The WORST episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel

Every episode of Have Gun, Will Travel ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel!

Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco's Hotel Carlton were he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight "Have Gun – Will Travel ... Wire Paladin San Francisco."

Last Updated: 11/3/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
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star
2.67
33 votes

#1 - Lady of the Fifth Moon

Season 6 - Episode 29 - Aired 3/30/1963

Paladin comes to pay his respects to the mother of a Chinese man who is killed. She asks Paladin to meet a ship bound for China and see that her granddaughter is brought safely aboard.

Directors: Richard Boone
Writer: Don Ingalls
star
5.79
39 votes

#2 - The Silver Queen

Season 1 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/3/1958

Lonely Leadhead Kane dies and leaves his half of a mine to an actress. Kane's partner wants to challenge the will. Someone wants to make sure Paladin never gets the woman to the courtroom.

Directors: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Albert Aley
star
6.75
4 votes

#3 - Two Plus One

Season 6 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/6/1963

Paladin is riding to meet a lovely French lady in Los Angelos. On the way he encounters an Indian maiden being attacked. The girl, Taymanee, after being rescued, informs Paladin that she now belongs to him. His tryst takes a bad turn when Taymanee's attackers return. Rate it now! Air Date April 6, 1963 Production Code 31177 Top Episodes Genesis The Fifth Bullet Sweet Lady of the Moon The Hanging of Aaron Gibbs A Quiet Night in Town - Part I El Paso Stage The Predators Marshal of Sweetwater American Primitive A Quiet Night in Town - Part II Episode Summary Add/Edit On his way to an assignation with a lovely French lady in Los Angelos, Paladin encounters a Yosemite Indian maiden being attacked by two saddle tramps. Having rescued her, Paladin is nonplussed when the girl, Taymanee, informs him that she now belongs to him. This puts a serious crimp in his plans for a romantic interlude with his French lady, especially when Taymanee's attackers return.

Directors: Gary Nelson
The Hanging Cross
star
6.85
46 votes

#4 - The Hanging Cross

Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/21/1957

On Christmas Eve, an embittered rancher wants revenge on Pawnee Indians who he thinks kidnapped his son several years before.

star
7.09
34 votes

#5 - The Eve of St. Elmo

Season 6 - Episode 28 - Aired 3/23/1963

Colonel Draco invites Paladin to investigate an "insurrection" over water rights. Paladin discovers that Draco was crippled eight months previously and wants revenge. Paladin has no intention of being Draco's executioner.

Writer: Jay Simms
star
7.13
8 votes

#6 - Mark of Cain

Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/20/1962

Dr. Avatar hires Paladin to guide him to Jack Trueblood, a notorious western badman who has killed many men. Avatar wants to measure Trueblood's head to confirm his research on cranial measurements.

star
7.13
8 votes

#7 - Justice in Hell

Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/13/1962

Paladin goes after a wagon-master who led the massacre of his own wagon train. Rusty Doggett hides out in a town entirely populated by wanted outlaws. Finding someone to betray Doggett in the Bide-a-Wee Saloon is no problem, but crossing the death-line with his prisoner is very tricky. How much justice can Paladin bargain for in Hell ?

Directors: Richard Boone
Writer: Jack Laird
star
7.13
8 votes

#8 - Lazarus

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/6/1962

After local boozing champ Big Fontana cheats Paladin in a drink-off, sickly Boise Peabody convinced he'll die by morning, challenges the sneaky fast draw to a shootout. Paladin helped Boise hide from fellow miners who are so lonely for female company they want Boise to dress up like a woman. The dying Boise realizes he's been afraid all his life, so decides he'll go out like a lion.

Directors: Albert Ruben
Writer: Jack Laird
star
7.13
8 votes

#9 - Duke of Texas

Season 4 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/22/1961

Franz, a young Austrian Duke, hires Paladin to guide him to meet with a general who has promised to help reclaim Mexico for the Austrian empire. Franz believes the people of Mexico will welcome him, but Padadin thinks that Franz's advisor has other reasons for making the trip.

Directors: Buzz Kulik
star
7.13
39 votes

#10 - The Prophet

Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/2/1960

The Army asks Paladin to find an Army colonel who disappeared with his Apache wife. There are rumors of an Army officer working with the Apaches and inciting them to war. Paladin is asked to find and stop him at all costs.

star
7.17
6 votes

#11 - The Black Bull

Season 6 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/13/1963

After being tortured, Paladin, becomes a surrogate bull for a famous, but now insane bullfighter, Nino Ybarra..

Directors: William Conrad
Writer: Jay Simms
star
7.18
39 votes

#12 - The Return of Roy Carter

Season 2 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/2/1959

Roy Carter returns to help Paladin search the snow-covered mountains for a missing chaplain and an escaped convict.

star
7.18
38 votes

#13 - The Night the Town Died

Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/6/1960

Aaron Bell is on the warpath to bring his brother's lynchers to justice. Paladin is hired to protect a town from Bell.

Directors: Richard Boone
star
7.18
38 votes

#14 - Pancho

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1959

Mexican rancher Don Luis Ortega hires Paladin to escort his daughter across the border into the United States. However a peon from her father's ranch is determined to stop them and take her for himself.

star
7.20
15 votes

#15 - The Fatalist

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/1960

A Russian Jewish immigrant and his daughter are coerced by a local town boss not to testify in court about a murder. The daughter comes to San Francisco to enlist Paladin's help.

Directors: Buzz Kulik
star
7.21
38 votes

#16 - Hey Boy's Revenge

Season 1 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/12/1958

When Hey Boy's brother is killed for protesting the working conditions on a Chinese railroad gang in Utah, Paladin must get the boy out of jail and bring the killer to justice.

Directors: Lewis Milestone
Writer: Albert Aley
star
7.22
41 votes

#17 - The Posse

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/3/1959

Paladin stops to ask a stranger for directions and is invited to share his campsite. Later, when a posse arrives, the man announces that Paladin is the murderer they have been looking for.

star
7.22
9 votes

#18 - Dream Girl

Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/10/1962

Paladin rides upon Buddy Webster's mining camp, who needs a big favor. He has been prospecting for gold dust the last five years. He asks Paladin to help him get to Jackson City to find a girl he believes is waiting for him. With Paladin's help, this young miner quickly learns the ways of the world.

Directors: Richard Boone
star
7.22
9 votes

#19 - The Hunt

Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/3/1962

Paladin is lured to Oregon under the pretense of a widow in distress. The real reason is to engage him in a deadly hunt with a bored prince. The winner takes all; including a large purse and his own life.

Three Bells to Perdido
star
7.27
92 votes

#20 - Three Bells to Perdido

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1957

New Mexico rancher Jesse Reade hires Paladin for $1,000 to bring back outlaw Dave Enderly, who has run off to Perdido, Mexico with Reade's daughter Nancy.

The Singer
star
7.28
40 votes

#21 - The Singer

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/8/1958

A cowboy seeks help for his former girlfriend, a dancehall singer, who he says was forced into marriage and is now being held prisoner.

star
7.28
39 votes

#22 - Fragile

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/31/1959

Paladin is hired by the owner of ""The Frenchman's"" restaurant to take a plate glass window to the town of Panamint, a wild gold-mining town.

star
7.29
7 votes

#23 - Jonah

Season 5 - Episode 37 - Aired 5/26/1962

$20,000 in gold bullion is stolen and dropped into a lake. Paladin decides to try to retrieve it but Jonah, a fisherman, has the spot staked out. He's after a huge trout and doesn't want anyone getting in his way. There's also the three thieves watching and waiting to ambush Paladin once he gets the gold.

star
7.29
7 votes

#24 - Bandit

Season 5 - Episode 35 - Aired 5/12/1962

A girl bandit robs and kills a stagecoach driver for $50,000. When Paladin catches up to her he finds out she is no lady but with his help is willing to learn.

Directors: Richard Boone
star
7.29
7 votes

#25 - Cream of the Jest

Season 5 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/5/1962

Paladin travels to Santa Fe on a personal errand - to purchase one of the last authentic pieces of early Santa Clara pottery. On his return, he rides into a town that has a resident practical joker whose wife enlists/hires him to stop her husband from playing one too many jokes on a local gambler.

Directors: Richard Donner