We got the DVD of the entire first season of HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL … 39 episodes. (Seasons have shortened a little in forty years, eh?)
Anyhow, we’re watching through them, and they really hold up despite the passage of time. Yeah, the attitude towards Indians is not exactly PC, althought it’s not as bad as many other 50s Westerns. The Indians so far have distinct personalities, but there’s a certain stereotyping of dress, speech, etc.
OTOH, the attitude towards women is very “modern” (especially considering the time they were made.)
Overall, we’re find them kind of surreal/existential, which was surprising.
Anyone else seeing these?
(The great, cheesy song doesn’t seem to appear in the first season – at least, not so far, we’re on episode 13 or so.)
Have Gun, Will Travel, IIRC, was of the few (only?) shows to premiere on television, then become a radio drama, too. John Dehner played Paladin on the radio. There’s a sample episode here. According to one of the sources I just came across, Gene Roddenberry was one of the writers of the radio series.
I liked Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. Showed how popular that TV show was if a sci-fi book by a major author would use such a similar title.
A friend and I were discussing hot rodding one day, years ago, and he was referencing a special type of fuel. I thought he might be talking about a certain grade of aviation fuel, so I asked, “Av gas?” Without a pause at all, he answered, “Will travel.”
It was freakin hilarious then.
HGWT ran from the time I was six years old until I was twelve, so I saw it as an original series, but most of the show’s sophistication went right over my grammar-school head.
I, too, thought the character’s first name was “Wire.” Somehow, I took the title of the show to mean, “As long as I have my gun I will travel around” rather than “I have a gun and I will travel to you.”
Interestingly, nearly ten years after the show went off the air, I came across the definition of “paladin” in the dictionary: “1. any of the 12 legendary peers or knightly champions in attendance on Charlemagne. 2. any champion of a noble cause.” Suddenly, I realized why the hero was named “Paladin” and why his trademark was the chess knight.
I don’t remember much about the series besides Richard Boone and his business card, and the name Paladin. (I saw them when I was a kid, like Labdad did. <waves at Labdad.>
That was where I learned what “paladin” meant. Somehow I always carried an image of a knight with a six-shooter or something.
Nope, true story. Maybe MAD got the idea from kids like me. I turned nine shortly after the show premiered 1957 and was either eight or nine at the time I thought Paladin’s first name was “Wire.” This would have been in 1957 or 1958, which preceeds the MAD magazine joke, which I never saw.
Like an idiot, I bought the first season of HGWT through Columbia House and probably paid five times what the new box set costs. At least they screwed up at every turn and I ended up getting a series of discounts.
I love old westerns anyway, but HGWT is surprisingly modern in its sensibility. Paladin is something of an anti-hero considering his morally ambiguous profession, but has an enlightened view toward women and minorities. The show was ahead of its time in that sense, as was Gail Davis’ excellent Annie Oakley series. Throw in Herb Jeffries, “the Bronze Buckaroo,” and you have something of a triumvirate of moderns transported back into Old West times.
One other thing, too, CK. If you go to the HGWT web site and click on the “Ballad of Paladin” (45 rpm version), you can hear the cheesy song you refer to in its entirety, the singer’s breaking voice and all. Man, it’s bad!
Sorry if I was unclear. The commentary addition was explicit that this was a real experiment, tried (and bungled) by the army. The use of such a beast by Paladin was … well… surreal. There’s no other word for it.
That’s Johnny Western, the man Merle Haggard said sounds the way a cowboy looks.