''The Restless Gun'' is an American Western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

in the era after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

program aired 78 episodes (including the pilot episode in which the John Payne character's name is Britt Ponsett, the name of

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

's character in the 1953-54

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

series '' The Six Shooter'', upon which ''The Restless Gun'' television series was originally based). ''The Restless Gun'' theme song (officially titled "I Ride With the Wind") begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." John Payne dual role Restless Gun 1959

Episodes

Season 1: 1957–58

Season 2: 1958–59

Selected guest stars

Home media

On March 1, 2010, Timeless Media Group released a three-disc best-of set featuring 24 episodes from the series. On April 23, 2013, Timeless Media released ''Restless Gun: The Complete Series'' on DVD in Region 1. The 9-disc set features all 78 episodes of the series.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Restless Gun, The 1957 American television series debuts 1959 American television series endings Black-and-white American television shows American English-language television shows NBC television dramas Television series by Universal Television 1950s Western (genre) television series