Yesterday, we looked at a Wild Bill Hickok comic. Today, we'll continue to follow the theme of real-life Wild West characters being fictionalized with a look at the 1959-60 television series Johnny Ringo.
In real life, Ringo was an outlaw. Many of the Western gunfighters who were eventually brought back to "life" on television (Wyatt Earp, for example) were morally ambivalent in real life, but were usually closer to being good guys than bad guys. Ringo, though, was bad through and through.
But that didn't stop television from jumping him over to the good guy side. The TV series, which ran for 38 episodes, starred actor/singer Don Durant and was, in fact, created specifically for him.
Johnny is still portrayed as a gunslinger, but someone who is forced into fast draws by the standard "young punks looking to build a reputation" situation. He dislikes this role and is looking for a way to redeem himself. So, in the pilot episode of the series, he takes a job as sheriff in a town largely controlled by a dishonest saloon owner.
The show is also made in the era of gimmick guns. Josh Randall has his cut-down rifle. Lucas McCain had his custom-made rifle. Shotgun Slade had special shotgun. Johnny Ringo has a home-made LeMat pistol, with a second barrel attached containing a single shotgun shell.
There were a lot of Westerns on TV at this time and I simply didn't know about this one until I ran across the first episode on YouTube recently. It's not bad at all. I'm not sure Don Durant has the dramatic chops to pull off the part with complete believability, but he's still pretty good. The story itself is strong and the villian, played by James Coburn, is appropriately vile.
And that LeMat pistol is pretty awesome. Predictably, that extra seventh shot comes in handy during the final shootout. Johnny Ringo didn't leave the same impression on the pop culture landscape as did Lucas McCain or Matt Dillon, but he didn't do badly at all.
Here's the episode in its entirety:
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