Catch ‘Gunsmoke’s TV Movies This December on INSP
What To Know
- INSP is airing all five Gunsmoke TV movies on Saturday evenings throughout December, featuring James Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon.
- The films, originally broadcast in the 1980s and 1990s, revisit classic Western themes and characters, including storylines about revenge, family, and justice in the changing West.
- The December schedule also includes a variety of other classic Western films, making the month a celebration for fans of the genre.
INSP is celebrating December with very special Saturday evenings featuring all five Gunsmoke TV movies. If you’re a Western fan, you may be ready to curl up on the couch and reminisce as you watch these classics, each of which originally aired on CBS throughout the ’80s and ’90s and starred James Arness reprising his iconic role as Marshal Matt Dillon.
Read on for full scheduling info, and a look back at each film.
December 6: Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987)
9pm EST
In the first Gunsmoke TV movie, Matt Dillon comes out of retirement when an old enemy breaks out of prison and heads straight for Dodge. Amanda Blake returns as Miss Kitty; she would die just a few short years later, in 1989. Classic characters Doc and Festus did not appear in the film, but for different reasons: Milburn Stone had died several years earlier and producers declined to recast Doc, while Ken Curtis, who played Festus on the original show, asked for a larger salary.
Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990)
11pm EST
CBS/Everett Collection
The film spins off the notable season 19 episode “Matt’s Love Story,” where an injured Dillon experienced amnesia, and fell in love with a beautiful widow named Mike, played by Michael Learned (notoriously, it was the only time in the show’s entire run when Dillon kissed a woman on screen). In this sequel, Dillon learns that Mike became pregnant in their time together, and that their now 17-year-old daughter has been kidnapped.
December 13: Gunsmoke: To the Last Man (1992)
9pm EST
This one tackles the violent Graham-Tewksbury feud, a real-life range war fought between two families in Arizona for a decade in the late 19th century. Dillon has started a new life as a cattle rancher, but things become complicated when violence begins to erupt around him. Amy Stock-Poynton returned as Beth, Dillon’s young adult daughter.
December 20: Gunsmoke: The Long Ride (1993
9pm EST
Arness was 70 when he shot the second-to-last TV movie, in which Dillon is falsely accused of murder and forced to clear his name while on the run. This entry included some big names, including Ali MacGraw as a tough pioneer woman, and James Brolin (whose Marcus Welby, M.D. aired during some the same years Gunsmoke did) as a disgraced preacher who helps Dillon out.
December 27: Gunsmoke: One Man’s Justice (1994)
9pm EST
The final Gunsmoke movie links Dillon with a young boy seeking vengeance, turning the story into a sort of passing of the torch. Bruce Boxleitner, who was also starring on Babylon 5 at the time, costars — and, crazily enough, Gunsmoke: One Man’s Justice was just one of the three Western TV movies he made in 1994. He also reprised his role as Billy Montana in the fifth Kenny Rogers Gambler film, Gambler V: Playing for Keeps, and appeared in Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone, a new film that mashed up old footage from the series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp with new storylines featuring Boxleitner, Harry Carey Jr., and others.
Full INSP December Schedule (All times Eastern):
Friday, 12/5
9PM: Money, Women and Guns
10:30PM: Bad Day at Black Rock
Saturday, 12/6
1PM: Joe Dakota
3PM: The Walking Hills
4:30PM: The Way West
9PM: Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge
11PM: Gunsmoke: The Last Apache
Sunday, 12/7
1PM: Christmas on the Range
3PM: Rooster Cogburn
5:30PM: Two Rode Together
9PM: Big Jake
Friday, 12/12
9PM: Edge of Eternity
11PM: High Lonesome
Saturday, 12/13
1PM: Rio Bravo
4PM: The Stalking Moon
9PM: Gunsmoke: To the Last Man
11PM: Christmas in the Rockies
Sunday, 12/14
1PM: Gold of the Seven Saints
3PM: Stagecoach
5PM: Support Your Local Sheriff!
9PM: Rio Lobo
Friday, 12/19
9PM: Joe Dakota
10:46PM: The Walking Hills
Saturday, 12/20
1PM: Money, Women and Guns
2:30PM: Bad Day at Black Rock
4:30PM: Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge
9PM: Gunsmoke: The Long Ride
Sunday, 12/21
1PM: Christmas in the Smokies
3PM: Big Jake
5:30PM: The Way West
9PM: Rooster Cogburn
Wednesday, 12/24
5PM: Christmas in the Smokies
Thursday, 12/25
11AM: Stagecoach
1PM: McLintock!
5PM: Rio Lobo
Friday, 12/26
9PM: The Stalking Moon
11:30PM: Gold of the Seven Saints
Saturday, 12/27
1PM: Edge of Eternity
3PM: High Lonesome
4:30PM: Two Rode Together
9PM: Gunsmoke: One Man’s Justice
11PM: Support Your Local Sheriff!
Sunday, 12/28
1PM: Gunsmoke: The Last Apache
3PM: Gunsmoke: To the Last Man
5PM: Gunsmoke: The Long Ride
9PM: Rio Bravo
Remind 
Wild West- Heroes & Villains
November 2022
Celebrates the unique sense of justice, compassion and adventure in the Old West as seen on TV and in the movies
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