"Have Gun, Will Travel" What I never knew until today.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

I was 9 years old when this show first aired. It's presently on MeTv Saturdays.

I only just clocked that the horse engraved on his holster shown during opening credits was a depiction of the Knight chess piece. (I saw Horse > Western.) In researching I learned about the 12 Paladin knights of King Charlemagne's Court in the 8th century, which inspired the character. I just thought it was an interesting name. And theme song

It was a very popular show in its day. I think that was in large part due to Richard Boone. I do wonder how many understood the idea behind this show. Went right over my noggin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paladin?wprov=sfla1

[Walleye]

1. I also liked his elegant business card

[japple]

5. We used to listen to it on the radio when we were kids. One year, my brother got a

Have Gun Will Travel gun set for Christmas--a replica of whatever sidearm Paladin carried, complete with belt, holster, and even business cards. It said "Wire Paladin San Francisco," and for the longest time my brother swore that Paladin's first name was "Wire." Snort. I get tickled just thinking about it.

[Walleye]

6. Is a great memory. Amazing how they can be brought back by these old TV shows

[a kennedy]

7. One of my older brothers got one for Christmas as well, I loved it.

[multigraincracker]

2. Loved watching it as a kid.

Now I know the rest of the story.

Thanks.

[Ocelot II]

3. Thanks for the earworm!

Now I've got that theme song in my head.

"Have gun will travel reads the card of a man, a knight without armor in a savage land."

[Deuxcents]

4. I was flipping thru the channels and nothing was on I wanted to watch and then

I came to Metv and Have gun will travel was on and I stopped and watched it today..first time in I don’t know how long. Thanks for the info..was timely

[Otterdaemmerung]

8. My husband...

grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, in the 1940s-50s when the show was popular, and attended Furman University as they were starting work on their new central campus that's still used today. At the time, it had a varying collection of various heritage sports team names from its history and they wanted to unite them all under one new name. My husband was of the Class of 1962, the first class on the new campus, and a student poll was taken to decide the name. "Have Gun, Will Travel" was a popular TV show at the time, and so that's why all of Furman's sports teams are named the Paladins today.

"F.U. one time... F.U. two times... F.U. ALL THE TIME!"

[SleeplessinSoCal]

9. Watching HGWT now - "The Last Judgement"

So completely echos MTG going after Fauci. In this case the doctor said to Paladin: "Where ignorance is bliss tis folly to be wise." No easy answer here, or in reality of 2024.

I'd say that's the state we are in. If only only tripping the bad guy was a real solution.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0597621/?ref_=ext_shr


Gray Quote: https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/9502/what-did-gray-mean-by-where-ignorance-is-bliss-tis-folly-to-be-wise

[LessAspin]

10. Tales of Wells Fargo

Last edited Thu Nov 13, 2025, 03:42 PM - Edit history (3)

Westerns were on their way out when I was old enough to have a memory of them. Gunsmoke and Bonanza were wrapping up long runs and I don't recall liking either one.

MeTV, Grit TV, H&I.. airing the old westerns like Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, Rawhide.. gave me a new appreciation for how well done these shows actually were..

Recently watched a video with James Garner explaining what a brutal schedule they had producing Maverick .. which led them to hire Jack Kelley and Roger Moore as his brothers. They also hired an entire new crew to produce those concurrent with the original production crew in order to stay on schedule.

Clint Eastwood talked about taking his down time on Rawhide to shoot the Sergio Leone spaghetti western trilogy

Eric Fleming starred as the trail boss on Rawhide. He went on to do a few episodes of Bonanza after Rawhide but sadly drowned while shooting a scene for High Jungle an episode from a series called Off to See the Wizard.

Steve McQueen was another good one in Wanted Dead or Alive but I started this reply to mention Dale Robertson..

Dale Robertson in Tales of Wells Fargo is another one I just became aware of on Grit TV. I hate to admit it but it was very well written. While recognizing at the same time that it served, at least in part, as a propaganda tool for a pretty bad company with a very sketchy history.

Among the last few tv appearances Dale Robertson made were a few episodes of Murder, She Wrote but he refused to be in the credits when they would not give him top billing over the other guest stars.