The Restless Gun Western TV show episodes. Starring John Payne.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RESTLESS GUN WESTERN TV SHOW AND WATCH SOME FREE EPISODES ONLINE CLICK HERE
The Restless Gun is an American western tv series that originally aired on NBC between 1957 and 1959, starring John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering westerner cowboy in the time after the Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in several roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun.
The Restless Gun theme song (officially titled “I Ride With the Wind”) begins: “I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun…” The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson.
Broadcast on March 29, 1957, as an installment of the CBS anthology series The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, the pilot episode was based on a radio series The Six Shooter, with Payne’s character named Britt Ponset. For the television version, however, the name was changed to Vint Bonner. Some episodes were based on the radio programs. The principal producer of The Restless Gun was David Dortort, thereafter in 1959 the executive producer of NBC’s blockbuster western hit Bonanza. Dortort did not create The Restless Gun, nor did he produce the pilot episode, and he rarely contributed original scripts. A critic who considers The Restless Gun only an average program, writes that the series “probably owes its mediocrity more to MCA, the company that ‘packaged’ the series and produced it through its television arm Revue Productions, than to Dortort.”
The Restless Gun ranked in the Top Ten during its first season on the air, ending the year at No. 8, but it was not among the highest rated programs in the second season.
Cast
Robert Crosson
Joyce Cunning (as Joyce Smight)
Andrew Duggan … Red Dawson
William Hopper … Don Maler
Michael Landon … The Kid
James Nolan
John Payne … Britt Ponset
Ray Walker
Directed By Robert Florey
Character Created By Frank Burt
Teleplay By N. B. Stone Jr., Frank Burt
Story By Les Crutchfield
Produced By Richard Lewis
Cinematography By William A. Sickner
Film Editing By Edward Haire
Art Direction John Meehan
Set Decoration By George Milo
Assistant Director Jim Hogan
Original Air Date: December 29, 1958
Season 2, Episode 14
Production Co: Window Glen Productions
Filming Locations: Republic Studios – 4024 Radford Avenue, North Hollywood
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restless_Gun
2 comments
This is the first western TV series I ever watched and it must be over fifty years since I last saw it. It was great to see it again.
I don’t know if my memory is playing tricks but I seem to remember that the opening sequences had John Payne jumping off his horse drawing his gun while crouching by is horses head. but it doesn’t seem so
They’re the best