The Six Shooter

The Six Shooter

Jimmy Stewart as Britt Ponset

The Six Shooter brought James Stewart to the NBC microphone on September 20, 1953, in a fine series of folksy Western adventures.

Stewart was never better on the air than in this drama of Britt Ponset, frontier drifter created by Frank Burt. The epigraph set it up nicely: “The man in the saddle is angular and long-legged: his skin is sun dyed brown. The gun in his holster is gray steel and rainbow mother-of-pearl. People call them both The Six Shooter.” Ponset was a wanderer, an easy-going gentleman and — when he had to be — a gunfighter.

Stewart was right in character as the slow-talking maverick who usually blundered into other people’s troubles and sometimes shot his way out. His experiences were broad, but The Six Shooter leaned more to comedy than other shows of its kind. Ponset took time out to play Hamlet with a crude road company. He ran for mayor and sheriff of the same town at the same time. He became involved in a delightful Western version of Cinderella, complete with grouchy stepmother, ugly sisters, and a shoe that didn’t fit. And at Christmas he told a young runaway the story of A Christmas Carol, Substituting the original Dickens characters with Western heavies. Britt even had time to fall in love, but it was the age-old story of people from different worlds, and the romance was foredoomed despite their valiant efforts to save it.

So we got a cowboy-into-the-sunset ending for this series, truly one of the bright spots of radio. Unfortunately, it came too late, and lasted only one season.

It was a transcribed show, sustained by NBC and directed by Jack Johnstone. Basil Adlam provided the music and Frank Burt wrote the scripts. Hal Gibney announced.

Episode Guide:

  1. Hollywood Star Playhouse
  2. Jenny
  3. The Coward
  4. The Stampede
  5. Silver Annie
  6. Rink Larkin
  7. Coming of Age
  8. Ben Scofield
  9. The Capture Of Stacy Gault
  10. Night Stage to Dalton
  11. Escape From Smoke Falls
  12. Gabriel Starbuck
  13. Sheriff Billy
  14. A Pressing Engagement
  15. More Than Kin
  16. Cora Plummer Quincy
  17. A Friend In Need
  18. Hiram’s Goldstrike
  19. The Silver Buckle
  20. Helen Bricker
  21. Trail To Sunset
  22. Apron Faced Sorrel
  23. Quiet City
  24. Battle At Tower Rock
  25. Cheyenne Express
  26. Thicker Than Water
  27. Duel At Lockwood
  28. Aunt Ema
  29. General Gillford’s Widow
  30. Crisis At Easter Creek
  31. Johnny Springer
  32. Revenge At Harness Creek
  33. Anna Norquest
  34. The Double Seven
  35. The Shooting Of Wyatt King
  36. Blood Relations
  37. Silver Threads
  38. The New Sheriff
  39. When The Shoe Doesn’t Fit
  40. Myra Barker