I’ve written on a number of occasions about how one of the pleasures Grace and I derived from watching classic TV shows was recognizing actors we knew from Star Trek or other classic shows such as The Twilight Zone; back in February I wrote (of The Fugitive): “in this show I’m also recognizing musical cues in every episode, because the show drew on the CBS music library and featured many of the pieces Bernard Herrmann and others wrote for The Twilight Zone.” But in one of my current shows I’ve gone even beyond that to recognizing various names in various roles in nearly every episode. The show is Have Gun – Will Travel, a highly character-driven show about a gentlemanly mercenary in the 1870s who rejects jobs he finds morally objectionable, very much like a modern knight-errant (a symbolism clearly broadcast by the character’s nom de guerre, “Paladin”). Since the show aired on CBS from 1957-1963 I was not surprised to discover that the show’s opening title and most of its incidental music for the first three seasons were composed by Bernard Herrmann, nor that many of its guest cast appeared on the contemporary CBS show The Twilight Zone. The two shows also shared a number of directors, including Buzz Kulik, Ida Lupino, Lamont Johnson, and Richard Donner. But what I really wasn’t ready for was the number of writers whose names I recognized; given that Have Gun – Will Travel is a western (albeit an unusual one that often feels more like a private-eye series), I didn’t really expect to see so many names I knew from the fantasy and sci-fi series I loved, including Shimon Wincelberg (AKA S. Bar-David), Jack Laird (later the producer of Night Gallery), Gene L. Coon, Charles Beaumont, and Richard Matheson. But the name that surprised me most was that of the author of 30 of the series’ best episodes: Gene Roddenberry, a gent I’m sure needs no introduction; it was interesting to note that many of the themes of those stories later resurfaced in Star Trek.
I bought this set for Grace around 2018 (if memory serves) for a really good price at the late, lamented Big Lots, because I knew it was one of her childhood favorites (she even had a dog named after one of the recurring characters); however, she watched it during the period when I was still spending most of my time in Seattle, and I only started watching it myself because I happened to see some really good reviews of it online. So another pleasure I derive from the show is a feeling of closeness to her, though I dearly wish we could have seen it together before we lost that opportunity forever.
