The Restless Gun

Vic Morrow, the punk that he was is in an episode long before he was in Combat. John Milford is in one, i love him, Stacy Harris and John Larch take center stage. Payne is a good cowboy in this, he was a good role for this. Sorry it wasn't on longer to have more of my goons guest star.

My memory captures voices and John Payne's narration is one of the positive things about this series. In those days of black and white, there were mood differences in series by network. Because of station location I seem not to have watched Maverick and his buddies. Restless Gun, as best I can recall, seems to have been a bit softer edged than Gunsmoke and Have Gun. In truth, I cannot remember individual episodes, just the mood of the thing.

Restless Gun began (or ended) with Vint Bonner quoting something like this, "There is so much bad in the best of us and so much good in the worst of us, that it ill behooves any of us to talk about the rest of us." I used to have a paperback or two based on the series and still have a Dell comic which has nice photos and rotten art. My recollection is that Bonner was a kind, sympathetic character who did not want to shoot anybody but had to do what needed to be done.

Since it lasted only two years audience interest must not have been great. However, this was golden age of television westerns and most of them "bit the dust." However, with over 70 episodes this one should be shown. I have never seen it listed on cable but it may have been at some point. Nor does it seem to appear in those episode rip off DVD collections which have a smattering of many things.

It would be nice to see a couple, just to compare to Bonanza and the others which are seen so often.

The Restless Gun sports one of the all-time great television titles. The show itself was dark, gritty, and a little slow. The show's star, John Payne, was a competent actor who graced television and movie screens for four decades. In this series, the long-faced Payne, who was only 45 when the show premiered, seemed a little old for the part. He was a lot of things, but not particularly restless. In the whole, the show was fairly typical of TV Westerns. It was a 30-minute long morality play in which Payne's character was always heroic. The Restless Gun wasn't a bad oater, but it wasn't spectacular either. That is probably why it only lasted 78 episodes.

I also just watched two episodes on Get TV. It's always instructive to see television or films made early, when production was extremely sparse, and yet the drama is propelled forward by real actors, scripts and dialog.

The second episode I watched dealth with accepting new german immigrants, a timely theme in the late 50s, and now for that matter.

Most of what I got out of this episode, and the earlier one which dealt with crime, calling a young murderer 'crafted not just by himself, but by society', was that America no longer has any sensible judgement or morality, and everyone is just spewing agendas based on faulty information, instead of taking one step and case at a time. A methodical approach to secular justice is expressed in these smart episodes, something this country has utterly lost, at least in its public discourse.

Of course, one particular side will blame the other for this condition. They are wrong. Everyone is responsible, especially the people blaming others. Regardless, these are excellent shows, totally watchable, with a strong, smart, just lead in John Payne. It makes America today look bad, and it makes modern film and tv scripts look average in general.

When John Payne's movie career was slowing down he turned to television with this western series. He played Vint Bonner, legendary fast gun western hero who drifts from town to town. As I remember he was like Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter, a man who was getting tired of the business he was in. Unfortunately young toughs looking to make a reputation and people in distress in general wouldn't let him rest.

What I remember best was the early conversion kit he had. In his saddlebag he carried a barrel which could be screwed into the business end of his six shooter and a rifle stock which could be attached to the other end. When one was ambushed from a distance on the trail this became a handy tool to have around.

Of course toy manufacturers had one out for the life of the series. And I wanted one at the age of 10. But alas my parents never let me have one.

Payne was a thoroughgoing professional in every kind of film be it musical or dramatic. That was much in evidence in The Restless Gun. It ran on NBC opposite another western show with an actor looking to make the transition to television. That would be Rory Calhoun in The Texan. But I preferred Mr. Payne.