Unwanted Deputy: Gunsmoke (May 3, 1959)

“Unwanted Deputy” is an episode of Gunsmoke, the old-time radio show, first broadcast May 3, 1959. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

A man named Vince Wiley arrives in Dodge City and offers his services as a deputy to Marshal Matt Dillon, claiming he wants to help keep the peace. When Dillon declines, Wiley insists he'll be ready to help anytime there's trouble. That very evening, Wiley intervenes in a gunfight at a saloon, stepping in where the marshal has not yet arrived.

Dodge City and the surrounding Colorado/Nevada area during the Old West era.

Characters: Matt Dillon, Vince Wiley, Chester, Vin, Maisie, Rod

Listen for: The tension between Wiley's stated desire to help keep the peace and his true motivations, which involve avenging his brother Billy's death by the marshal.

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.