$27 off Gunsmoke: Season 2, Vol. 1 DVD

In its second season, Gunsmoke blazed its way into the top ten, where it would stay for the next six years (four of them ranked No. 1), and James Arness earned an Emmy nomination for his towering portrayal of U. S. Marshal Matt Dillon. Dillon broke the mold of the TV lawman. As he notes in one episode, "They tell me that back East, there are a lot of book writers and newspaper people who picture a frontier lawman as someone pretty near perfection, who always guns his man down, never makes a mistake, he's at the top of the heap on every play." The "mule-headed" Dillon is not that man. "My job is to keep the peace, and I'll do it my own way," he proclaims. In the episode "No Indians," he ambushes a band of white men who slaughter a family and frame the Pawnee Indians for the crime. "What kind of man would ambush a bunch of men like that?" a wounded survivor protests. "My kind, mister," Dillon replies. In the episode "Cow Doctor," he knocks out a man who knifes Doc. "Let me know when he comes to and I'll knock him out again," Dillon states. And in "The Mistake," he arrests the wrong man for murder.