As to the Rawhide episodes aired out of intended broadcast order, in the case of "Abilene," when the time came for it to be out on DVD, the people at Paramount Home Entertainment couldn't make up their minds as to where to put it, so it was made available on both the season 4 volume 2...
"Anniversary Waltz" (60582-035) was actually the delayed one... sorry about that! Six other episodes were aired out of their intended order:
"Designated Hitter" (60583-070, produced for season 3 but first aired during season 4 on 10/24/85)
"Return of the Native" (60583-071, produced for season 3...
With these delayed episodes, I can only wonder if these DVD sets ought to be re-packaged with the affected episodes re-shuffled to reflect original broadcast air date, rather than "originally intended to be part of this season."
For example, the "Abilene" episode could have been tagged to the...