Rating: 
Summary: Great Western Entertainment
Review: The theme song is played several times during the course of the 6 DVD's. This set is great entertainment if you are a fan of the old 50's & 60's western shows. A must have if you like Richard Boone the actor. The beginning of the show is unique because of the gun pointing at you and Boone doing some great 1 or 2 liners in his raspy voice. Some of the episodes are a little dull but most are excellent. Too bad they don't have a serious western series like this on TV now. I hope they decide to issue more episodes in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: Well Done by Paramount
Review: This is what a DVD set for a vintage television program SHOULD be like. With crisp, clean video, clear audio, and very user-friendly menus, many other DVD companies should take note. Having also purchased both the "Branded" and "Annie Oakley" DVD releases, and being greatly disappointed by the horrendous transfers on both, it's great to see someone take the time and effort to do it right. Let's just hope more classic westerns are given this treatment in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Comparisons
Review: This will be a review by someone who purchased ALL the Columbia House VHS videotapes of "Have Gun Will Travel" (as well as ALL the available "Maverick" and the half hour "Gunsmoke" VHS tapes) as soon as they were available, from 1995 to 1998. The price for four episodes of the half hour series was about $25 (about $5 for shipping.) If you do the math, these DVDs are a fantastic savings AND offer the added bonus of being easier to store and probably to use.
The quality of the VHS tapes was crystalline, which is probably why the DVDs have been reviewed favorably in the technical sense. Much of the filming for "HGWT" was done on location in what seems to be pristine wilderness areas, and this clarity of viewing - the extra effort to get the locations done by the production staff and the effort required by the actors involved - is beautiful to watch as well. Most episodes start out in the SF hotel and then lead Paladin far afield on his missions.+
It is true that the Gene Roddenberry episodes are very special. Even in the 90s, when a script - and the way that the actors presented it - awed me, it was almost certainly a Roddenberry episode. Truly, eye opening. You understand why "Star Trek" has been around forever.
Like many children of the 50s, Westerns were the 'meat and potatoes' of my TV experience, and while I liked the shows like "Maverick" and "HGWT" at that age, but to be able to view them as an adult is amazing. I would also recommend the same for the half hour "Gunsmoke" episodes. Clearly, these series went far beyond the standard shoot 'em ups and good guys versus bad guys plotting of production line Westerns. There were a lot of adult level references within the programming and it makes re-viewing later in life even more entertaining, and, leaves a powerful positive impression of all involved.
I would suggest also that the first few years of the "HGWT" series are the best. In the 50s, there were a lot of episodes being filmed every season, so at least the first three seasons are mainly outstanding.
Cannot say enough about the acting skills of Richard Boone: FANTASTIC! He brought that character to life as a multi-dimensional human being.
I would definitely recommend the three series mentioned above. Have great video experience!
Rating:
Summary: Impressive Transfer
Review: Video transfer: I'm impressed. Most scenes are crisp and detailed with surprisingly limited compression artifacts. A few evening and night scenes are overly dark but I'm confident it was the original source material, not the transfer. Audio is mono and somewhat frequency limited but that's 1957-1958 technology.Stories, acting, misc.: The bad: Stories are occasionally weak; characters are sometimes unbelievable. Some acting is marginal; some plots are corny. In the 50s, those were the norm! The good: The series often shines. Richard Boone, when at his best, is magnificent. Some storylines are inspired. Costuming and sets frequently made me feel this was part documentary. The show's challenge of 50s America norms on racism and [sex] deserves loud applause. Summary: Despite weaknesses, a great mix of drama, comedy, and morality play with an impressive transfer to DVD. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Paladin: The Western as More Than A Morality Play
Review: While much of TV and movie Western genere is a variously disguised morality play, seeing this first season of Paladin again shows much more depth and historical interest in the West. The series is set during the days of San Francisco's post-Gold Rush up to the Barbary Coast days. Many of the plots adopt a more complex approach to resolving disputes and conflict than are typical of Westerns. Richard Boone is an actor of uncommon quality in these early series. And the early episodic writing of Gene Roddenberry is consistently the most surprisingly rich in cultural appreciation. Case in point is the Vol.3 episode 'Helen of Abajinian' with its backdrop of early Abajinian wine growers and farmers in the San Joaquin valley (perhaps inspired by the families pioneering the extensive wineries in San Joaquin valley today). The Have Gun--Will Travel theme is played out again and again in these episodes that draw on so much more genuine history of early California and elsewhere in the West. That theme is of social justice obtained by unconventional means. It is much better done here than most of the series that followed. There is much variety, good acting, and surprising plots that do not demand that someone die by a climatic gunshot (and a good many that do). Truly uncommon quality in TV Westerns, and certainly better than many Westerns that followed in later years. Well worth collecting.
| 
