OVERLOOKED TELEVISION: THE RESTLESS GUN: DUEL AT LOCKWOOD (SEPTEMBER 23, 1957)

John Payne is Vint Bonner ("The Six Shooter"), a wandering cowboy after the Civil War with a reputation as a sharpshooter.  Despite his reputation, Bonner prefers peace whenever possible; but his reputation often makes that difficult.  In this, the first episode of the series, cocky neer-do-well and talented gunman Wes Singer (Vic Morrow) had been claiming that he would show Bonner a thing or two about slapping iron if they ever met.  Then Vint rode into the town of Lockwood on a errand for the rancher he had been working for.  Singer had already killed two men in gunfights and had gotten away with it.  If it came down to a gun fight between the local sheriff -- an old friend of Vint's -- the sheriff, who was getting old, would not stand a chance, but the sheriff figures it's his job to take on the murderous Singer.

The Restless Gun was based on a 1953-54 eadio series, The Six Shooter, starring Jimmy Stewart.  In that series, the character's name was Britt Ponsett, the name of Payne's character in the untitled pilot, which aired six months earlier.  The series ran from March 29, 1957 to June 22, 1959 for a total of 77 episodes (not counting the pilot).  

Payne, who was the executive producer of the series, wrote two of the episodes and provided the storyline for a third.  Among the writers for the series were a number of western and pulp writers:  Daniel Mainwaring, Will Cook, Hal G. Evarts, Robert Leslie Bellam, Frank Bonham, Norman Daniels, Gene L. Coon, and Marion Hargrove.  "Duel at Lockwood" was directed by Justus Addiss and written by David Dortort (who produced this episode), from a story by Frank Burt (who had created the radio series).  Also featured in the cast were Olive Carey, Walter Coy, Frank Gorshin (an early career appearance), and Paul Burns.

The show's theme song was known as "I Ride with the Wind"; the lyrics were no included in the first episode:  "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, with my hand on my restless gun..."  Here's the theme song, as recorded by (Gawd help us!) Lawrence Welk. as posted on YouTube six years ago by everyone's favorite buddy, Evan Lewis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnKdUdvwSTI

The Restless Gun was a tie-in novel by Will Hickok published by Signet in paperback in 1958; another title by Hickok, The Trail of the Restless Gun, came out from Signet in 1959.  Barlow Meyers wrote a juvenile tie-in novel for Whitman Publishing Company in 1959. 

For fans of television westerns, The Restless Gun is a must-see.