Have Gun Will Travel or Wanted: Dead or Alive

[ChiO]

I remember Hec Ramsey, too. Wasn't it part of a rotating series (Sunday night? NBC?) that included Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan & Wife?

[cinemalover]

ChiO,
Your memory is better than mine on the details. i had to use my friend, Mr. Google, to learn that yes, the Wednesday Movie Mystery series was moved to Sunday night in 1972 and Hec Ramsey was added as a fourth series. It survived two seasons but only produced 10 episodes, apparently Mr. Boone and Universal didn't see eye to eye on the develpoment of the series and that helped it to an early demise.

[Lzcutter]

I loved Hec Ramsey.

JD Cannon and Richard Lenz were the co-stars as I recall. Wasn't Lenz the one always using the fingerprinting kit and Hec solved the crimes the old fashioned way?

[movieman1957]

Some of us have become fans of "HGWT" so maybe there are episodes we can throw around.

I saw one last night that Paladin was actually afraid. That was a first. People who were responsible for bringing a man to trial and eventual hanging, including Paladin, were being killed off by someone in a most unsporting manner. Paladin goes to meet them head on and is unsure which one of three is out to kill him. He spends a good deal of time wearing them down while watching his back all the way. It's called "First, You Catch The Tiger."

Often these shows seem to borrow from movies or each other. In another episodes titled "Episode In Laredo" very much of it plays like "The Gunfighter" but the ending points toward the finale of "The Shootist."

[JackFavell]

Ooh, Thanks for bringing up this thread Chris....

I haven't gotten through too many eps yet, but I can tell you, there is only one I haven't liked, and it's the baseball episode. It's weird. I like baseball, and I like Paladin. But that episode is so dull and badly timed I actually turned it off.

So far Genesis is my favorite, with the Charles Bronson episode The Outlaw coming in a close second. The Race is my third favorite, with our Ben.

[movieman1957]

I am mostly watching these in order of showing. I haven't gotten to the baseball episode yet. I only saw "Genesis" as I caught it on TV. Not all of them are great and a couple might be best described as odd but overall it is a series that most of the way through the third season I still enjoy a great deal.

[MissGoddess]

I haven't seen the baseball episode yet, either, but I gather Boone was a fan of the game:


I've yet to see an episode I disliked, though a couple were just okay. Mostly I've been surprised how original
the plots and ideas are for a half hour series. Though I have noticed a couple of them resembling movies
like Stagecoach and one that was very much like Roman Holiday. Overall, I'm impressed with
the morality tale aspect of the series. Human nature and how it embodies or fails to uphold values always
seems to be on display.

There was one the other day I thought very cute, about a young female missionary come out west
to tame a gun ridden town. Paladin is hired to do the same thing for this town, only of course,
by force, not Scripture. It's rather sweet how Paladin can face down the gunslingers but he's
at a loss to cope with the young lady's unswerving faith.

[JackFavell]

That photo is a hoot! Oh my gosh.

I have to find that episode, Goddess, because it sounds like Boone is stymied by the young lady.

Yes, some are odd, but on the whole I like the idea of Boone as a deep thinking western hero. The series seems to deal not with action, though there is some, but with morality - what is it? Is it something written in a book, or pronounced by a "good" man" or group? No. In this situation it is one thing, but in that situation it might be to do the very opposite. I like that in each individual case the morality is different, based on the PEOPLE, the human factor. That is what makes Paladin a great show, and leaves them open to do so many good and individualistic episodes.

[movieman1957]

They like movie titles. Looking through the episode list there are some called "Hobson's Choice" and "One, Two, Three" and "Beau Geste."

[mrsl]

.
Except for the fact that they are both half hour western TV shows, HGWT and W:DOA have extremely different premises. In 'Wanted', Steve McQ always goes in with six guns blazing, whereas Paladin tries first to find a quiet, non-violent solution to whatever problem he has been called for. Never a big fan of McQueen (I could take him or leave him), nor exhuberant over Boone, I can look at both of them with untainted eyes. To differentiate them, I would simply say that HGWT is the thinking man's western and W:DOA is for the younger set (pre-teen) perhaps.
.

[MissGoddess]

I was just wondering if any of the action in HGWT ever took place in San Francisco, while
Paladin was in his "dandy" mode? I mean the whole story, not just one little incident. It seems like
he only presents the action of his stories out on the frontier or in other towns and while in his
all-black costume so I was curious if he varied this once or twice.

[JackFavell]

That's a great question, MissG!

I haven't seen any yet, though Genesis came as close as I've seen because of the Mitchum outer framework.

[movieman1957]

There was one that had to do with Hey Boy and his family. Paladin had to stand in for him in a fight among some Chinese thugs.
Not surprisingly it is called "Hey Boy's Revenge." There may be others but I don't recall.

[JackFavell]

I thought there might be one about Hey Boy. Maybe there is one that introduces Hey Girl too?

[movieman1957]

Just finished one (on disc) called "The Posse." It starred Harry Carey, Jr., Ken Curtis (without much hint of that awful voice) and Denver Pyle. Oddly enough the bad guy was named Dobie. To fill out any Ford connection it was one of many episodes directed by Andrew McLaglen.