The Guns of Will Sonnett

I was really glad to see "Guns of Will Sonnett" was on DVD. I got the first season and wow what a disappointment! It's the worst color TV video transfer on DVD I have ever seen! My guess is every show was from old 16mm prints that were either edited for more TV commercial time or ripped and snapped so many times and spliced back together with large pieces missing, too many obvious cuts and jumps. The film was very faded and 'washed out'. A first for me, as you watch you notice the left side of the screen is out of focus and slightly (only slightly) sharper on the right side. At times you can see some one must have been adjusting the focus even while the film was being transfered! I wonder if they were being transfered first to videotape because many times you see 'lines' going across the picture just as you see when you watch a VHS tape after it was eaten up! Each DVD even warns you about the limited abilities in digital mastering at the start! Thanks for the warning! You can guess - poor sound quality. Since "Sonnett" is now released you can be quite sure no one else will re-release it and do it right! Gul-dern shame! The show is great and it's better we have this over nothing, or is it?

Ex-cavalry scout Will Sonnet spouts scripture and wisdom while riding around the west with grandson Jeff. They're looking for the middle generation, Jim, the seldom-seen, lightning-fast, gunslinging anti-hero. Old man Will is grumpy and frugal. He's faster than son Jim ("no brag, just fact," as he says.) Jeff is as good as he is pretty. He sometimes gets suckered by the bad guys, but is still plenty fast and resourceful, since he's been raised by the best. Jim is only occasionally present, but never betrays the moral and badass Sonnet name.

More due to changing times than anything else, The Guns Of Will Sonnett only lasted two seasons. Walter Brennan got to star in his third and final television series and the only one that was dramatic, the previous two being comedies.

The premise involved was a simple one. Grandfather and grandson wandered the west looking for the missing generation. Walter Brennan was Will Sonnett, a seminal frontier character, former army scout, buffalo hunter, just about every occupation in the west there was. Of course it took him away from his responsibilities as father and his son, Jason Evers, grew up to be a notorious gunfighter and also an absentee dad.

But Brennan's grandson Dack Rambo had the advantage of having Brennan raise him, gave him a strict moral code to live by as well as how to handle a six gun.

One thing I never did figure out is where were the Sonnett women? There was no mention of Brennan's wife and there was one story where a woman claimed to be Evers's wife and Rambo's mother, but she turned out not to be.

The show had one catchphrase I always liked. When Brennan said he was going to do something extraordinary to some, he would inevitably say in every show, "no brag, just fact". And he always backed it up.

So every week Will and Jeff Sonnett would arrive in some town looking for James Sonnett and getting involved in some local situation. The show afforded an opportunity for Brennan as producer as well as star to cast some of his old friends in several episodes. It did get to look sometimes like a geriatric western.

I wish it had stayed around a bit longer.

Walter Brennan played all sorts of characters - crusty sidekicks (Rio Bravo), meddling old fools (Disney's, The One and Only, Original Family Band) and evil baddies (My Darling Clementine and How the West Was Won), but rarely did he play a tough guy, mentor and sage as he did in The Guns of Will Sonnett.

Brennan acts assured with the oft-repeated line, "No brag, just fact." This hombre's nobody to mess with, even if he is an old dude.

He's leading his grandson (Dack Rambo), Jeff Sonnett, from town to town looking for his son, Jim Sonnett (Jason Evers), whom they always seem to just miss. This series was reminiscent of The Fugitive where Dr. Richard Kimble always seemed to barely miss finding the one-armed man.

Brennan really doesn't want to fight unless he has to. He's long on scripture, but short on fuse when it's necessary to defend himself and Jeff.

Jim, it seems, has a reputation of being fast with a gun himself, hence, the continual wandering and cutting out of town just before Grandpa and Son show up for a long-standing family reunion.

Dack Rambo, obviously added to draw a young female audience, was a pretty boy, but fast with a gun like his father and Grandpa.

This was a great show. Brennan's character was wise, tough and ready for action. The music was haunting and wistful. I heartily wish it had run for more seasons than it did.

Oscar winning actor Walter Brennan played all sorts of characters. From crusty sidekicks(opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo),to meddling old fools(Disney's The One and Only,Original Family Band),and evil baddies(opposite Henry Fonda in My Darling Clementine and alongside James Stewart in How The West Was Won). Brennan also portrayed lovable but cranky family members(like his character Amos McCoy on the 1950's situation television comedy series The Real McCoys which ran from 1957-1963 on two major television networks,ABC and then CBS and was produced by Sheldon Leonard and based on the characters created by Irving Pincus). Rarely did he play a tough guy,a mentor or a sage until this series came along.

"The Guns of Will Sonnett",was producer Aaron Spelling's first and only attempt at doing a weekly western series. Created by Aaron Spelling and produced by Danny Thomas,this series produced 50 episodes all in color and it ran from September 8,1967-March 21,1969 for the ABC network. Produced by Spelling-Thomas Productions under the executive producers Danny Thomas and Aaron Spelling along with producers Shelley Hull and Dick Clark. Filmed at Desilu-Paramount Studios. Walter Brennan played Will Sonnett,a elderly older man and father figure who was quick with a gun unless it was absolutely necessary. He's leading his grandson(Dack Rambo),Jeff Sonnett from town-to-town looking for the older son,Jim Sonnett(Jason Evers)he never got the chance to meet whom in just above every episode they've seem to missed him. This series was reminiscent of the David Janssen's classic series "The Fugitive" where each week the two Sonnetts come even close to meeting their long-lost family member. Along the way they encounter gun-slingers and low-lifes that come in between there quest. This was ABC's sleeper hits during its line-up of shows for the 1967-1968 season.

This was a brilliant western series that lasted three seasons,even at the time went the show went into its second season(for the 1968-1969 season),Spelling and Thomas were producing another great series,"The Mod Squad",which became one of the greatest cop shows ever to come out of the late 1960's and well into the early 1970's. "The Guns of Will Sonnett" was in fact Spelling's only attempt at making a weekly western and after the show went off the air in March of 1969,Spelling continue into his foray of cop shows and dramas.