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81-540: Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Richard Boone was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons. Set in the period of the Old West , the series follows the adventures of " Paladin ," played by Boone,

162-417: A business card imprinted with "Have Gun Will Travel" and an engraving of a white knight chess piece, which evokes the proverbial white knight and the knight in shining armor . Underneath the chess piece is the wording "Wire Paladin", and under that, "San Francisco". A closeup of this card is used as a title card between scenes in the program. A Man Called Paladin , Frank C. Robertson's novelization of

243-421: A chess piece logo along with the phrase "Have gun will travel", and carried a concealed derringer pistol. A year later, an appellate court overturned the lower court ruling on the basis that the plaintiff had failed to prove that likelihood of confusion had existed in the minds of the public—a necessary requirement for a suit over trademark infringement. In 1977, De Costa was awarded a federal trademark for

324-452: A rodeo performer named Victor De Costa won a federal court judgment against CBS for trademark infringement , successfully arguing that he had created the Paladin character and the ideas used in the show, and that CBS had used them without permission. For example, at his rodeo appearances he always dressed in black, called himself the "Paladin", handed out hundreds of business cards featuring

405-685: A science fiction Western called The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. , which lasted for only 27 episodes. In the fall of 1995, the UPN network aired its own science fiction Western, Legend , which ended after 12 episodes. Western TV shows from the 2000s included the Zorro-inspired, syndicated Queen of Swords , starring Tessie Santiago and filmed in Almeria , Spain; Louis L'Amour 's Crossfire Trail starring Tom Selleck ; Monte Walsh ; and Hillerman's Coyote Waits and A Thief of Time . DVDs offer

486-443: A black leather holster (with a platinum chess knight symbol facing the rear), hanging from a black leather gunbelt. He also carries a lever-action Marlin rifle (with a platinum chess knight symbol facing the rear seen in "The Hunt") strapped to his saddle. In some episodes, he has a two-shot Remington derringer concealed under his belt; in other episodes, it is a single-shot Merrimack Arms "Southerner" derringer. Paladin gives out

567-1107: A children's audience; it was not until the near-concurrent debuts of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and the TV version of Gunsmoke in 1955 that adult Westerns appeared on television, and the genre became enormously popular. Notable TV Westerns include The Lone Ranger with Clayton Moore , The Gene Autry Show with Gene Autry , Gunsmoke with James Arness , Cheyenne with Clint Walker , Have Gun – Will Travel with Richard Boone , Sugarfoot with Will Hutchins , Wagon Train with Ward Bond and Robert Horton , Maverick with James Garner and Jack Kelly , Trackdown with Robert Culp , Wanted Dead or Alive with Steve McQueen , Bronco with Ty Hardin , Bat Masterson with Gene Barry , The Rifleman , Rawhide with Eric Fleming and Clint Eastwood , Bonanza with Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker , Laramie , The Virginian with James Drury and Doug McClure , The Big Valley with Barbara Stanwyck , The High Chaparral , and many others. By 1959, four years after

648-487: A co-starring horse such as Rogers' Golden Palomino, Trigger , who became a star in his own right. Other B-movie series were Lash LaRue and the Durango Kid . Herbert Jeffreys , as Bob Blake with his horse Stardust, appeared in a number of movies made for African American audiences in the days of segregated movie theaters. Bill Pickett , an African-American rodeo performer, also appeared in early Western films for

729-446: A gentleman investigator/gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a gunfighter for hire. Although Paladin charges steep fees to clients who can afford to hire him, typically $ 1,000 per job, he provides his services for free to poor people who need his help. A radio series starring John Dehner debuted November 23, 1958, more than a year after the premiere of its televised counterpart, making Have Gun – Will Travel one of

810-439: A king or lord, traveling either in pursuit of a specific duty that his overlord charged him with, or to put down evildoers in general. This quest sends a knight on adventures much like the ones of a knight in search of them, as he happens on the same marvels. In The Faerie Queene , St. George is sent to rescue Una's parents' kingdom from a dragon, and Guyon has no such quest, but both knights encounter perils and adventures. In

891-500: A late-era Western setting. The low-budget sitcom Dusty's Trail was an Old West adaptation of Gilligan's Island , complete with the star of the earlier show, Bob Denver . Little House on the Prairie was set on the frontier in the time period of the Western, but was essentially a family drama. Kung Fu was in the tradition of the itinerant gunfighter Westerns, but the main character

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972-462: A nearly all-Western format in 2022. Several Westerns have episodes that have lapsed into the public domain in the United States , allowing networks and stations to carry them without cost. Yellowstone , a neo-Western that debuted in 2018, jumped in ratings over the course of its third and fourth seasons to become one of cable television's most popular programs. Yellowstone , in turn, inspired

1053-567: A second life to TV series like Peacemakers , and HBO's Deadwood . In 2002, a show called Firefly (created by Joss Whedon ) mixed the Western genre with science fiction. Breaking Bad , a neo-Western about crystal methamphetamine cooks in Albuquerque, NM , debuted in 2008 on AMC . Series with Western themes that debuted in the 2010s include Justified , about a Western-style vigilante U.S. Marshal based in modern rural Kentucky, which debuted in 2010 on FX ; Hell on Wheels , about

1134-406: A send-up of the television series Gunsmoke , Marshal Mort Dooley, the marshal of Elwood, Kansas, comments that several strange people have been passing through his town lately, specifically referring to "that gunslinger who handed out business cards". A subsequent comedic Maverick episode titled "The Cats of Paradise" features a black-clad character obviously based on Paladin, albeit without using

1215-487: A traditionally-set Western prequel, 1883 , in 2021, and another series, 1923 , a year later, both of which were successes. Knight-errant The knight-errant is a character who has broken away from the world of his origin, in order to go off on his own to right wrongs or to test and assert his own chivalric ideals. In medieval Europe, knight-errantry existed in literature, though fictional works from this time often were presented as non-fiction . The template of

1296-515: Is based on the television episode "Genesis" by Frank Rolfe. This novel is the only source wherein a name is given to the Paladin character, Clay Alexander, but fans of the series do not consider this name canonical. Dell Comics published a number of comic books with original stories based on the television series. In 2000, Martin Grams, Jr. and Les Rayburn self-published the 500-page trade paperback, The Have Gun – Will Travel Companion , documenting

1377-480: Is even a popular literary tradition that arose during the Tang dynasty which centered on slaves who used supernatural physical abilities to save kidnapped damsels in distress and to swim to the bottom of raging rivers to retrieve treasures for their feudal lords (see Kunlun Nu ). A youxia who excels or is renowned for martial prowess or skills is usually called wuxia . In Japan, the expression musha shugyō described

1458-522: Is inconsistent, being given as "Cartwright" in two episodes, and "Matthews" in another. Tony Regan also appears as an unnamed desk clerk in over a dozen episodes, between seasons two and five. Hal Needham , later a noted director, worked on the show as a stunt performer and can be seen as a bit-part player (in a wide variety of roles) in nearly 50 episodes. Have Gun – Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson , Don Ingalls , Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman . Of

1539-636: Is one of the writers who created Dirty Harry (the opening title and theme scene of the 1973 Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force features a Paladin -like sequence of a handgun being slowly cocked and then finally pointed toward the camera, with a potent line of dialogue). Sam Peckinpah wrote one episode, "The Singer", which aired in 1958. Other notable writers who contributed an episode include Gene L. Coon , Richard Matheson , Charles Beaumont , Laurence Heath, and Fred Freiberger . Both Star Trek and Mission: Impossible were produced by Desilu Productions and later Paramount Television , which also now owns

1620-646: Is seen in several episodes receiving instruction and training with a kung ku master in San Francisco. He is highly educated, able to quote classic literature, philosophy, and case law, and speaks several languages. He is also president of the San Francisco Stock Exchange Club. When out working, Paladin changes into all-black Western-style clothing . His primary weapon is a custom-made, first-generation .45 caliber Colt Single Action Army Cavalry Model revolver with an unusual rifled barrel, carried in

1701-488: The CBS Radio Network between November 23, 1958, and November 27, 1960. It was one of the last radio dramas featuring continuing characters and one of only a handful of American radio adaptations of a television series. John Dehner (a regular on the radio series version of Gunsmoke ) played Paladin, and Ben Wright usually (but not always) played Hey Boy. Virginia Gregg played Miss Wong, Hey Boy's girlfriend, before

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1782-524: The Iberian Peninsula ; Amadis de Gaula was one of the most successful knight-errantry tales of this period. In Don Quixote (1605), Miguel de Cervantes burlesqued the romances and their popularity. Tales of knight-errantry then fell out of fashion for two centuries, until they re-emerged in the form of the historical novel in Romanticism . A knight-errant typically performed all his deeds in

1863-501: The redistribution of the Paladin show by Viacom . In 1992, the jury award was reversed. The United States Court of Appeals ruled that because Mr. DeCosta had unsuccessfully sued in the past over the same issues, "the doctrine of 'collateral estoppel' bars his new claims." In other words, he was not allowed a second attempt to try the old, previously settled dispute. See the final legal case: Victor DeCosta, v. VIACOM, 981 F.2d 602, 604 (1st Cir. 1992). De Costa died on 29 January 1993 at

1944-404: The soap opera genre and put it into a Western setting, with established TV Western star Jim Davis as patriarch Jock Ewing . The 1990s saw the networks filming Western movies on their own. These include Louis L'Amour's Conagher starring Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross , Tony Hillerman's The Dark Wind , The Last Outlaw , The Jack Bull , The Cisco Kid , The Cherokee Kid , and

2025-521: The "knight in shining armour" in depiction of the Middle Ages in popular culture , and the term came to be used also outside of medieval drama, as in The Dark Knight as a title of Batman . In the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire , there is a class of knights referred to as Hedge Knights. A Hedge Knight is a wandering knight without a master, and many are quite poor. Hedge knights travel

2106-560: The 1990s and 2000s, slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced. The Saturday Afternoon Matinee on the radio were a pre-television phenomenon in the US which often featured Western series. Film Westerns turned John Wayne , Ken Maynard , Audie Murphy , Tom Mix , and Johnny Mack Brown into major idols of a young audience, plus " singing cowboys " such as Gene Autry , Roy Rogers and Dale Evans , Dick Foran , Rex Allen , Tex Ritter , Ken Curtis , and Bob Steele . Each cowboy had

2187-490: The 225 episodes of the television series, 24 were written by Gene Roddenberry . Other major contributors included Bruce Geller , Harry Julian Fink , Don Brinkley , and Irving Wallace . Andrew V. McLaglen directed 101 episodes, and 28 were directed by series star Richard Boone . Unlike many Westerns, entire episodes were filmed outdoors and away from the Old West Street set on Irving Street just below Melrose Avenue ,

2268-501: The Abbott Ranch near Prineville , Oregon. Many of the writers who worked on Have Gun – Will Travel went on to gain fame elsewhere. Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek , Bruce Geller created Mission: Impossible , Samuel A. Peeples created The Tall Man , Custer , and Lancer , and Harold Jack Bloom created Boone's later series Hec Ramsey and the 1970s medical-adventure series Emergency! Harry Julian Fink

2349-583: The British/Australian Western Whiplash set in 1850/60's Australia with four scripts by Gene Roddenberry . Traditional Westerns began to disappear from television in the late 1960s and early 1970s as color television became ubiquitous. With the exception of the short-lived The Cowboys in 1974, 1968 was the last season any new traditional Westerns debuted on television; by 1969, after pressure from parental advocacy groups who claimed Westerns were too violent for television, all three of

2430-515: The Iberian Peninsula in the 16th century. In Jean Giraudoux 's play Ondine , which starred Audrey Hepburn on Broadway in 1954, a knight-errant appears, during a storm, at the humble home of a fisherman and his wife. A depiction of knight-errantry in the modern historical novel is found in Sir Nigel by Arthur Conan Doyle (1906). The knight-errant stock character became the trope of

2511-485: The Paladin character. De Costa kept pursuing his legal options, and in 1991—more than 30 years after his first lawsuit was originally filed—a federal jury awarded DeCosta $ 3.5 million from Viacom International, by then a CBS subsidiary , which has distributed the show's reruns in defiance of De Costa's registered trademark, ordering Viacom to pay DeCosta $ 1 million for his loss and $ 2.5 million in punitive damages . Rhode Island District Judge Ernest C. Torres blocked

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2592-582: The Pretty Horses , John Grady Cole, is said to be based specifically on Sir Gawain, of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Both characters share a number of aspects and traits; both are rooted in the myths of a past that no longer exists, and both live by codes of conduct from a previous era. Don Quixote is an early 17th-century parody of the genre, in reaction to the extreme popularity which late medieval romances such as Amadis de Gaula came to enjoy in

2673-465: The TV series Lonesome Dove . Zorro was remade with Duncan Regehr for The Family Channel filmed in Madrid, Spain. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman was an American Western/dramatic television series created by Beth Sullivan. It ran on CBS for six seasons, from January 1, 1993, to May 16, 1998, and won multiple Emmy awards. Walker, Texas Ranger was a long-running Western/crime drama series, set in

2754-519: The age of 84. In the end, he received nothing. Westerns on television Television Westerns are programs with settings in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West , Western Canada and Mexico during the period from about 1860 to the end of the so-called " Indian Wars ". More recent entries in the Western genre have used the neo-Western subgenre, placing events in

2835-512: The boom in TV Westerns began, thirty such shows were on television during prime time; none had been canceled that season, while 14 new ones had appeared. In one week in March 1959, eight of the top ten shows were Westerns, and an estimated $ 125 million in toys based on TV Westerns would be sold that year. Many were "four-wall Westerns", filmed indoors in three days or less with scripts of poor quality, and

2916-534: The character of Hey Girl, played by Lisa Lu , replacing Hey Boy for season four while Kam Tong worked on the Mr. Garlund television series. Lisa Lu had previously played Hey Boy's sister, Kim Li, in "Hey Boy's Revenge". Character actor Olan Soule appears in 10 episodes across all six seasons of Have Gun – Will Travel as an employee of the Carlton Hotel, usually identified as the manager/desk clerk. The character's name

2997-402: The chess knight emblem against the black background, and the four-note-repeat fades out. This opening then fades out and the show fades in on its opening scene. A later version of the opening sequence (seasons three to six) has a long-range shot, with Paladin in a full-body profile silhouette, and he fast-draws the revolver, dropping into a slight crouch as he turns, pointing at the camera. After

3078-537: The construction of the First transcontinental railroad across the United States, which debuted in 2011 on AMC ; and Longmire , about a modern-day Wyoming sheriff, which debuted in 2012 on A&E . The Mandalorian (2019) is a space Western set within the Star Wars franchise and universe, with its lead character, a Mandalorian , roaming the galactic frontier and borrowing character traits from Clint Eastwood . With

3159-433: The court of Vladimir I of Kiev . Three popular bogatyrs— Ilya Muromets , Dobrynya Nikitich and Alyosha Popovich (famously painted by Victor Vasnetsov )—are said to have served him. Youxia , Chinese knights-errant, traveled solo protecting common folk from oppressive regimes. Unlike their European counterpart, they did not come from any particular social caste and were anything from soldiers to poets. There

3240-652: The difficulties clients bring his way without violence, but this rarely happens. When forced, he excels in fisticuffs . Under his real name, which is never revealed, he was a dueling champion of some renown. Paladin is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the American Civil War , in which he served as a Union cavalry officer. In the episode "The Bostonian", he indirectly reveals he comes from Boston (or at least spent some time there), claiming, "In my youth, . . I

3321-434: The dubbed-over line, he straightens as he shoves the firearm into his holster. This silhouette visual remained for the run of the series. In later episodes, the teaser line was dropped; as seen in many of the episodes of the final two seasons' opening titles, when Paladin crouches and points his gun at the camera, first "RICHARD BOONE", and then "HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL" would appear as before, and Boone would reholster his gun as

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3402-471: The episode continues, Hey Boy is referred to (verbally) five times as Kim Chan and then on the sixth incident Paladin states Hey Boy's name as Kim Chang and thereafter he is referred to as Kim Chang every time. No explanation is given for the name change. Hey Boy is played by Kam Tong . According to author and historian Martin Grams Jr. , Hey Boy is featured in all but the fourth of the show's six seasons, with

3483-564: The episode titled "Treasure Trail" is actually "Hunt the Man Down", and on disk four, "Hunt the Man Down" is "Treasure Trail"; the "Wire Paladin" in each case refers to the other episode. The television show was nominated for three Emmy Awards : In 1957, Gene Roddenberry received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Script for the episode "Helen of Abajinian". The Have Gun – Will Travel radio show broadcast 106 episodes on

3564-468: The episodes were released on VHS by Columbia House . CBS DVD (distributed by Paramount ) has released all six seasons of Have Gun – Will Travel on DVD in Region 1. Season six, volumes one and two were first released on May 7, 2013. On May 10, 2016, CBS DVD was to release Have Gun – Will Travel – The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1. In the second-season DVD, two episodes are mislabeled. On disk three,

3645-523: The few shows in television history to spawn a successful radio version. This series follows the adventures of a man calling himself " Paladin " (played by Richard Boone on television and voiced by John Dehner on radio), taking his name from that of the foremost knights in Charlemagne 's court. He is a gentleman investigator/gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a mercenary for people who hire him to solve their problems. Like many Westerns,

3726-460: The film does not hold an official confirmed release date. Paramount Pictures extended an 18-month option on the television series and planned to transform the character of Paladin into a modern-day bounty hunter. Eminem was expected to work on the soundtrack. In August 2012, several venues announced that David Mamet was developing a reboot of the television series for CBS. In the television series Maverick , season two, episode 16, " Gun Shy ",

3807-563: The genre's enormous popularity mystified even its creators; TIME quoted one of the about 100 writers for TV Westerns as wondering "I don't get it. Why do people want to spend so much time staring at the wrong end of a horse?" A horse cost up to $ 100 a day, compared to $ 22.05 for an extra; increasing production costs caused most action half-hour series vanishing in the early 1960s to be replaced by hour long television shows, increasingly in color. Two unusual Western series of this era are Zorro , set in early California under Spanish rule, and

3888-478: The growth of cable television and direct broadcast satellites , reruns of Westerns have become more common. Upon its launch in 1996, TV Land carried a block of Westerns on Sundays; the network still airs Bonanza and the color episodes of Gunsmoke to the present day, which make up several hours of their daytime schedule. Encore Westerns , part of the Encore slate of premium channels, airs blocks of Western series in

3969-399: The hammer, and then rotates the gun to point the barrel at the viewer for ten seconds, often delivering a line of dialogue from the coming episode, after which the pistol is uncocked and holstered briskly. As the weapon is reholstered and the view tightens to show only the chess knight, again, the four-note-repeat backbeat returns. As only the chess knight emblem in a black background is back,

4050-480: The history of the radio and television series. In 1997, a film version of the television series was announced. John Travolta was named as a possible star in the Warner Bros. production, which was scripted by Larry Ferguson and to be directed by The Fugitive director Andrew Davis . The film was never made. In 2006, a Have Gun – Will Travel film starring rapper Eminem was announced to be in production, but

4131-526: The home of Filmaster television production company. Filmaster was located across the street from, later becoming part of, Paramount Studios' backlot . The area is now enclosed in the independent Kingsley Productions studio lot encompassing a city block. Beginning in season four, filming locations were often given in the closing credits. Locations included Bishop and Lone Pine , California; an area now known as Paladin Estates between Bend and Sisters , Oregon; and

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4212-727: The knight-errant were the heroes of the Round Table of the Arthurian cycle such as Gawain , Lancelot , and Percival . The quest par excellence in pursuit of which these knights wandered the lands is that of the Holy Grail , such as in Perceval, the Story of the Grail written by Chrétien de Troyes in the 1180s. The character of the wandering knight existed in romantic literature as it developed during

4293-515: The late 12th century. However, the term "knight-errant" was to come later; its first extant usage occurs in the 14th-century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight . Knight-errantry tales remained popular with courtly audiences throughout the Late Middle Ages . They were written in Middle French , Middle English , and Middle German . In the 16th century, the genre became highly popular in

4374-800: The length and breadth of the fictional continent of Westeros looking for gainful employment, and their name comes from the propensity to sleep out in the open air or in forests when they cannot afford lodging. The life of a hedge knight is depicted in the Tales of Dunk and Egg . The protagonist of Lee Child 's Jack Reacher novels, Jack Reacher, is intended by the author as a modern-day reflection of classic lone heroes. East Slavic bylina (epic poetry) feature bogatyrs , knights-errant who served as protectors of their homeland, and occasionally as adventurers. Some of them are presumed to be historical figures, while others are fictional and possibly descend from Slavic mythology . Most tales about bogatyrs revolve around

4455-419: The major networks ceased airing new Western series. Demographic pressures and overall burnout from the format may have also been a factor as viewers became bored and disinterested with the glut of Westerns on the air at the time. By 1971, production companies had acknowledged that "the Western idea is out." The two last traditional Westerns, Death Valley Days and Gunsmoke , ended their runs in 1975. While

4536-495: The modern day, or the space Western subgenre but still draw inspiration from the outlaw attitudes prevalent in traditional Western productions. When television became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, TV Westerns quickly became an audience favorite, with 30 such shows airing at prime time by 1959. Traditional Westerns faded in popularity in the late 1960s, while new shows fused Western elements with other types of shows, such as family drama, mystery thrillers, and crime drama. In

4617-462: The modern era, in the United States, that starred and later was produced by Chuck Norris . It ran on CBS for nine seasons, from April 21, 1993, to May 19, 2001. For most of their time on air, Dr. Quinn and Walker aired on the same Saturday night lineup. Walker would receive a reboot in 2021, with a prequel, Walker: Independence , following in 2022. In the 1993–1994 season, the Fox network aired

4698-437: The morning and in the afternoon, while the channel airs Western films the rest of the day. MeTV , a digital broadcast channel, includes Westerns in its regular schedule as well, as does sister network Heroes & Icons . The family oriented INSP and Grit , another digital broadcast channel, also carry Westerns on its daytime schedules. INSP, previously a televangelism network, had such success with its Westerns that it adopted

4779-535: The name "RICHARD BOONE" appears across the screen for about five seconds. The name fades out and immediately the words "in HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL" fade in, again for about five seconds. Boone's name and the show's title are accompanied by a four-note "stinger" that overshadows the four-note-repeat. The "stinger" is roughly the same as that heard when Paladin's business card is flashed on screen (in almost every episode). The words fade away after those five seconds, leaving only

4860-429: The name of a lady, and invoked her name before performing an exploit. In more sublimated forms of knight-errantry, pure moralist idealism rather than romantic inspiration motivated the knight-errant (as in the case of Sir Galahad ). Such a knight might well be outside the structure of feudalism , wandering solely to perform noble exploits (and perhaps to find a lord to give his service to), but might also be in service to

4941-474: The name. Both episodes star James Garner . In the 1962 Tom and Jerry cartoon " Tall in the Trap ", Tom rolls into town on spurs with a card reading "Tall in the Trap" showing a mousetrap on a knight chess piece. In the third episode of the seventh season of Archer ("Deadly Prep," April 14, 2016) the titular character is seen cleaning his weapon as he sings the theme song from Have Gun - Will Travel . In 1974,

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5022-534: The opening sequences. However, in the season-six episode "Sweet Lady in the Moon" (episode 26, 1963), the ballad was played complete over the closing credits. Johnny Western has sung a fully recorded version, opening with the refrain and including a second verse never heard on the television series. When showing episodes with Paladin at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco, background music is often played. That instrumental

5103-448: The rights to Have Gun – Will Travel through its successor company, CBS Television Distribution . The program's opening was a four-note motif composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann . For the opening theme, Herrmann reused a short sequence he had previously composed for the 1951 movie On Dangerous Ground , starring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino . The Have Gun – Will Travel theme (and fragments of incidental music also used in

5184-680: The romances, his adventures frequently included greater foes than other knights, including giants , enchantresses , or dragons . They may also gain help that is out of ordinary. Sir Ywain assisted a lion against a serpent, and was thereafter accompanied by it, becoming the Knight of the Lion . Other knights-errant have been assisted by wild men of the woods , as in Valentine and Orson , or, like Guillaume de Palerme , by wolves that were, in fact, enchanted princes. The protagonist of Cormac McCarthy 's novel All

5265-438: The same 45-second visual. Over a slow, four-note-repeat backbeat score, a tight shot of Paladin's chess knight emblem centered in a black background is seen, before the view widens to show the emblem affixed to Paladin's holster, with Paladin in his trademark costume seen from waist level in profile. Then, as he draws his revolver from the holster, the four-note-repeat backbeat fades to a light, almost harp-like strumming. He cocks

5346-524: The same audience. When the popularity of television exploded in the late 1940s and 1950s, Westerns quickly became a staple of small-screen entertainment. The first, on June 24, 1949, was the Hopalong Cassidy show, at first edited from the 66 films made by William Boyd . Many B-movie Westerns were aired on TV as time fillers, while a number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right. The earliest TV Westerns were written primarily for

5427-477: The season-six premiere "Genesis", gives Paladin's real name as Clay Alexander. The one other major semiregular character in the show is the Chinese bellhop at the Carlton Hotel, known as Hey Boy (real name Kim Chan or Kim Chang); in the first season in the episode called "Hey Boy's Revenge", the character Hey Boy is sought by Paladin under the name Kim Chan, which is written on a piece of paper and shown on screen. As

5508-404: The song was the only closing music. In the third season, a new lyric was added to the five-line "The Ballad of Paladin", making it six lines long. In 1962–1963, the final season, the song's lyrics were cut to four lines, the original fourth and added sixth being dropped. This occurred because the production credits for writer, producer, and director were pulled from the closing credits to appear over

5589-424: The spirit of the recently popularized James Bond franchise. F Troop was a satirical sitcom that made fun of the genre. The limited-run McCloud , which premiered in 1970, was essentially a fusion of the sheriff-oriented Western with the modern big-city crime drama. Its companion series Hec Ramsey was a lighthearted who-dunnit mystery series set in the late Western era, starring Richard Boone (previously of

5670-583: The television series featured the character of Hey Girl. Unlike the small-screen version, this medium usually had a tag scene at the Carlton at both the beginning and the end of the episode. Initially, the episodes were adaptations of the television program as broadcast earlier the same week, but eventually, original stories were produced, including a finale ("From Here to Boston", "Inheritance", and "Goodbye, Paladin") in which Paladin leaves San Francisco, perhaps forever, to claim an inheritance back east. The radio version

5751-482: The television series) are featured in a chase scene across snowy fields; at the 35:25 mark of the film, the actual Have Gun – Will Travel opening theme is played in recognizable form, although the scoring is slightly different from the better-known television version. The show's closing song, " The Ballad of Paladin ", was written by Johnny Western (who had a role in season one, episode 35, "The Return of Dr. Thackeray"), Richard Boone, and program creator Sam Rolfe, and

5832-414: The television show was set in a time vaguely indicated to be some years after the American Civil War . The radio show announced the year of the story that followed in the opening of each episode. The season-five television episode, "A Drop of Blood", gives the specific date of July 3, 1879. In the 14th and 17th ("Lazarus", March 6 and 7, 1875) episodes of season five, it is 1875. Paladin prefers to settle

5913-428: The time was "Have tux, will travel" (originally from comedian Bob Hope in 1954), and CBS has claimed this was the specific inspiration for the writer Herb Meadow. The television show popularized the phrase in the 1950s and 1960s, and many variations have been used as titles for other works, including the 1958 science-fiction novel Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein . Originally, each show opened with

5994-440: The traditional Western Have Gun, Will Travel ; Boone described the characters in each series as very similar ) as a retired gunfighter turned detective. Cimarron Strip , a lavish 90-minute 1967 series starring Stuart Whitman as a U.S. Marshal , was canceled after a single season primarily because of its unprecedented expense. Nichols featured former Maverick star James Garner as a motorcycle-riding, unarmed peacemaker in

6075-589: The traditional Westerns mostly died out in the late 1960s, more modernized Westerns, incorporating story concepts from outside the traditional genre, began appearing on television shortly thereafter. A number of the new shows downplayed the traditional violent elements of Westerns, for example by having the main characters go unarmed and/or seek to avoid conflicts, or by emphasizing fantasy, comedy or family themes. The Wild Wild West , which ran from 1965 to 1969, combined Westerns with science fiction (what later would be termed steampunk ) and an espionage-thriller format in

6156-444: The words faded out. Due to the networks not always airing episodes in the order they were filmed, the omission of the voice-over dialogue was inconsistent for some of the episodes, as seen in the opening titles. Season six did have the most opening titles without the voice-over dialogue, especially as the season progressed, again as seen when the episodes opened. September 14, 1957 – September 21, 1963: Saturdays at 9:30 pm All of

6237-499: Was "Darling Nelly Gray", which is a 19th-century popular song written and composed by Benjamin Hanby. The title is a variation on a cliche used in personal advertisements in newspapers such as The Times , indicating that the advertiser (a job seeker) is equipped for a certain category of jobs and flexible about the location of the job. It has been used this way from the early 20th century. A trope common in theatrical advertising at

6318-499: Was a Shaolin monk , the son of an American father and a Chinese mother, who fought only with his formidable martial art skill. Bruce Lee had proposed a series with a similar concept, The Warrior , but studios rejected it; it would eventually be produced over 40 years after Lee's death. The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams was a family adventure show about a gentle mountain man with an uncanny connection to wildlife who helps others who visit his wilderness refuge. Dallas took

6399-459: Was performed by Western. In the first season, the closing song was a reprise of the opening theme. In syndication, the first (premise) episode concludes with the Johnny Western ballad. The rest of the first-season episodes play a reprise of the opening theme; although the theme song was used in closing at least four times in season one, including episodes 25, 30, 33, and 34. In the second season,

6480-589: Was the best-dressed bouncer in Scollay Square ." His permanent place of residence is the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco , where he lives the life of a successful businessman and bon vivant , wearing elegant custom-made suits, consuming fine wine, playing the piano, and attending the opera and other cultural events. He is an expert chess player, poker player, and swordsman. He is skilled in Chinese martial arts, and

6561-546: Was written by producer/writer Roy Winsor . Three novels were based on the television show, all with the title of the show. The first was a hardback written for children, published by Whitman in 1959 in a series of novelizations of television shows. It was written by Barlow Meyers and illustrated by Nichols S. Firfires. The second was a 1960 paperback original, written for adults by Noel Loomis. The last book, A Man Called Paladin , written by Frank C. Robertson and published in 1963 by Collier-Macmillan in hardback and paperback,

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