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:

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• OTRW1807: The Six Shooter – Hollywood Star Playhouse (04-13-52)
• OTRW1817: The Six Shooter – Jenny (09-20-53)
• OTRW1827: The Six Shooter – The Coward (09-27-53)
• OTRW1837: The Six Shooter – The Stampede (10-04-53)
• OTRW1847: The Six Shooter – Silver Annie (10-11-53)
• OTRW1857: The Six Shooter – Rink Larkin (10-18-53)
• OTRW1867: The Six Shooter – Red Lawson’s Revenge (10-25-53)
• OTRW2077: The Six Shooter – Ben Scofield (11-01-53)
• OTRW2087: The Six Shooter – The Capture Of Stacy Gault (11-08-53)
• The Six Shooter – Escape From Smoke Falls (11-15-53)
• The Six Shooter – Gabriel Starbuck (11-22-53)
• The Six Shooter – Sheriff Billy (11-29-53)
• The Six Shooter – A Pressing Engagement (12-06-53)
• The Six Shooter – More Than Kin (12-13-53)
• The Six Shooter – Britt Ponsett’s Christmas Carol (12-20-53)
• The Six Shooter – Cora Plummer Quincy (12-27-53)
• The Six Shooter – A Friend In Need (01-03-54)
• The Six Shooter – Hiram’s Gold Strike (01-10-54)
• The Six Shooter – The Silver Buckle (01-17-54)
• The Six Shooter – Helen Bricker (01-24-54)
• The Six Shooter – Trail To Sunset (01-31-54)
• The Six Shooter – Apron Faced Sorrel (02-07-54)
• The Six Shooter – Quiet City (02-14-54)
• The Six Shooter – Battle At Tower Rock (02-21-54)
• The Six Shooter – Cheyenne Express (03-07-54)
• The Six Shooter – Thicker Than Water (03-14-54)
• The Six Shooter – Duel At Lockwood (03-21-54)
• The Six Shooter – Aunt Emma (04-01-54)
• The Six Shooter – General Guilford’s Widow (04-08-54)
• The Six Shooter – Crisis At Easter Creek (04-15-54)
• The Six Shooter – Johnny Springer (04-22-54)
• The Six Shooter – Revenge At Harness Creek (04-29-54)
• The Six Shooter – Anna Norquist (05-06-54)
• The Six Shooter – The Double Seven (05-13-54)
• The Six Shooter – The Shooting Of Wyatt King (05-20-54)
• The Six Shooter – Blood Relations (05-27-54)
• The Six Shooter – Silver Threads (06-03-54)
• The Six Shooter – The New Sheriff (06-10-54)
• The Six Shooter – When The Shoe Doesn’t Fit (06-17-54)
• The Six Shooter – Myra Barker (06-24-54)