In 1955 he was cast on the ABC religion anthology series "Crossroads" in the role of Sergeant Leroy in "All My Love". In 1958 he appeared as Joe Brock in the episode "Desert Fury" of CBS's "Tales of the Texas Rangers", a children's program. That same year Gordon was cast as Zip Wyatt in "Three Wanted Men" of Rex Allen's syndicated Western series "Frontier Doctor". He also played a gunslinging professional killer in the pilot for the television version of "Gunsmoke"; but many changes were later instituted on the series, such as the marshal's office and Long Branch Saloon looking markedly different and the relationship between Matt Dillon and Kitty being subtly more formal as well, so the episode was buried deep in the season in the hope that viewers would not notice, which apparently worked. This pilot likely was S1E26's “Hack Prine”.