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Official Site: CBS Television Studios

Have Gun—Will Travel is an American Western television series that aired on CBS from 1957 through 1963. It was rated either number three or number four in the Nielsen ratings during each year of its first four seasons. It was one of the few television shows to spawn a successful radio version. The radio series debuted November 23, 1958.

Have Gun—Will Travel was created by Sam Rolfe and Herb Meadow and produced by Frank Pierson, Don Ingalls, Robert Sparks, and Julian Claman. There were 225 episodes of the TV series, many of them written by Gene Roddenberry); 101 were directed by Andrew McLaglen and 19 were directed by series star Richard Boone.

The title was a catchphrase used in personal advertisement in newspapers like The Times, indicating that the advertiser was ready for anything. It was used in this way from the early 20th century. A form common in theatrical advertising was "Have tux, will travel," and this was the inspiration for the writer Herb Meadow. The TV show popularized the phrase in the 1960s, and many variations of it were used as titles for other works such as Have Space Suit—Will Travel by Robert Heinlein.

Originally, each show opened with exactly the same 45-second visual. Over a slow four-note-repeat backbeat score, a tight shot of a white chess knight emblem centered in a black background is shown. The view widens to show that the knight is actually an emblem affixed onto the black pistol holster of a gunman, clad entirely in black, who is standing with right side to the camera, and his left hand in the pistol belt. Only his midsection, showing the full gun holster, is seen. Paladin's right hand then slowly draws the weapon, a long-barreled revolver, from the holster, leisurely cocks it, and then rotates it to point the barrel exactly at the viewer, for 10 seconds. During this time, Paladin delivers a pointed line of dialogue from the coming episode (since the speaker's face is never seen, this is possible to do with the same visual, in each episode). Then the pistol is again leisurely decocked, and reholstered with an angry brusqueness, which also serves as emphasis for the previous short speech. As soon as the weapon is reholstered, the view again tightens to show only the chess knight, and "RICHARD BOONE in HAVE GUN—WILL TRAVEL" appears. This leads into the show's theme music. In the actual episode that followed, the line delivered at gunpoint in the opening sequence is usually not delivered in this way. In Season 1's "No Visitors," the line does not occur in the story at all.

Paladin (TV) has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.