Genres
Networks
The Restless Gun
Overview
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 in the era after the American Civil War. 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 program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in varying roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun. The Restless Gun theme song begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson, also. Two versions are currently posted on YouTube, but neither posting lists any composer or performance credits.
Key Crew
Producer: John Payne, David Dortort
Top Cast
Seasons
Season 0 ()
No overview available.
1 episodes
Season 1 (1957)
No overview available.
39 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: Duel at Lockwood
1957-09-23Vint Bonner meets an elderly woman who asks him to do something about her grandson. The young man has already killed two men and vowed to add Vint Bonner to the list.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 2: Trail to Sunset
1957-09-30Episode 3: Revenge at Harness Creek
1957-10-07When the man's hotheaded younger brother is killed in self defense, Vint fears that his sheriff friend is too bent on revenge to bring the man who killed him back alive.
Runtime: 30 minEpisode 4: Rink
1957-10-14Episode 5: Jenny
1957-10-21Episode 6: The Shooting of Jett King
1957-10-28Episode 7: Jody
1957-11-04Episode 8: General Gilford's Widow
1957-11-11Episode 9: The New Sheriff
1957-11-18Episode 10: Man and Boy
1957-11-25Episode 11: Cheyenne Express
1957-12-02Episode 12: Thicker Than Water
1957-12-09Episode 13: Silver Threads
1957-12-16Episode 14: The Child
1957-12-23Episode 15: The Gold Buckle
1957-12-30Bonner and two strangers trail a pair of killers. Kit: Roy Roberts. Lex: Claude Akins. Bonner: John Payne. Emily: Madge Blake.
Runtime: 30 minEpisode 16: The Coward
1958-01-06Episode 17: Friend in Need
1958-01-13Episode 18: Strange Family in Town
1958-01-20Episode 19: Hang and Be Damned
1958-01-27Episode 20: Quiet City
1958-02-03Episode 21: Hornitas Town
1958-02-10Episode 22: Imposter For A Day
1958-02-17Episode 23: A Pressing Engagement
1958-02-24Episode 24: The Woman from Sacramento
1958-03-03Episode 25: Sheriff Billy
1958-03-10Episode 26: The Hand is Quicker
1958-03-17Episode 27: The Suffragette
1958-03-24Emma Birch has organized the women of the town into a determined suffragette group; the men rebel and attempt to put the women in their place. Bonner becomes the reluctant mediator between the two groups.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 28: The Whip
1958-03-31Episode 29: The Crisis at Easter Creek
1958-04-07Episode 30: Aunt Emma
1958-04-14Vint Bonner is wounded while trying to track down the Drake brothers. His elderly aunt nurses him back to health and tries to prevent him from going back after the Drakes when he has recovered.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 31: The Outlander
1958-04-21Vint arrives in Prairie City, Kansas to visit friends and find that it has been taken over by a band of renegade Civil War veterans from Texas. They are lead by a man called Colonel Bromley.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 32: The Battle of Tower Rock
1958-04-28Episode 33: The Torn Flag
1958-05-05Episode 34: Hiram Grover's Strike
1958-05-12Episode 35: The Gold Star
1958-05-19Episode 36: More Than Kin
1958-05-26Episode 37: The Manhunters
1958-06-02Episode 38: The Peddler
1958-06-09Episode 39: Gratitude
1958-06-16Season 2 (1959)
No overview available.
37 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: The Hill of Death
1959-06-22Vint and the boy Robby are fishing by the riverbank. Vint tells the boy that the gun is a tool and goes on to tell the story of his grandfather, Jebediah Bonner. Vint's parents have been killed and he is brought up by Dr. Ken Ludlow and his wife. Jebediah, a retired marshall, arrives on the stagecoach to visit with his grandson and is confronted in the saloon by Jim Kenyon who holds a grudge from 20 years ago when he believes that Jedediah had not given his father a fair chance when he had killed him. Joe is consumed by hatred and is determined to exact revenge. Young Vint sees and hears of his grandfather being bullied and doing nothing. Jebediah decides that he must gain respect in young Vint's eyes and an exciting conclusion is played out.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 2: Dragon for a Day
1958-09-29Episode 3: Mercyday
1958-10-06Episode 4: Thunder Valley
1958-10-13Episode 5: The Nowhere Kid
1958-10-20Episode 6: Bonner's Squaw
1958-11-03Bonner persuades Chief Tashuka to honour the treaty with the white man by handing over two braves who are suspected of robbery. Unfortunately for Bonner, the chief's daughter Running Fawn takes a shine to Bonner and follows him to town. By Indian law Bonner is to marry the girl and reluctantly agrees to prevent a war. However when Bonner sees how beautiful Running Fawn is he uses an Indian custom to lose her to a brave.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 7: Tomboy
1958-11-10Episode 8: Remember the Dead
1958-11-17Episode 9: No Way to Kill
1958-11-24Episode 10: Take Me Home
Episode 11: Multiply One Boy
1958-12-08Episode 12: Peligroso
1958-12-15Episode 13: A Bell for Santo Domingo
Episode 14: The Way Back
Episode 15: The Painted Beauty
1959-01-05Episode 16: Shadow of a Gunfighter
1959-01-12Episode 17: The Lady and the Gun
1959-01-19Episode 18: Blood of Courage
Episode 19: Better Than A Cannon
Episode 20: The Dead Ringer
1959-02-16Vint is deliberately framed for a bank robbery and murder.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 21: The Last Grey Man
1959-02-23Episode 22: Melany
1959-03-02Episode 23: Ricochet
Episode 24: Dead Man's Hand
Episode 25: The Sweet Sisters
1959-03-23Episode 26: Incident at Bluefield
1959-03-30Episode 27: The Pawn
1959-04-06Episode 28: Four Lives
1959-04-13Episode 29: One on the House
1959-04-20Episode 30: Code for a Killer
1959-04-27Vint Bonner arrives in the town of Toredo to be best man at his friend, Dave Regan's wedding. Vint soon discovers that Dave has been shot in the back and that the town, led by the new sheriff Ben Webster, are looking for his supposed killer, Vance Carter. It is left to Vint to find the truth and lay a trap for the real killer.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 31: Mme. Brimstone
1959-05-04Episode 32: Lady by Law
1959-05-11Episode 33: Ride with the Devil
1959-05-18Bonner is sent for by Don Tomas Verdes, a Mexican ranch owner, to help him convince his son to stop riding with an outlaw gang. Bonner joins the outlaws to try and bring the boy to his senses.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 34: A Trial for Jenny May
1959-05-25After Jenny May McElroy's husband was killed in a gunfight, no one in town would give her a job to support her children, except for the saloon owner, who hired her as a bookkeeper. Because of this some of the "proper" townspeople want to take her children and make them wards of the state.
Runtime: N/A minEpisode 35: The Cavis Boy
1959-06-01Episode 36: The Englishman
1959-06-08Episode 37: A Very Special Investigator
1959-06-15Videos
Weekend Westerns - THE RESTLESS GUN
