During the show’s 20-year run, over the span of 635 episodes, Matt Dillon (James Arness) only kissed a woman once, and it took a long, long time for that to happen.

In the third episode of the 19th season — the title of the episode was fittingly Matt’s Love Story — Dillon locked lips with Michael Learned, who played Mike Yardner.

Learned appeared in a second episode that season, and 17 years later she revived her character in the TV movie Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990).

In the photo above, from 1973, Learned poses with co-star Richard Thomas after winning an Emmy for her performance as Olivia Walton in The Waltons.