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Thursday, February 10, 2011

One of the best: The Six-Shooter

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; it's handle unmarked. People call them both, "The Six Shooter."

The Six Shooter, Brit Ponset

The Six Shooter was a one-year Western radio series that came out in September of 1953 and lasted until June of the next year. It starred one of the screen's biggest stars, James Stewart, who I used to note before I heard this radio series, "Couldn't act."

Stewart, who made more than a couple of handfuls of Westerns on celluloid, plays easy-going Brit Ponset.  He's not out to hurt or malign anyone and always leans on the side of caution.  Everyone he meets up with seems to know him and though his reputation is flawless, the townsfolk usually expect him to go kill the show's bad guy for them.

Ponset was a peaceful man who used violence at the last resort - and even then, he would only shoot for the shoulder or hand.  He was like Roy Rogers for the adult without the singing voice.  He wandered from town to town and job to job, enjoying the countryside and people he met along the way.

He wasn't easily ruffled - that is unless he was met with the task of finding the church a new organ or being forced to eat a 4th helping of freshly-baked cornbread.  It seems most of the situations he ran up against were more milquetoast than harmful.  The show wasn't always about "bad guys."  There's an episode about someone setting Brit up with a gal to marry.  Another has him acting a in play to help out a couple of old friends.   These non-violent episodes add to the show's charm as Ponset seems more like an everyday fellow and is easy to relate to.  I think this - more than anything else - is why this is such a wonderful show.

The show's theme song was a slow, peaceful (almost sad) piece of music that I feel reflects the character, Brit Ponset perfectly.

The show was created by Frank Burt and he wrote most of the episodes.   You won't find a bad script in the entire show's run.  The sound quality for the series is very good.   This is easily my favorite radio show.  5 of out of 5 stars.

5 comments:

  1. My favorite show too.

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  2. One of my favorites as well. I am sitting here by my pc and thinking, when did I ever see real evidence that Ponset earned his reputation as a tough guy. I am not sure he did on the program, but as you said, the people on the show knew his reputation. He alwasys shied away from violance. Another show where no violance took place was the Cinderalla story.

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  3. also the Christmas show...

    Thanks anan and Kevin for your comments. You too, BB. I emailed you yesterday... did you get it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. No I did not get an email. Can you try again?

    ReplyDelete

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