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60 free TV Western trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
53 free TV western trivia questions with answers. TV western trivia for anyone who grew up with Marshal Dillon, the Cartwrights and a Winchester in the opening credits — or who found the genre later through Deadwood, Justified and the Dutton family. This quiz sticks to television only; the big-screen westerns have their own page. It starts in the 1950s boom, when thirty westerns filled prime time and Gunsmoke and Wagon Train ruled the ratings, then works through Bonanza, The Rifleman, Rawhide, Maverick, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Lone Ranger, The Big Valley, The Virginian and The Wild Wild West, before jumping to Dr. Quinn, Walker, Texas Ranger and the modern neo-westerns. There are easy questions about who played whom, and harder ones about ratings, cancellations, theme songs and behind-the-scenes decisions. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedic sources before it went in.
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Q 01On the TV version of Gunsmoke, who played Marshal Matt Dillon?
James Arness
On the earlier radio series the marshal was voiced by William Conrad, whom CBS considered too heavy for television.
Q 02Gunsmoke is set in which Kansas cattle town?
Dodge City
The stories take place in the 1870s during the settlement of the West.
Q 03How many seasons did the television Gunsmoke run after its 1955 debut?
20
Episodes were half an hour until 1961 and an hour thereafter, through 1975.
Q 04Which Gunsmoke deputy, played by Ken Curtis, replaced Chester in 1964?
Festus Haggen
Burt Reynolds also served a stint as blacksmith-deputy Quint Asper from 1962 to 1965.
Q 05Gunsmoke's Doc Adams was allowed to choose his character's first name. What did actor Milburn Stone pick?
Galen
He named the doctor after the ancient Greek physician and medical researcher.
Q 06Who is credited with pressuring CBS's president to save Gunsmoke from cancellation in 1967?
His wife, Babe Paley
According to Gilligan's Island producer Sherwood Schwartz, the network cut his show instead to make room.
Q 07The Cartwrights of Bonanza lived on a ranch called the Ponderosa near which Nevada town?
Virginia City
The show's title is a miners' term for a rich vein of silver ore, a nod to the Comstock Lode found under the town in 1859.
Q 08Who played patriarch Ben Cartwright on Bonanza?
Lorne Greene
The thrice-widowed rancher had a son by each wife, and the actor later recorded a hit song, "Saga of the Ponderosa".
Q 09Which Cartwright brother on Bonanza was played by Dan Blocker?
Hoss
The warm and lovable giant's real first name was Eric.
Q 10Where does 14-season Bonanza rank among the longest-running Westerns on US network TV?
Second, behind Gunsmoke
It managed 431 episodes between September 1959 and January 1973.
Q 11Why did NBC keep Bonanza on the air despite its early struggles?
Its color footage helped RCA sell color TV sets
RCA, NBC's parent, was also the show's main sponsor for the first two seasons.
Q 12Who played the Cartwrights' Chinese cook, Hop Sing, on Bonanza?
Victor Sen Yung
He had earlier played Number Two Son in the Charlie Chan films.
Q 13Who starred as rancher Lucas McCain in The Rifleman?
Chuck Connors
Johnny Crawford played his son Mark, and the pair had come from Enid, Oklahoma, after Lucas's wife died.
Q 21Who played Bart, brother of Garner's poker-playing hero Bret, alternating leads from week to week?
Jack Kelly
He joined eight episodes into the first season and stayed for the entire run.
Q 22In Have Gun – Will Travel, gunfighter-for-hire Paladin made his home at which San Francisco address?
The Hotel Carlton
Between jobs he wore custom suits, drank fine wine, played piano and went to the opera.
Q 23Paladin took his name from what?
The knights of Charlemagne's court
Fittingly, the character was an expert chess player, and his calling card bore a knight chess piece.
Q 14The Rifleman was set in which fictional town in New Mexico Territory?
North Fork
Lucas bought a ranch "about three miles" outside town in the pilot episode.
Q 15The Rifleman's pilot, "The Sharpshooter", was first shown as an episode of which anthology series?
Zane Grey Theatre
It aired on CBS in March 1958 before the series proper launched on ABC that September.
Q 16Which future movie star played drover Rowdy Yates on Rawhide?
Clint Eastwood
Eric Fleming played trail boss Gil Favor, whose monologue opened most episodes.
Q 17Rawhide's cattle drives ran from Texas to which railhead town?
Sedalia, Missouri
For a time the town was the western end of the railroad, and the show's trail-boss diary was inspired by a real 1866 drive there.
Q 18Who sang the famous Rawhide theme song?
Frankie Laine
Dimitri Tiomkin composed it and the orchestra was conducted by a young John Williams, credited as Johnny Williams.
Q 19James Garner's breakout role was as a wandering poker player in which 1957 Western?
Maverick
Creator Roy Huggins was inspired by Garner's turn as a hustler in an episode of the anthology Conflict.
Q 20Which future James Bond joined the Garner poker-player series as cousin Beau after its star left?
Roger Moore
Robert Altman wrote and directed one of his episodes, "Bolt from the Blue".
Q 24Have Gun – Will Travel was unusual in that its TV success spawned what?
A radio version
The radio show, starring John Dehner, debuted in November 1958, more than a year after the TV premiere.
Q 25Who starred as the masked hero in the 1949–1957 TV series The Lone Ranger?
Clayton Moore
He was replaced for one season, 1952–53, over a contract dispute, then returned.
Q 26Jay Silverheels, who played Tonto, was a member of which Indigenous nation?
Mohawk
He was born on the Six Nations reserve in Canada.
Q 27Wagon Train's original wagon master, Major Seth Adams, was played by which John Ford regular?
Ward Bond
When he died of a heart attack in 1960, John McIntire took over the wagon master role.
Q 28John Ford directed a 1960 Wagon Train episode in which John Wayne appeared uncredited under what name?
Michael Morris
The episode was "The Colter Craven Story", made as a favour to Ward Bond, with Wayne speaking from the shadows.
Q 29Which Hollywood legend played matriarch Victoria Barkley in The Big Valley?
Barbara Stanwyck
Her on-screen brood included Lee Majors as illegitimate son Heath and Linda Evans as daughter Audra.
Q 30The Barkley ranch in The Big Valley was near which California city?
Stockton
The series was cancelled in 1969 as the TV Western craze faded.