The Restless Gun

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.

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.

Entertaining series based on the Six- Shooter radio series starring Jimmy Stewart portraying a wandering gunfighter named Britt Ponsett. That series ran 39 episodes from 1953 to 1954. Several of the radio scripts were used on the televised version, much like the early TV version of Gunsmoke starring James Arness used the fine radio scripts with WilliamConrad as Matt Dillon. Always a John Payne movie fan, I was thrilled to find this series via YouTube. This was his last hurrah as a regular TV performer. He made several guest appearances on series through the 70s. John Payne passed away in 1989.

John Payne does an excellent job in caring solutions to others problems.

The 77 half-hour episodes (all in B&W) of the television western "The Restless Gun" ran from 1957-1959 on NBC. John Payne (best known as the Santa believing attorney in "Miracle on 34th Street") played the title character whose series name was Vint Bonner. There was also a half hour pilot where Payne's character had a different name (Britt Ponset). 23 of these episodes (including the pilot) are on the new DVD release.

"The Restless Gun" was a big deal back in those days. It had its own Dell 4-color comic book and was part of Topps 1958 set of T.V. Western trading cards. This was the first series for "Bonanza" producer David Dotort. Payne was the show's executive producer.

What distinguished Vint Bonner from the legion of televised loners (Johnny Yuma, Cheyenne, Sugarfoot, Bronco Lane, etc.) who were roaming the range back then was that he was clearly a professional gunfighter (like Paladin) and not just somebody trying to find themselves. He didn't have Paladin's style or fondness for the good life, rather he seemed pretty world weary and disillusioned.

As someone has already mentioned, Bonner carried around a special kit that would extend the effective range of his colt. This involved a detailed assembly sequence in which a barrel extension and a rifle stock were attached to the handgun. The idea of a modified novelty gun soon inspired imitators, "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "The Rifleman" within the western genre. Then "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." as the spy shows proliferated. The U.N.C.L.E. gun was the most like what was featured on "The Restless Gun". The featured gun has been largely forgotten except among toy collectors, as a toy replica was released at the time along with the show's other merchandising programs.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.