Have Gun - Will Travel
Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco's Hotel Carlton, where he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight is written "Have Gun, Will Travel...Wire Paladin, San Francisco."
- 1957-1963
- 6 seasons
- CBS
- Action & Adventure
- TV-Y
Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco's Hotel Carlton, where he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight is written "Have Gun, Will Travel...Wire Paladin, San Francisco."
Season 1 Episode Guide
39 Episodes 1957 - 1958
Episode 1
Three Bells to Perdido
Sat, Sep 14, 1957 26 mins
Paladin seeks the job of seizing a rancher's son-in-law at Perdido, an isolated Mexican city of outlaws run by outlaws for outlaws.
Episode 2
The Outlaw
Sat, Sep 21, 1957 26 mins
Paladin accepts the task of capturing an escaped criminal, only to form an irregular bond with the convicted man.
Episode 3
The Great Mojave Chase
Sat, Sep 28, 1957 26 mins
Paladin gambles on eluding an accomplished team of man-hunters in their own stretch of arid wasteland - with the help of an unorthodox Army surplus purchase.
Episode 4
Winchester Quarantine
Sat, Oct 5, 1957 26 mins
When the man in black chooses to aid a tormented Cherokee ranch owner, his actions lead to questions of which side he's really on.
Episode 5
A Matter of Ethics
Sat, Oct 12, 1957 26 mins
Paladin secures some ill feelings when he hires his gun to an accused murderer, but may have to fight an altogether unexpected foe in order to keep the terms of his contract.
Episode 6
The Bride
Sat, Oct 19, 1957 26 mins
Paladin forsakes a possibly lucrative appointment in order to guard a young woman from desert perils.
Episode 7
Strange Vendetta
Sat, Oct 26, 1957 26 mins
When a simple theater invitation turns into a case of assassination, Paladin takes an expensive contract that may prove even more irregular than he realizes.
Episode 8
High Wire
Sat, Nov 2, 1957 26 mins
Paladin plays the sportsman, reluctantly for once, in an effort to reunite a fallen circus performer with his dignity.
Episode 9
Show of Force
Sat, Nov 9, 1957 26 mins
An all-night poker match's deceptive pot gives Paladin strategic inspiration for ending a range war.
Episode 10
The Long Night
Sat, Nov 16, 1957 26 mins
Riding the plains on assignment, Paladin's taken prisoner by a rancher and his hands, pursuing the man in black who romanced, then murdered his much younger wife. 2 other passersby, also traveling from the direction of the spread are seized too: a brash cowboy, and a very proper salesman of rifles. All profess innocence, so the wealthy rancher pits the prisoners against each other - because confession or not there'll be lynching at dawn. Paladin is skeptical of everybody.
Episode 11
The Colonel and the Lady
Sat, Nov 23, 1957 26 mins
Paladin is hired to investigate a storied Gold Rush madam, for a San Francisco writer. The mere research assignment turns complex when the author's maid, Tuolumne O'Toole, attacks Paladin with a knife, admonishing him that the proper, married writer actually harbors cruel intentions. The boomtown warns off Paladin too, protecting the reputation of the brothel keeper who saved its citizens from an epidemic.
Episode 12
No Visitors
Sat, Nov 30, 1957 26 mins
Paladin's patience is tested when a settlement, believing typhoid to be a direct result of divine will, condemns innocents to death.
Episode 13
The Englishman
Sat, Dec 7, 1957 26 mins
Reckless practical jokes endanger human life as Paladin acquaints an English gentleman with new surroundings.
Episode 14
The Yuma Treasure
Sat, Dec 14, 1957 26 mins
Summoned to a frontier fort, Paladin learns from a Major Wilson that the nearby Maricopas -- on whose land sits a legendary goldmine -- have recently turned hostile. Paladine agrees to escort the Major to meet Gerada, the Maricopa chief, but Wilson proves to be more interested in stealing gold than resolving differences.
Episode 15
The Hanging Cross
Sat, Dec 21, 1957 26 mins
Christmas proves a dangerous time when a rancher chooses family over peace and violence over negotiation.
Episode 16
Helen of Abajinian
Sat, Dec 28, 1957 26 mins
A sort-of Zorba of the Grape retains Paladin to rescue his pubescent daughter from an amorous gunslinger who's made off with her. But Paladin discovers the stunning Napa Valley girl comes on like a Trojan fireball, and Jimmy the gunman acts more like Destry out-of-place in wine country, than a rapacious desperado. Wine-loving Paladin sure wants to please his Armenian vintner pal and collect his $1000, but gazing on the face that launched 1,000 wines - who does he protect from whom?
Episode 17
Ella West
Sat, Jan 4, 1958 26 mins
Paladin suspects his services may be wasted when he is hired to rein in a fiery female performer's violent, unladylike demeanor.
Episode 18
The Reasonable Man
Sat, Jan 11, 1958 26 mins
Paladin offers his services in preventing a coming-of-age story from killing either of its two key players.
Episode 19
The High Graders
Sat, Jan 18, 1958 26 mins
Paladin's suspicions are aroused after his tailor dies inside his own goldmine.
Episode 20
The Last Laugh
Sat, Jan 25, 1958 26 mins
During Paladin's stagecoach layover in a small Western town, a burr under a saddle causes a horse to buck off its new rider, a rancher's wife, injuring her severely. The attractive young woman had just gotten off the stagecoach with Paladin, so the real culprit takes advantage of her husband's jealousy to pin the blame on the stranger in black. Paladin flees, so the locals form a vigilante posse.
Episode 21
The Bostonian
Sat, Feb 1, 1958 25 mins
A blue-blood's extravagant Wyoming spread riles a neighboring rancher to terrorize the Bostonian, hoping to drive him off, then take the ranch. Henry Prince's snooty relatives wouldn't accept his wife, a former actress, so the Princes went West. Paladin comes to the timid New Englander's aid, when Prince's wife threatens to leave her husband as she sees him constantly humiliated by rancher Clint's gunslingers.
Episode 22
The Singer
Sat, Feb 8, 1958 26 mins
Paladin takes the job of giving ten minutes alone with a married woman, who has operatic aspirations, to a young client.
Episode 23
Bitter Wine
Sat, Feb 15, 1958 26 mins
Paladin is hired to mediate a dispute between an Italian vintner and an Irish oilman. The wine maker claims that the runoff and smoke from the oil site are damaging his grapes. Paladin attempts to find a compromise before the dispute escalates and parties on both sides get hurt.
Episode 24
Girl from Piccadilly
Sat, Feb 22, 1958 26 mins
Martin Westrope's son, a Cavalry officer stationed near the Mexican border was killed in action. But the details of his death are sketchy. Westrope hires Paladin to find the woman that his son married just before his death. Unfortunately very little is known about the woman except that she is from London. Paladin finds a woman claiming to be Isobel Westrope but he is surprised to find another woman also claims to be Michael Westrope's wife. Paladin must find out which is the impostor.
Episode 25
The O'Hare Story
Sat, Mar 1, 1958 26 mins
Paladin is hired by Henry Ritchie, the leading citizen of the town of Ashley to stop a dam building project financed by Central City and an engineer named Mike O'Hare. The dam will cost Ashley its water supply. Other less sophisticated gunslingers are also vying for the job. Paladin's first attempt to stop the project is a simple act of sabotage that is not direct enough for Ritchie who wants O'Hare stopped by any means necessary. Paladin soon comes to realize that O'Hare is not the unreasonable man he was led to believe he is and that he could be working for the wrong side.
Episode 26
Birds of a Feather
Sat, Mar 8, 1958 26 mins
In owing a favor to the town sheriff Dave Quinn, Paladin, after reading about the violence, heads to Big Spur, Colorado to offer his services to Quinn for free to resolve the lawlessness that has emerged in the once friendly town, and that Quinn, as one man growing older and wearier by the day, feels incapable of managing on his own. The problems stem from a dispute between the Texas, Colorado and Overland Railroad and the Continental Divide Railroad, with the General Agent for each side, Charles Foster and John Sukey, having hired gunmen to guard what each feels is rightfully his company's. Foster has gone further in having hired a "deputy agent", Ralph Coe, who, in reality, is Foster's chief gunman. Upon his arrival, Paladin learns the specific source of the dispute is that the former has leased the right-of-way to the latter over Raymond Gorge to and from town - this stretch part of the transcontinental route - but has kept control of the depot, meaning that any Continental Divide rail car using the track under the lease has nowhere to stop to load or unload. The gunfire and lawlessness has led to law abiding citizens leaving in droves turning Big Spur almost into a virtual ghost town. Working from the inside partly in order for someone literally to pay for his services, Paladin thinks he has a way to resolve the issue ultimately to the satisfaction of both sides. That compromise will only work not only if all parties agree, but if they keep to the bargain, which may be easier said than done.
Episode 27
The Teacher
Sat, Mar 15, 1958 26 mins
Questions of revising the Civil War put a schoolteacher in gunsights until Paladin decides to make a stand, urging those who may find the truth she teaches painful to do the same.
Episode 28
Killer's Widow
Sat, Mar 22, 1958 26 mins
When Paladin is accused of taking stolen money, he searches for a way to use the situation to better a woman whom he has widowed.
Episode 29
Gun Shy
Sat, Mar 29, 1958 26 mins
In order to collect the gift of a precious jade chess set, Paladin must first intercept the men who stole it from Hey Boy's family.
Episode 30
The Prize Fight Story
Sat, Apr 5, 1958 26 mins
To help an old friend, Paladin takes a job guaranteeing a fight against a formidable British boxer when the local Sheriff demands a cut of the action. Keeping the terms of his contract, however, may prove a bit... personal in nature.
Episode 31
Hey Boy's Revenge
Sat, Apr 12, 1958 26 mins
Paladin learns all too well how arduous easy living can be without Hey Boy's able help and, to regain his friend, must help him in a fight of honor and retribution.
Episode 32
The Five Books of Owen Deaver
Sat, Apr 26, 1958 26 mins
When Philadelphia's penal code is precariously instituted in a frontier town, Paladin decides he owes a favor to an old friend's son.
Episode 33
The Silver Queen
Sat, May 3, 1958 26 mins
When a beautiful lady receives a half-ownership in a silver mine in a rather suspicious-looking will, Paladin sticks his neck out for the sake of a dead man's true wishes.
Episode 34
Three Sons
Sat, May 10, 1958 26 mins
Paladin lends his room to a pair of newlyweds and--when the bride receives a wedding gift of her cat, mutilated--intervenes in a vicious family feud that hinges on the patriarch's sanity.
Episode 35
The Return of Dr. Thackeray
Sat, May 17, 1958 26 mins
Paladin again assists his friend Phyllis Thackeray, M.D., when impatience and panic threaten to generate a smallpox epidemic.
Episode 36
Twenty-Four Hours at North Fork
Sat, May 24, 1958 26 mins
When Paladin finds a quick exit from San Francisco convenient he stumbles into some dangerous prejudice against a family of pacifistic Mennonites.
Episode 37
Silver Convoy
Sat, May 31, 1958 26 mins
Paladin ventures into Mexico on the trail of a man who, it turns out, has already been arrested and is dead. Another job presents itself, however, in the form of a shipment of silver dug from the ground by prison labor.
Episode 38
Deliver the Body
Sat, Jun 7, 1958 26 mins
2 beauties Paladin's dating stakeout his San Francisco hotel lobby, so he opts to stalk an accused murderer in Nevada instead. Paladin's dubious when he offers to trot the suspect back alive, but the town's mayor prefers him slung over a saddle. When apprehended, the suspect, just found innocent of another killing, alleges the mayor's framing him for the sheriff's murder. The mayor's black-eyed henchman Boldt (Len Lesser: Uncle Leo on "Seinfeld" (1990) itches to kill the suspect - or Paladin.
Episode 39
The Statue of San Sebastian
Sat, Jun 14, 1958 26 mins
Paladin agrees to track down a sympathetic highwayman in exchange for the return of a piece of symbolic statuary currently being held hostage.
