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

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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.