Gunsmoke: The Great American Western

What is the name of Matt Dillon's horse?

This is a trick question!!

Matt Dillon rode a number of horses during the twenty years of Gunsmoke. Two are pictured on Gunsmoke trading cards.

The front and back of the Gunsmoke trading card shown here identify Dillon's horse as Marshal. In fact, it was Marshall (with two l's).

Dillon is shown here on another Gunsmoke trading card on another horse.
In "The Bullet: Part 1", Festus calls Matt's horse Buck. This is the only time Dillon's horse is given a name in a Gunsmoke episode.
Arness wrote a 1958 article where he said the name of his horse was Faithful Old Buck. Click HERE for details & the interview.
John Meston, a co-creator of Gunsmoke, hated singing cowboy types who were schmoozed their horses. (He "spits in their milk".) Meston would have never given Dillon's horse a name in a script. Meston left Gunsmoke in the 1960's.

Answer: Dillon had a bunch of horses.

We read from TV Guide:

"In defiance of the tradition of Champion, Trigger and simial greats, Matt's horse didn't have a name and never once saved his life or led the way to the outlaws' hideaway. This was the idea of John Meston, who wrote 378 radio and television Gunsmokes... (Even here trivia hunters can find an exception because there's at least one show where Matt addresses the horse as "Buck" (WEB PAGE COMMENT: Actually, it was Festus) strictly ad-lib." (Click HERE to read the entire TV Guide article)

James Arness says: "Several people written in asking about the name of the horse I rode on Gunsmoke. It was Buck."

Footnote: Doc once called his buggy horse Popcorn.

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