam?
Absolutely, but CBS and television regulations would not allow that storyline, so the creators were told they had to “clean that up.” Yet we do see glimpses of couples walking up or down the stairs in the Long Branch, or on the balcony, and we heard the conversation between Bella Grant and Kitty in Change of Heart where Bella is asking Kitty if she is tired of men in general, or tired of “so many men?” So, there were hints.
What is the name of the episode where Matt and Kitty kiss?
There isn’t one because Matt and Kitty never kissed. If you’ve heard they do, that is false. The only woman Matt ever kissed was Mike (Michael Learned) in Matt’s Love Story. That was a one-night stand, and he had amnesia, so we had to forgive him. Kitty, on the other hand, kissed several men: Cole Yankton, Ad Bellum, and Will Stambridge.
Why/when did ______ die?
James Arness (Matt Dillon) d. 3 Jun 2011 from natural causes
James Arness (1923-2011) - Find a Grave Memorial
Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty) d. 16 Aug 1989 from cancer and pneumonia associated with AIDS complications
Amanda Blake (1929-1989) - Find a Grave Memorial
Milburn Stone (Doc Adams) d. 12 Jun 1980 from a heart attack
Milburn Stone (1904-1980) - Find a Grave Memorial
Dennis Weaver (Chester Goode) d. 24 Feb 2006 from prostate cancer
Dennis Weaver (1924-2006) - Find a Grave Memorial
Ken Curtis (Festus Haggin) d. 28 Apr 1991 from a heart attack
Ken Curtis (1916-1991) - Find a Grave Memorial
Roger Ewing (Thad Greenwood) d. 18 Dec 2025 from undisclosed
Roger Lawrence Ewing (1942-2025) - Find a Grave Memorial
Buck Taylor (Newly O’Brien) – living, age 87 (as of 3/12/2026)
Glenn Strange (Sam Noonan, bartender) d. 20 Sep 1973 from lung cancer
Glenn Strange (1899-1973) - Find a Grave Memorial
James Nusser (Louie Pheeters, town drunkard) d. 8 Jun 1979 presumably from natural causes