Loading the player…
Here’s a promotional spot for ABC’s rebroadcasts of The Restless Gun, a half-hour Western that originally aired in prime time on NBC from 1957-1959. ABC aired the series at noon on weekdays beginning Monday, October 12th, 1959 and ending Friday, September 30th, 1960. Note the five seconds at the end for local station identification.
“THE RESTLESS GUN” was actually a TV version of Jimmy Stewart’s NBC radio series, “THE SIX SHOOTER” (1953-’54). Even though Jimmy appeared as “Britt Ponset” in one episode of “GENERAL ELECTRIC THEATER” in early 1957, he decided not to commit himself to a weekly TV series. MCA, however, wanted the show on the air, and reworked it for John Payne (he became “Vint Bonner”). After his version aired as an episode of “SCHLITZ PLAYHOUSE” around the same time, NBC bought the idea for the fall of ’57. Two seasons were produced [there would have been a third, but Payne and MCA argued over a projected hour-long edition of the show, as well as his salary, and it became a moot issue]. Art Gilmore is the announcer for this promo….
Probable live announcer tag at 0:55- “See ‘THE RESTLESS GUN’- tomorrow afternoon, over most of these ABC stations.”
Having been familiar with ABC’s early history-I know they were willing to throw anything against the wall. However, I’m somewhat surprised that Goldenson let this one fly, especially at noon on weekdays against CBS’ soon to be iconic daytime soap lineup-and whatever NBC had cooking (Concentration, et al) Perhaps a Roy Huggins retooling, and primetime were a better option here?