The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC. The series starred John Payne as a gregarious, intelligent, wandering cowhand/gunslinger. The half-hour black and white 1957-59 program ran for 78 episodes. The pilot was broadcast as an installment of the anthology series The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars on March 29, 1957; it was based on the old time radio series "The Six Shooter" and Payne's character had the same name: Britt Ponset. This was changed to Vint Bonner when the actual series began. Some episodes of the series were based on the stories of the old time radio programs.
This pilot episode is very interesting to watch for any "Six Shooter" western fans of the radio series. There is some interesting co-stars in this pilot episode like William Hopper who went on to play Paul Drake in the show Perry Mason and a very young Michael Landon who went on to play Little Joe on Bonanza.
This Pilot episode was written by Les Crutchfield, one of the major writers for "Gunsmoke" on both radio and television (he wrote 81 scripts for the radio program alone) and also created the character Festus on the Gunsmoke TV series.
The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC. The series starred John Payne as a gregarious, intelligent, wandering cowhand/gunslinger. The half-hour black and white 1957-59 program ran for 78 episodes. The pilot was broadcast as an installment of the anthology series The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars on March 29, 1957; it was based on the old time radio series "The Six Shooter" and Payne's character had the same name: Britt Ponset. This was changed to Vint Bonner when the actual series began. Some episodes of the series were based on the stories of the old time radio programs.
This pilot episode is very interesting to watch for any "Six Shooter" western fans of the radio series. There is some interesting co-stars in this pilot episode like William Hopper who went on to play Paul Drake in the show Perry Mason and a very young Michael Landon who went on to play Little Joe on Bonanza.
This Pilot episode was written by Les Crutchfield, one of the major writers for "Gunsmoke" on both radio and television (he wrote 81 scripts for the radio program alone) and also created the character Festus on the Gunsmoke TV series.
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