Pucket's New Year: Gunsmoke (December 27, 1959)

“Pucket's New Year” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast December 27, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

A proud buffalo hunter named Ira Puckett is rescued from the frozen prairie by Marshal Matt Dillon after being abandoned during a blizzard by his partner Jed Lorner. Doc saves Puckett's life but has to amputate part of his foot, leaving the old man facing a future without the hunting life that defined him. Now crippled and trapped in Dodge City, Puckett becomes obsessed with finding Lorner to exact revenge.

Dodge City, Kansas, during winter; begins on the frozen prairie during a blizzard

Characters: Matt Dillon, Ira Puckett, Doc, Jed Lorner, Kitty

Listen for: An aging buffalo hunter's struggle with helplessness and pride as he adjusts to life as a cripple in a town he despises; his thirst for vengeance against the man who left him to die.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.