The late 1950s were the golden age of the radio western, and Gunsmoke stood at the top of the mesa, proudly overlooking the terrain! These searing dramas of frontier life - told with honesty, sensitivity, and nail-biting tension - feature William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon. Here are 24 unforgettable adventures of the Old West, originally broadcast between 1956 and 1958. Parley Baer co-stars as Chester, with Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.

Here are Western stories with an adult sensibility - complex tales of difficult choices and moral dilemmas played out against the backdrop of frontier America. William Conrad is Marshal Matt Dillon in 20 thoughtful, exciting episodes of Gunsmoke!

Radio Westerns were strictly for kids until 1952, when Gunsmoke hit the radio airwaves. The stories were grim, the deaths brutal, and life on the plains was harsh. Radio audiences had never heard anything like Gunsmoke, and they made it the number one Western on the radio. It soon made a successful transition to television, becoming the longest-running dramatic series in television history.

Walk the streets of Dodge City with William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon in 20 masterpieces of western storytelling. Dillon was not a straight-backed rider with a steely jaw. He was a man who had seen too much, a survivor of conflicts he'd rather have avoided…a man who knew only too well what errors of judgment could cost on the frontier. Parley Baer played Dillon's sidekick Chester, a seemingly naive yokel who was nevertheless as cold-blooded as Dillon when occasion demanded.

Radio westerns were aimed at kids until 1952 when Gunsmoke hit the radio airwaves. Produced for adult listeners, the stories were grim, the deaths brutal and life on the plains was harsh. Radio audiences had never heard anything like Gunsmoke and they made it the #1 western on radio. It soon made a successful transition to television becoming the longest-running dramatic series in TV history.

In the cold dead of night, the Hatcher brothers break into Slade’s house, kill his wife of six years, Emily, and leave him for dead. But Slade is still breathing when his friend Josh Evans and his wife Lynn, Emily’s twin sister, find him draped over his wife’s body. After six months of recuperation, Slade and Evans set out on the trail of revenge. Slade survives and now put his guns to use once again, as he takes up the badge of the Texas Rangers.

Author of the National Book Award-winning All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy is one of the most provocative American stylists to emerge in the last century. The striking novel Blood Meridian offers an unflinching narrative of the brutality that accompanied the push west on the 1850s Texas frontier.

Former lawman turned rancher Britt MacMasters and his son Chad begin a new life in Clearmont, Wyoming until Britt’s past returns to haunt them. One of the toughest outlaw gangs in the west is headed to Clearmont for revenge. Episodes include: "The Preacher," "A Tangled Rope," "A Friend In Need," "Battle At Ricochet Rock," "The Gold Wagon," "Peace Of Mind," "The Lost Mine," "Never The Twain," "The Winter Soldier," "The Wind In The Mountain," "The Vengeance Trail."

Robert "Dent" Hernandez is a US marshal bent on bringin’ ’em in, preferably upright in the saddle, but draped across it works, too. Less interested in justice than revenge, he uses the badge as a license to hunt for his father’s killers. When an arrest goes wrong and he’s temporarily remanded to quaint Evergreen, Wyoming, to act as interim sheriff, he writhes over the delay to his plans. That is, until he meets the very pretty but suspiciously jittery schoolteacher. What is she so afraid of?

This accomplished debut novel from Bruce Machart has drawn critical raves. In 1895 Texas, Karel Skala enters the world while his mother dies in childbirth. Fifteen years later, guilt-stricken Karel puts his family’s fortunes on the line in a horse race against a powerful Spanish patriarch.