JSngry Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Just finished watching as much of the 24 hour marathon on Encore Westerns as I could. Hadn't seen the show in years, and....DAMN! Great stuff! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QclVGUHvRvE Theme song by Bernard Herrmann! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 I became a fan a couple of years ago when I discovered several seasons in the library...and a friend told me about Herrmann composing the theme. At first it was a trip just seeing Richard Boone play a good guy, after having been a longtime fan of the film The Tall T, but I got used to that soon enough. The show was actually surprisingly progressive for it's time in some ways, too. I plan to watch some more of it on Netflix soon. Great show! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Oh yeah. My dad was a big fan of Have Gun Will Travel. As I recall, it aired on Saturday nights. We'd watch it first and then Gunsmoke. This is probably only funny to me, but my twin brother and I who were probably eight or nine years old at the time, were convinced that Paladin's first name was "Wire". That's because his business card, the one with the chess piece on it, said "Wire Paladin". It never occurred to us that this might have been a way to contact him in San Francisco. I'm not sure how good an actor Richard Boone was, but he was sure perfect to play Paladin. I wish I'd known this was on Encore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold_Z Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 (edited) Anybody remember Belle Barth: Have Crack-Will Shack- Until the schmuck with the gun gets back. Edited January 3, 2010 by Harold_Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Bernard Herrmann contributed a lot of music to show's score library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillF Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 This is more my style: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted January 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Bernard Herrmann contributed a lot of music to show's score library. Yeah, the Encore Westerns marathon seemed to run in chronological order, and on the first show or two he was actually credited with "Musical Score". Then it went to listing Stanley Wilson as "Musical Coordinator", which in my mind means uncredited writers (and according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Wilson_%28musician%29 some of the people hired to do jobs like this included Elmer Bernstein, Juan GarcÃa Esquivel, Dave Grusin, Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Oliver Nelson and Lalo Schifrin, among others. But then before too much longer there were no musical credits save for that theme song sung Johnny Western. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teasing the Korean Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 In the days of great TV scoring, the formula generally went like this: A composer was hired to write the opening theme and score the first few episodes. These were supposed to provide a template for other composers to use in terms of thematic material and instrumentation. Then, a variety of composers would contribute over the course of the run. The musicians union had rules about the percentage of original music vs. "tracked" music from earlier episodes. That is where the "musical coordinator" would come in. The memorable and effective music would often wind up in later episodes, but the shows would still use original scores throughout. There were exceptions to the above but that was generally how it worked. There are some shows that had amazing music. Billy Goldenberg, who did a lot of great things in the early 70s, is sadly underrepresented on LP or CD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron S Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 This is probably only funny to me, but my twin brother and I who were probably eight or nine years old at the time, were convinced that Paladin's first name was "Wire". That's because his business card, the one with the chess piece on it, said "Wire Paladin". It never occurred to us that this might have been a way to contact him in San Francisco. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Pomea Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 I remember George Carlin once had a routine where he named a whole bunch of sitcoms in some bizarre tense, one of which was "Had Gun, Would Have Traveled." I guess the western was something like what zombie and vampire movies and tv shows are to today's kids, the mythology we saw everywhere we looked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GA Russell Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 Have Gun Will Travel was the only TV show made into a radio show during the golden years. Gene Roddenberry wrote the scripts of many of the early shows. I don't want to be a downer here, but I bought the DVD box of the first season, and I was sadly disappointed. The TV show's first year was I think 1957-58. The next year, they started the radio show, using the scripts of the TV show's first season. Not so great. However, the following year, the radio show used its own scripts (many by the great Anne Dowd [sp?]). They were terrific! The second year of Have Gun is my favorite radio show. The radio show was directed by the guy who directed the Gunsmoke radio show (Norman MacDonald?). Everyone with Gunsmoke was disappointed that they were not allowed to be a part of the TV show. So the radio show director took special delight in proving that he could do Have Gun better than the TV show guys could. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 3, 2010 Report Share Posted January 3, 2010 I of course heard of radio shows becoming TV shows, but had no idea it sometimes went the other way. Thinking his first name was "Wire"---that's priceless! Just the way a kid of a certain age would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 I'm not sure how good an actor Richard Boone was, but he was sure perfect to play Paladin. You should check out the Boetticher/Scott movie The Tall T sometime---Boone is quite convincing in it as a hardbitten criminal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Wood Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 The radio shows are available online, and I agree, they are terrific! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 (edited) I posted this a year or so ago, but couldn't find the post...so, if you want to, watch some here! http://www.cbs.com/video/?showname=classics/have_gun_will_travel&showtype=classics#video Ha! just looked again, you hae to go to page 3 to see the first show...makes perfect sense! Edited January 4, 2010 by BERIGAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 I posted this a year or so ago, but couldn't find the post...so, if you want to, watch some here! http://www.cbs.com/video/?showname=classics/have_gun_will_travel&showtype=classics#video Ha! just looked again, you hae to go to page 3 to see the first show...makes perfect sense! I couldn't get the thing to work at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted January 4, 2010 Report Share Posted January 4, 2010 I posted this a year or so ago, but couldn't find the post...so, if you want to, watch some here! http://www.cbs.com/video/?showname=classics/have_gun_will_travel&showtype=classics#video Ha! just looked again, you hae to go to page 3 to see the first show...makes perfect sense! I couldn't get the thing to work at all. Hmmm, you are right. Keeps snapping back to the CBS home page. Weird! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted January 5, 2010 Report Share Posted January 5, 2010 Guess I'll just Netflix the things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted July 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Still watching the Encore Westerns airings, & among the many delights is the recurring presence of Hank Patterson in a variety of roles. I only knew him as Fred Ziffel, which only goes to show you how little I know...the guy's voice alone was a treasure! Also just got to see the "Genesis" episode, the first show of the last season where the explain how Palladin became who he became....Richard Boone in a double role...the Smoke character he plays....they actually got stuff this good on prime time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 There's an episode called "The Lady On The Wall" with quite an impressive crew behind the camera. Director - Ida Lupino Writers - Richard Matheson & Charles Beaumont (Twilight Zone) I need to see that one myself.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted July 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Ida Lupino directed several episodes of the show...supposedly Boone was the instigator/encourager for her pursuing TV direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man with the Golden Arm Posted July 25, 2010 Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 first look at this thread ... Saw an interview recently on why Gary Player wears black? cuz he "thought Paladin was the coolest". Now, any of you old enough to have watched "The Restless Gun"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted July 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2010 Gary Player was right. Palladin's talking to Calamity Jane, who is distraught be/c her manager dumped her and put a younger chick onstage with the same name. CJ pulls out one of her pulp stories & says something like "These are all my stories. I lived 'em all. MY stories!!!" To which Palladin replies, "Ah yes, I remember that one...I had to translate it to Latin because it made so little sense in English." And oh by the way, Lisa Lu as Hey Girl had the sexiest eyes I've ever seen on any woman, ever, period, game over, no contest. But that was just for one season. The other five are equally badass without her. But hey....whoa!, that's all I'm sayin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted July 26, 2010 Report Share Posted July 26, 2010 Still watching the Encore Westerns airings, & among the many delights is the recurring presence of Hank Patterson in a variety of roles. I only knew him as Fred Ziffel, which only goes to show you how little I know...the guy's voice alone was a treasure! Loads of character-actors appeared on that show. Harry Carey, Jr. was on it, and June Lockhart (of Lassie and Lost In Space fame) played a woman doctor in a couple episodes, sort of an early Dr. Quinn I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted October 17, 2013 Report Share Posted October 17, 2013 (edited) Since I just now Saw Mr. Sangrey Have Gun Will Travel, several months ago(I was going backwards trying to find out what season I was talking about) and that he had started a thread on in the show a few years ago, thought what the heck, let's see if the thread can be brought back to life. I am just watching Season 4 via netflix, and I have to say, S4 is better overall, than S3. Sure doesn't hurt that they really improved the transfers for S4(Wonder if they use the same transfers for Encore, or if these transfers are just for DVD? Don't have Encore) Not just visually(Richard Boone's naturally craggly face is now something that looks like it's slightly rougher than the surface of most mountains) but they really improved the sound quality too. Amazingly good for a tv show from the 50's...wait, it was 60 when S4 started. Anyway, still quite impressed that a show that put out 39 episodes a year(and 26 min shows, and with some hour long shows only 42 Minutes today, it's basically 2/3rds the length of an hour drama) and that Richard Boone, who basically is in 90% of all scenes, decided he just wasn't doing enough, and started to direct some episodes too. They are often some of the more stagey, but interesting shows. He is less likely to kill in shows he directed, I have noticed. Or if he does kill someone, it's someone that really isn't all that bad, was given a 2nd chance, but refuses to take it. I have seen shows were someone is so irredeemably bad, you are aching , just aching to see them killed. And they aren't. Other times, a fairly lovable old coot shows up, cheerful music starts playing, and well...you just know they will be best buds, then the coot shoots at Paladin, and he has to kill him. You can see how having to kill wears on Paladin , but for whatever reason(he surely has to have enough money in the bank to retire) he keeps on keeping on. Amazing the faces you see in shows. Hal Needham the director/stuntman, also acted a bit and shows up quite a bit now. Looks like a young James Brolin. Just watched an episode last night that had Peter Falk(in a fancy suit, with hat and horn rimmed glasses, it took me a minute to figure out who it was) and Brett Somers, yes, that Brett Somers from Match Game. Didn't recognize the face, but that voice, you just can't miss. Mike Mazurki, Ken Curtis , pre Festus shows up twice, and sings BEAUTIFULLY in one show. Had no idea he sang for Tommy Dorsey , Shep Fields, and the Sons of the Pioneers! Man, CBS should pay me for this writeup, but if you like Westerns at all, heck, even if you don't, you really should give this show a chance. Edited October 17, 2013 by BERIGAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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