By RM
saturday, june 28, 2025 at 4:13:00 a.m. edt
Following Have Gun, Boone had enough "go-to-hell money" to launch his dream project: an anthology series with a "repertory company"- the same actors appearing each week in different roles.
The Richard Boone Show lasted one season on nbc and was predictably uneven, but many of the shows were outstanding- my favorite is "The Stranger" (AKA "Stranger"), a Twilight Zon-ish story of a mysterious man (Robert Blake, one of the regulars) who appears out of nowhere and affects the lives of the people that encounter him.
Clifford Odets (1906-1963; Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, None but the Lonely Heart, The Country Girl, The Sweet Smell of Success, etc.) was the story editor, and died half-way through production; hard to say how much quality he added to the series-the two episodes he actually wrote were among the weakest ones! The regular cast includes top character actors Harry Morgan, Warren Stevens, and Lloyd Bochner, and among the ladies, Jeanette Nolan, Laura Devon, and the magnificent Bethel Leslie.
Here's the entire series- I think the quality on these is decent-
https://archive.org/details/the.-richard.-boone.-show.-s-01/The.Richard.Boone.Show.S01E01.A.Statement.of.Fact.avi
Lloyd Bridges, after Sea Hunt and with pretensions of his own, also had his own anthology series, The Lloyd Bridge Show-another one-season wonder! (Hard series to find, but sometimes turns up online.)
-RM
By Grand Rapids Anonymous
saturday, june 28, 2025 at 7:59:00 a.m. edt
Boone appeared on What's My Line and Password promoting the anthology series. He looked quite pleased with the chance to do the show. Until it wasn't renewed.
--GRA
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Am I correct in assuming,not much romance for Boone in his series? Or did he get all the babes?
--GRA
In HAVE GUN, he was always the "lady-killer," mainly in the hotel lobby prologues- I had to laugh at one episode where his face is buried behind a newspaper and two babes smile at him. He lowers the paper, flashing his ugly mug, and instead of reacting normally and grimacing, they smile even more encouragingly! The BOONE SHOW is totally different- more realistic stories (within TV limitations), with Boone sometimes only appearing in a minor role. Often he'd play a roughneck lout of a character, which suited him more than the poetry-spouting Paladin.
One of his best later roles was in the CIMARRON STRIP episode "The Roarer," (1967), where he's a hell-raising former Army officer who violently resists the changing of the West, sort of like Kirk Douglas in LONELY ARE THE BRAVE. If it turns up on the 'net somewhere, I'll post it.
-RM
Added observation: Boone hated playing a gunslinger as much as Bridges hated starring in an action series; both longed to do "serious" drama, hence the two anthology series. (Though their respective shows made them both millionaires!) The actors today, repulsive and talentless and with the values of slime mold, not only think themselves wonderful, but consider every piece of junk they appear in to be something terrific!
-RM
Thanks,RM.
--GRA
GREAT acting! Those two women should have been given Emmy awards right then and there.
--GRA
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