Forget ‘Deadwood,’ This 6-Season Western Still Has TV’s Greatest Opening
Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.
Sign in to your Collider account
There are dozens of iconic Western TV shows and movies, with Gunsmoke and Bonanza being top of mind. Shows like Yellowstone, Deadwood, and Dark Winds have kept the genre firmly in the conversation. But when it comes to the greatest opening in Western television history, even HBO's acclaimed classic has competition. Have Gun — Will Travel makes its case in seconds, with an introduction that remains one of the most memorable.
Following the gunslinger Paladin (Richard Boone) as he wanders the open trail, the series surprised us with its nuanced and thoughtful take on standard Western problems. But one of the best things about Have Gun — Will Travel that has stuck with us over half a century later was the show's iconic opening. While the tune itself might not be as memorable as, say, Rawhide's or Bonanza's, it powerfully sets the stage for this lone rider's adventures across the Old West. There's no Western opening quite like it.
'Have Gun — Will Travel's Iconic Opening Will Stick With Western Fans
It's short, it's sweet, but it's incredibly effective. The opening of Have Gun — Will Travel fades in on Paladin's trademark Knight-embroidered holster as our hero pulls out his .45 Colt. With Johnny Western's four-note "The Ballad of Paladin" playing instrumentally (a tune he wrote with series star Richard Boone and creator Sam Rolfe), it establishes this six-season series as a Western classic that '50s audiences just couldn't get enough of. Each episode's opening featured a short quote from Paladin, teasing audiences as to what they were about to witness in this half-hour horse opera.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Country Music Outlaw Matches Your Energy? Willie · Cash · Waylon · Kristofferson
Answer eight quick questions and we will tell you which one you are. These four walked out on Nashville in the seventies, refused to be told how to make records, and then formed a supergroup together just to make the point properly.
🌵Willie Nelson(Red Headed Stranger)
🖤Johnny Cash(At Folsom Prison)
🎸Waylon Jennings(Honky Tonk Heroes)
✈️Kristofferson(A Star Is Born)
01
How do you handle being told what to do? Pick the one that sounds most like you.
02
What is your ideal road trip? One answer only.
03
Pick an outfit. No wrong answers here.
04
How would your friends describe you? Be honest.
05
Which role would you want in a Western? All four of these men were in one.
06
What are you doing in a bar at midnight? Pick the closest answer.
07
How do you deal with a setback? Something went wrong and it was not your fault.
08
What do you want to be remembered for? Last one. This is the one that decides it.
Wanted, Dead Or Alive Your Outlaw Is…
In 1985 these four put their names on one record and called it Highwayman, and the title track went straight to number one on the country chart. Here is which of them you are, what it says about you, and the case for yours being the best of the four.
Willie Nelson
Nothing gets to you and you have no plans to stop. Willie left Nashville for Texas, made a sparse concept album the label thought was unfinished, and it turned out to be the record that proved the whole outlaw idea worked.
- You are the calm one, and people end up telling you things they had not planned to say.
- He turned ninety-three this year and announced another run of tour dates, because of course he did.
- He has acted in dozens of films since The Electric Horseman in 1979 and barely seems to have aged in any of them.
- Your flaw is that endlessly easy going can shade into never quite taking a side.
Johnny Cash
You carry weight and people feel it when you walk in. Cash wore black on purpose, played prisons when nobody else would, and spent a career siding with whoever the room had decided to look down on.
- You take things seriously, and your friends know exactly who to call when it matters.
- At Folsom Prison was recorded live in front of inmates in 1968 and resurrected his entire career.
- Walk the Line won Reese Witherspoon the Best Actress Oscar in 2006, with Joaquin Phoenix nominated alongside her.
- Your risk is carrying other people's weight until you have nothing left for your own.
Waylon Jennings
Nobody tells you how to do your job. Waylon forced RCA to let him pick his own songs, his own band and his own producer, which simply was not done in Nashville, and every artist who came after him benefited from it.
- You would rather fail your own way than succeed on somebody else's terms.
- Wanted! The Outlaws in 1976 became the first country album ever to sell a million copies.
- A whole generation knows his voice from The Dukes of Hazzard, where he narrated and sang the theme.
- Your weakness is picking the fight when the fight was not really the point.
Kris Kristofferson
You have had about four lives and you are not finished. Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar and an army helicopter pilot before he took a job sweeping floors at a Nashville studio so somebody might eventually read his songs.
- You get restless the moment something is going well, and you start the next thing early.
- A Star Is Born won him the Golden Globe for Best Actor in 1977, opposite Barbra Streisand.
- A completely different audience knows him only as Whistler from the Blade films, which he loved.
- Your risk is starting five things brilliantly and finishing three of them.
There's a solemnness to this sequence that genuinely paves the way for the harshness of the Western genre's Old American West. Paladin doesn't unholster his weapon absentmindedly, but always with intent. He patrols an often cruel world, one where victory isn't assured and fairness only exists in one's mind. From the opening alone, we craft a picture of who this mysterious gunslinger is, and somehow we know we can trust him. How the events of each episode will play out remains a mystery, but our hero feels a little less mysterious. The case for putting this opening ahead of Deadwood's comes down to how much it communicates with so little. A weapon, a musical cue, and a few words establish both the gunfighter and the danger surrounding him. Before the story even begins, Paladin already has our attention.
Though the Have Gun — Will Travel intro changed slightly a few seasons in, going from a close-up of the holstered revolver to a silhouette shot of Paladin in action, it still continued to encapsulate the show itself perfectly. Its emphasis on Paladin's lone gunman status (with no partner or true supporting cast) before zooming in on his drawn revolver reminds us that the gunfighter keeps everyone at a distance, even though we've come to know him after watching his adventures unfold. The show's end credits likewise play a lyrical "Ballad of Paladin" (which one might recognize, funny enough, from the 1986 film Stand By Me) as he rides across the open range, "a knight without armor in a savage land."
Paladin Is a Western Protagonist You Won't Want To Mess With
Of course, Have Gun's opening only serves as our introduction to the show's main hero. Paladin himself is a fascinating character. Unlike many of the rough-around-the-edges cowboys of Western lore, Paladin was a highly educated man as well as a gunfighter. One moment, he could be dueling a villain in the streets, and the next, he could be waxing philosophical truths to convince his latest charge to change their ways. It's no wonder that future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote some intricate episodes of Have Gun — Will Travel, where the hero hangs up his guns to solve his problems.
Have Gun — Will Travel is a fun Western. Each episode takes Richard Boone's most famous Western character to new towns full of new people with familiar problems, and it's hard not to fall deeply in love with the journey. Of course, part of the show's charm lies in its intro sequence, and the four-note stride that introduces us to Paladin and his strange profession as a hired gun only gets us more excited for whatever the next 25 minutes have in store. This isn't a Western to sleep on, and all of it kicks off with that iconic intro.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.