Have Gun Will Travel or Wanted: Dead or Alive

[movieman1957]

Another from the same year with Carey, Jr. Even had a thought of Mr. Arkadin as a character starred Hampton Fancher (what a name.) Among other things he became executive producer on "Blade Runner." He also had a hand in the screenplay. He was pretty busy as an actor for a time.

[klondike]

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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.
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Anne, I do believe you might have strung a handful of random facts into some incorrect assumptions, and wound-up fabricating an unfair conclusion or two . . have you ever watched more than a single episode of "Wanted: Dead or Alive"?
To begin with, McQueen can't "always" go "in with six guns blazing", 'cause he never carries revolvers in the first place; furthermore, his character of Josh Randall is not a gun for hire like Boone's Paladin, but rather a professional bounty hunter, which is a much different animal, as they are seldom if ever hired by anyone, but rather are freelance operatives hunting down known criminals - which in turn accounts for a lot of McQueen's "opening" attitudes in many episodes being significantly grimmer & edgier than you would encounter with Boone in "HGWT".
Boone might be hired by a mining boss, or a frightened farm wife, or a desperate immigrant, or a vengeful widow, or a domineering rancher to help alter some impasse or situation; McQueen's job, though not always his predicament, was more chillingly simple: hunt down deadly, fleeing men already charged with a capitol felony, and kill or capture them [hence the title, eh?].
Although hardly the multi-cultural academic that Paladin was, Josh Randall was by nature a polite, mellow, reflective, instinctively respectful individual with a high regard for families and working men, a tall measure of chivalry towards virtually all women that was almost Confederate in its timbre, and about twice the rate of literacy that his appearance suggested.
Time and again, "W:DoA" storylines would take hard "left-turns" because Randall could not bring himself to just "do his job" when the consequences thereof would have put undeserving folks in harm's way, or deprived them of a measure of safety.
As for "W:DoA" being aimed more at an adolescent audience, many of those storylines tackled the same mature issues that were confronted by Paladin - racism, prostitution, illiteracy, illegitimacy, gender prejudice, feudal vendettas, land dispossession, marriage betrayals, labor standoffs, contract murder - so I'd say that despite the lack Shakespearean quotation, the scripting for Randall's exploits were hardly more juvenile than Paladin's.
Sure, McQueen had a tricked-out rifle & corduroy britches - but Boone had that belt-buckle derringer, and liked to lounge around in velevet blazers & lacey shirts, so let's not pick nits here!

[mrsl]

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Klondike:

You're probably correct in assuming that I didn't see enough of W:DOA. As I said, I was not a big fan of either show, but more of HGWT than the other. In fact, McQ never came up in my estimation, he remained pretty much a Johnny one note. If he wasn't beligerent and the 'hot' lover boy, he didn't have a whole lot of range as an actor. Unfortunately, a close look-alike to me was George Peppard, who had it all over McQ in looks, talent, and ability, but never really achieved that superstar status.
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[klondike]

Well, I reckon that's what makes horse races so much fun, and why we prefer to live in the good ol' USA.

Meanwhile, here's the opening for the pilot episode of "Wanted: Dead or Alive" -
{Bad, Jonny Yuma! Bad Little Joe! Get outta town right now!}
[youtube][/youtube]

And in case you ever wondered about the hardware:
[youtube][/youtube]

[movieman1957]

Having run through most of the first year of "Wanted: Dead or Alive" McQueen was often tired of having to live down the reputation that bounty hunters had. He worked within and often with the law. Mild mannered to the point he has, at times, given some of his reward money to those caught up in the outlaw's wake.

[MissGoddess]

Once I've finished all the HGWT episodes I'll have to rent some WDoA.

[movieman1957]

You'll be a while. (226 episodes of HGWT)

[MissGoddess]

My goodness! There were that many? It was a successful show, then. Good, I like it
so much I don't want it to end any time soon.

[mrsl]

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Hopefully, I can redeem myself for my faux pax about W:DoA. It was a Saturday night cowboy show, which my Dad (the lord and master of the TV), did not like. I was only able to see the show when I spent the evening at my girlfriend's house whose family was less tyrannical than mine. Also, I realize that Klondike was right in assuming I was wrong, because I did have McQ mixed up in my mind with Nick Adams, of The Rebel fame. It seems to me the opening shots, before the credits, were similar in both of them shooting, but again, I could be wrong.

Another item was that HGWT was shown on Chicago's channel 9 (WGN) on Sunday morning back in the late 70's and 80's and Mr. L and I watched nearly every Sunday, so it's memory is more fresh to me, and again I watch it now on Encore. Finally, The Rifleman was on Tuesday, the night my Dad did repairs down in the basement, so my little brother and I could watch with no problems which is why that is so familiar to me.

So, thanks Klonny, I can always count on you to slap my hand when I state incorrect facts, and I'll try to do more research next time.
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[klondike]

Consider it more a brotherly squeeze than a slap, Dear; remember, I owe most of my 'brought-upsy' to Strong Women.
That's why I keep my chair so close to yours, here on the "porch" - so you can reach my hand, too.

[movieman1957]

MissG:

You have to go see "HGWT," season 4, an episode titled "Love's Young Dream." It co-stars Ken Curtis. (I found out it is really a sequel to an earlier episode.) He plays a character somewhere between Charlie McCrory and Festus Hagen but you get to hear him sing. He's wonderful. Why he didn't have a career as a singer (if he didn't is beyond me.) It is also very funny.

To answer a question you had somewhere this one not only is in San Francisco but spends about a third of the time in his room and the rest is a club he can get there by walking.

[knitwit45]

I just watched an episode set entirely in San Francisco...he wore a suit with his black shirt It was set mainly in a "den of thieves" with the two main thieves being George Kennedy and Virgina Gregg. Of course, Paladin got the stuffing knocked out of him by George Kennedy, but even with a disabled right hand, Paladin saves the day, the lady and the lady's fiance....or does he? The HGWT series didn't always have neat and tidy endings, did it?

[JackFavell]

Oooh, these sound like gems.... but what am I saying? They are all gems.

[knitwit45]

Jackie, some of them are a bit odd..
"The Man Who Struck Moonshine", starring William Conrad (fairly trim, still had hair) Phyllis Avery and R.B is an example.

Conrad was trying to stay sober for a year, for his wife. She shows up, and INSISTS he start drinking again. The whole story was bizarre, but the stars were interesting, Conrad was excellent as he talked about the first and second drinks, and their effect on him, and RB just kind of stepped back and let them carry the story. Of course he had to save the day with a shoot out with bad guys...if it sounds confusing, it was!

[JackFavell]

To tell you the truth, I don't mind the bizarre ones every now and then, because that means that the writers were trying all sorts of new things. Just the fact that you see something offbeat or even strangely bad is a bonus to me, because no one even tries to do something different nowadays.

The occasional strikeout is probably still better than what you see on TV now - everything is homogenized and recycled and no one does anything creative or inventive at all.