There are dozens of iconic Western TV shows and movies, with Gunsmoke and Bonanza leading the way. Showing how Yellow stone, Dead woodand Dark Wind kept the gender firmly in the conversation. But when it comes to the biggest opening in Western television history, even HBO’s acclaimed classic has competition. Have Gun – Travel Will makes his case in seconds, with an introduction that remains one of the most memorable.
Following on from the Paladin gun (Richard Boone) as he walked the open road, the series surprised us with his positive and thoughtful approach to typical Western problems. But one of the best things about it Have Gun – Travel Will it was the show’s iconic opening that has stayed with us more than fifty years later. Although the tune itself may not be as memorable as, say, Rawhideand so on Bonanzaand, it powerfully sets the stage for this lone biker’s adventures across the Old West. The opening of the West is not like it.
‘Have Gun – Will Travel’s iconic opening sticks with Western fans
It’s short, it’s sweet, but it’s extremely effective. The opening of the Have Gun – Travel Willfades in on Paladin’s trademark Knight embroider as our hero pulls out his .45 Colt. With Johnny Westfour-note instrumental “The Ballad of Paladin” (a tune he wrote with series star Richard Boone and creator Sam Rolfe), it establishes this six-season series as a Western classic that ’50s audiences couldn’t get enough of. Each episode opened with a short quote from Paladinteasing audiences about what they were about to see in this half-hour horse opera.
Collider Exclusive · 8 questions · 2 minutes Who Ban country music Matching your energy? William · Money · Waylon · Kristofferson
Answer eight quick questions and we’ll tell you which one you are. Those four walked out on Nashville in the seventies, refused to be told how to make records, and then formed a supergroup together just to make the point.
🌵William Nelson(Red Head Stranger)
🖤Johnny Cash(In Folsom Prison)
🎸Waylon Jennings(Honky Tonk Heroes)
✈️Kristofferson(A star is born)
01
How do you deal with being told what to do? Choose the one you like the most.
02
What is your best road trip? One answer only.
03
Choose clothes. There are no wrong answers here.
04
How would your friends describe you? Be honest.
05
What career would you like to have in the West? The four of these men were in one.
06
What are you doing in a bar at midnight? Choose the closest answer.
07
How do you deal with losing back? Something went wrong and it wasn’t your fault.
08
Why do you want to be remembered? The last one. This is the one that decides it.
Wanted, dead or alive You wonder…
In 1985 these four put their names on one album and called it Highwayman, and the title track went straight to number one on the country chart. Here’s which one you are, what it says about you, and the case for you being the best of the four.
Willie Nelson · Red Headed Stranger · 1975
William Nelson
Nothing is getting to you and you have no plans to stop. Willie left Nashville for Texas, made a rough concept album that the label thought was unfinished, and it turned out to be the album that proved the whole prohibition idea worked.
You’re the quiet one, and people end up telling you things they didn’t mean to say.
He turned eighty-three this year and announced another string of tour dates, because he did.
He’s been in dozens of movies since 1979’s The Electric Horseman and hardly seems to have aged in any of them.
Your fault is that going endlessly can overshadow not taking sides.
Johnny Cash · At Folsom Prison · 1968
Johnny Cash
You will be stressed and people will feel it when you walk in. There was black money for a reason, they played prisons when no one else would, and they spent a career siding with whoever in the room decided to look down on them.
You take things seriously, and your friends know exactly who to call when it’s important.
At Folsom Prison he was recorded live in front of inmates in 1968 and resurrected his entire career.
Walk the Line won an Oscar for best actress in 2006 with Reese Witherspoon, with Joaquin Phoenix nominated alongside her.
Your risk is carrying the weight of others until you have nothing left for yourself.
Waylon Jennings · Honky Tonk Heroes · 1973
Waylon Jennings
No one tells you how to do your job. Waylon got RCA to let him pick his own songs, his own band and his own producer, something that wasn’t done in Nashville, and all subsequent artists benefited from it.
You would rather fail your own way than succeed on someone else’s terms.
Wanted! The Outlaws in 1976 became the first country album ever to sell a million copies.
A whole generation knows his voice from the Dukes of Hazzard, where he recited and sang the theme.
Your weakness is picking up the fight when the fight wasn’t the real point.
Kris Kristofferson · Star Born · 1976
Kris Kristofferson
You’ve had about four lives and you’re not done. Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar and an army helicopter pilot before taking a job sweeping floors at a studio in Nashville so someone could finally read his songs.
You get a break when something is going well, and you start the next thing early.
A Star Is Born won him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in 1977, opposite Barbra Streisand.
A completely different audience knows him only as Whistler from the Blade films, which he loved.
Your risk is starting five great things and finishing three of them.
There is a solemnity in this series that really paves the way for the harshness of the old American West of the Western species. A Paladin never fires his weapon accidentally, but always with intent. He oversees a world that is often cruel, a world where victory is not guaranteed and where fairness is only in your mind. From the opening alone, we form a picture of who this mysterious gunman is, and somehow we know we can trust him. How the events of each episode will play out is still a mystery, but our hero feels a little more mysterious. The case for putting this opening forward Dead woodIt comes down to how much he communicates with so little. A weapon, a musical cue, and a few words establish both the fighter and the danger around him. Before the story even begins, Paladin already has our attention.
Although the Have Gun – Travel Will The intro changed a bit a few seasons in, going from a close-up of the cannon to a silhouette shot of a Paladin in action, it continued to perfectly introduce the show itself. His emphasis on Paladin single gunner status (no partner or real support crew) before switching to his tow revolver reminding us that the fireman keeps everyone awayalthough we have come to know it after looking at what happened to him. The show’s end credits also play the lyrical “Ballad of Paladin” (which one will recognize, funnily enough, from the 1986 film stand by me) as he rides across the open field, “an unarmored knight in a savage land.”
Paladin is a Western protagonist you will not want to work with
Of course, Gunna isthe opening is only as our introduction to the main hero of the show. Paladin himself is an amazing character. Unlike many of the rough-and-tumble cowboys of Western folklore, Paladin was a well-educated man as well as being a gunner. One minute, he could be waking up a villain on the streets, and the next, he could be spouting philosophical truths to convince his newest charge to change their ways. It is not surprising that the future Star Trek a creator Gin Roddenberry write some complicated sections of Have Gun – Travel Willwhere the hero hangs up his guns to solve his problems.
Have Gun – Travel Will It’s a fun Western. Each episode takes Richard Boone’s most famous Western character to new towns full of new people with familiar problems, and it’s hard not to fall in love with the journey. Of course, part of the show’s charm lies in its intro sequenceand the four-note progression that introduces us to Paladin and his strange role as a hired gun only makes us more excited for whatever the next 25 minutes hold. This is not a Western to sleep on, and it all starts with that iconic intro.
