How did Gunsmoke explain Kitty leaving?
For 19 seasons, Miss Kitty Russell ran the Long Branch Saloon and traded charged glances with Marshal Matt Dillon, making Amanda Blake one of the most beloved women in the history of American television. Then, in 1974, she was gone.
If you're wondering what grand farewell the show gave her — brace yourself.
The short answer
It barely explained it at all. Blake's final episode was "The Disciple," near the end of season 19, and Kitty got no goodbye scene, no send-off story, nothing. When season 20 began in the fall of 1974, viewers simply learned in passing that Kitty had moved back to New Orleans. That was it — nearly two decades of television, resolved in a line.
How the show moved on
- No farewell episode — Kitty's last appearance was an ordinary episode, with no hint it was the end.
- One offhand explanation — season 20 established she'd left Dodge City for New Orleans, offscreen.
- A replacement behind the bar — Fran Ryan joined as Miss Hannah, the Long Branch's new owner.
- Silence after that — the character was essentially never dwelt on again before the show's cancellation in 1975.
Why Amanda Blake really left
Publicly, Blake said she was worn out — she'd been commuting between her home in Phoenix, Arizona and the Los Angeles production for years. She stuck to that story for the rest of her life, telling the Los Angeles Times:
"I was tired, and it was time to leave," Blake said, adding that the show only lasted a year without her.
According to David R. Greenland 's book The Gunsmoke Chronicles, Blake and producer John Mantley agreed to keep any behind-the-scenes friction quiet so nothing would reflect badly on the show, framing the exit as entirely voluntary.
There was heartbreak in the timing, too: Glenn Strange, who played Long Branch bartender Sam and was one of Blake's closest friends on set, died of lung cancer in September 1973 — months before she walked away.
Did she ever come back as Kitty?
Once. Blake reprised the role in the 1987 TV movie Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge, giving fans the reunion the series never provided. She died two years later, in August 1989, at age 60.
For the record: Blake wasn't wrong about the timing. Only James Arness and Milburn Stone lasted all 20 seasons — and without its saloon keeper, Gunsmoke survived exactly one more year.