Festus!
For you Gunsmoke fans, who did you like better, Festus or Chester?
I liked both, but my favorite Gunsmoke episodes are the very earliest black and white episodes that Chester happened to be in. The writing was better in the earlier episodes. Minor characters were developed with care in order to kill them off in more than 50% of the early episodes. It contributed an element of unpredictability to the show. Later episodes, especially the 1970's episodes were not nearly as well written or as unpredictable.
Chester!! He was the top deputy of the show.
Chester was my favorite.
Miss Kitty.
Chester. I thought both were great, but I'm a huge Dennis Weaver fan.