Have Gun, Will Travel

1957

Seasons & Episodes

  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1

8.4| 0h30m| TV-G| en
Synopsis

Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958. The television show is presently shown on the Encore-Western channel. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, 24 written by Gene Roddenberry. Other contributors included Bruce Geller, Harry Julian Fink, Don Brinkley and Irving Wallace. Andrew McLaglen directed 101 episodes and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.

Director

Producted By

CBS Productions

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Reviews

TinsHeadline Touches You
Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
bugsmoran29 As a child I was fascinated by Paladin's use of a business card: Have Gun, Will Travel Wire San Francisco. The card made it's appearance in every episode of this classic western. Richard Boone as Paladin was a big city dude who loved fine wines, beautiful women and the opera. Once he received a job he transformed into the crusader dressed entirely in black. How cool was that! Paladin, who also carried a hidden Derringer, would travel just about anywhere west of the Mississippi to carry out his mission as the avenging knight. He could be in a mining camp in Neveda, up in the woods of the Pacific Northwest, or riding the lonely prairie of cattle country. Paladin was quick on the draw, but quicker to use his intellect to solve a problem.
wjefferyholt Having watched the first three seasons of "Have Gun Will Travel" I was pleasantly surprised with some unique characteristics of the series; the most obvious point was the intelligence of the character and the contrasts in the well mannered gentleman, and the gunman for hire. But the one thing that caught my attention the most was that Paladin is one of the only dramatic characters I have ever seen on television or in movies where the lead laughed. Not just an ironic laugh, but a genuine belly laugh at the sight of the human comedy being played out in front of him. His total lack of racism, political ideology, or hypocrisy makes for a unique character. Though I liked the first three seasons,it is the fourth that knocked me over. It must have changed production companies, and had a shot in the arm as far as budget, because everything goes from good to great in one season. The first show of the fourth season "The Fatalist" brought in Robert Blake whose nuanced performance so overshadows the actors from previous seasons, that you feel that it was a major change of the producers who stopped bringing in the old near the end of their career character actors from the Republic Pictures school of acting, to one where you where looking at the changes brought in by the method acting crowd who where just starting to take over TV at that time. Even actors that had been seen in the earlier seasons, such as Denver Pyle, James Coburn, and Hal Needham, all seem to be able to fill the screen in a different and better way than just a year or too earlier. Also, the music is crisper, the camera work cleaner and more artfully shot, and an odd observation, there are more extras filling out the scenes; before the limited crowds gave a lot of the earlier shows a very stage sense to it. Anyway the improvement to the quality to the show from the first three season to the fourth caught me by surprise because in all my TV viewing I have never seen a program improve so dramatically and in such a worthwhile way.
vranger Richard Boone was a thoughtful and serious actor, and so must have felt a great satisfaction in playing a 'thoughtful gunman' in the Old West.Although Paladin often professed the desire to settle every situation without gun play if possible, his rivals in most shows didn't afford him that opportunity. Its a rare show that Paladin didn't have to shoot someone ... sometimes a few someones.Despite many story corners having to be cut to fit these stories into a 30 minute format, each story is interesting and compelling, virtually always with a twist that keep them from being some of the many Western clichés.Now that the series has been resurrected on Encore Westerns, generations who had no opportunity to appreciate this fine series in years past can now discover it for themselves. This is yet another example of how many television shows from the 50s and early 60s were far superior to most of what is filmed now.
martin-fennell Hi. I listened to two episodes of the radio version this morning. They were heyboy's revenge, and Winchester quarantine. In the former, we learn heyboy's real name. Although I wonder why he couldn't have been called by his real name. I'm guessing calling the character Heyboy would be seen as pretty un pc these days. I did notice that in the radio version he was played by a white actor (ben wright) who was English and had a talent for accents and in the TV version by an Asian actor Kam Tong. In Bonanza they had an Asian actor playing hop sing (Victor Sen Yung) whereas in movies (correct me if I'm wrong here) white actors were still playing orientals, Indians etc. Does this mean that TV was more progressive in it's outlook than radio or movies? I have done very little research, so am prepared to be shot down for that comment. In the second episode Paladin helps out an Indian who has been educated in the ways of the white man. The character and his wife are treated with dignity. When i think of John Dehner, and Richard Boone, I think of them primarily as villainous characters; Dehner in TV series and Boone in movies. so it's interesting to me at least, that their most famous roles was as good guys. Dehner did mention in The story of Gunsmoke, that he much preferred his time on Gunsmoke than he did on HGWT. Oh, by the way, I used to think the character's name was Will Travel :) M