Have Gun – Will Travel
Have Gun – Will Travel is an American Western television series that was produced and originally broadcast by CBS on both television and radio from 1957 through 1963. The television version of the series starring Richard Boone was rated number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings every year of its first four seasons.
For other uses, see Have Gun – Will Travel (disambiguation).Have Gun – Will Travel
- Bernard Herrmann
- Johnny Western
- Richard Boone
- Sam Rolfe
United States
English
6
225 (list of episodes)
25 mins.
- CBS Productions
- Filmaster Productions
September 14, 1957 –
April 20, 1963
Set in the period of the Old West, the series follows the adventures of "Paladin," played by Boone, a gentleman investigator/gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a gunfighter for hire. Although Paladin charges steep fees to clients who can afford to hire him, typically $1,000 per job, he provides his services for free to poor people who need his help.
A radio series starring John Dehner debuted November 23, 1958, more than a year after the premiere of its televised counterpart, making Have Gun – Will Travel one of the few shows in television history to spawn a successful radio version.[1]
Premise[edit]
This series follows the adventures of a man calling himself "Paladin" (played by Richard Boone on television and voiced by John Dehner on radio), taking his name from that of the foremost knights in Charlemagne's court. He is a gentleman investigator/gunfighter who travels around the Old West working as a mercenary for people who hire him to solve their problems.
Like many Westerns, the television show was set in a time vaguely indicated to be some years after the American Civil War. The radio show announced the year of the story that followed in the opening of each episode.[2]
The season-five television episode, "A Drop of Blood", gives the specific date of July 3, 1879. In the 14th and 17th ("Lazarus", March 6 and 7, 1875) episodes of season five, it is 1875.
Themes and analysis[edit]
Title[edit]
The title is a variation on a cliche used in personal advertisements in newspapers such as The Times, indicating that the advertiser (a job seeker) is equipped for a certain category of jobs and flexible about the location of the job. It has been used this way from the early 20th century.[13]
A trope common in theatrical advertising at the time was "Have tux, will travel" (originally from comedian Bob Hope in 1954[14]), and CBS has claimed this was the specific inspiration for the writer Herb Meadow. The television show popularized the phrase in the 1950s and 1960s, and many variations have been used as titles for other works, including the 1958 science-fiction novel Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein.[15]
The television show was nominated for three Emmy Awards:
In 1957, Gene Roddenberry received the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Script for the episode "Helen of Abajinian".[32]
Τrademark infringement litigation[edit]
In 1974, a rodeo performer named Victor De Costa won a federal court judgment against CBS for trademark infringement, successfully arguing that he had created the Paladin character and the ideas used in the show, and that CBS had used them without permission. For example, at his rodeo appearances he always dressed in black, called himself the "Paladin", handed out hundreds of business cards featuring a chess piece logo along with the phrase "Have gun will travel", and carried a concealed derringer pistol.[44] A year later, an appellate court overturned the lower court ruling on the basis that the plaintiff had failed to prove that likelihood of confusion had existed in the minds of the public—a necessary requirement for a suit over trademark infringement.[45] In 1977, De Costa was awarded a federal trademark for the Paladin character.[46]
De Costa kept pursuing his legal options, and in 1991—more than 30 years after his first lawsuit was originally filed—a federal jury awarded DeCosta $3.5 million from Viacom International, by then a CBS subsidiary, which has distributed the show's reruns in defiance of De Costa's registered trademark, ordering Viacom to pay DeCosta $1 million for his loss and $2.5 million in punitive damages.[47] Rhode Island District Judge Ernest C. Torres blocked the redistribution of the Paladin show by Viacom.[48]
In 1992, the jury award was reversed. The United States Court of Appeals ruled that because Mr. DeCosta had unsuccessfully sued in the past over the same issues, "the doctrine of 'collateral estoppel' bars his new claims." In other words, he was not allowed a second attempt to try the old, previously settled dispute. See the final legal case: Victor DeCosta, v. VIACOM, 981 F.2d 602, 604 (1st Cir. 1992).
De Costa died on 29 January 1993 at the age of 84. In the end, he received nothing.[49]