Matt Dillon's hair-rising ride across the plains, with him getting everything and then some out of his horse and showing the tension throughout his body, was no act. Just before filming this scene (the last of the season), James Arness learned that the series wasn't on the fall schedule and reacted accordingly. When the show was renewed a few weeks later (CBS boss William Paley returned from vacation and personally ordered it back on), he liked the film so much that he had the producers use it as the opening of each show, which they did in place of the famed gunfight.
The final time Roger Ewing is billed as a regular in the series. He would appear one more time as Thad, unbilled, in The Prodigal (1967) the following season.