Before Bonanza, Michael Landon Was In This Underrated '50s Western Series' Pilot

Long before he was Little Joe Cartwright on "Bonanza" or Charles Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie," Michael Landon was Sandy Ray on "The Restless Gun." Not that anyone remembers this tiny role on a TV pilot that aired all the way back in 1957. But many might remember the series which it spawned, even though Landon himself didn't end up as part of the main cast.

In 1957, Landon was still trying to make a name for himself. By the time he was cast on "The Restless Gun," then, he had a fair few credits to his name but was yet to break through. He was also no stranger to the TV Western, having appeared in two episodes of "The Adventures of Jim Bowie" and an episode of the now-forgotten '50s gem that completely changed television, "Cheyenne."

The genesis of "The Restless Gun" goes back to the 1953 radio series "The Six Shooter," which starred James Stewart as itinerant gunfighter Britt Ponset. Les Crutchfield wrote the episode "Red Lawson's Revenge," and it was this installment that served as the basis for the "Restless Gun" pilot. Writer N. B. Stone Jr. took Crutchfield's radio play and turned it into a story for TV, with John Payne brought in to star as Britt Ponset. Landon, meanwhile, was hired for a small role that saw him clash with Payne's cowboy.

The TV Western was entering a golden age in 1957. William Boyd's late-40s Western series, "Hopalong Cassidy," had brought the genre to the small screen, and many a show had cropped up in the years after Boyd's morally upstanding hero disappeared from the airwaves in 1952. Classic Western TV shows such as "Death Valley Days" and "Gunsmoke" emerged during this time, and by the late-1950s, the small screen Oater was well-established as one of the most reliably popular forms of TV entertainment. 

It was amid this Western-rich environment that "The Restless Gun" debuted. The pilot episode was broadcast on March 29, 1957 and introduced TV audiences to John Payne as Britt Ponset, an aging cowpoke who travels between towns atop his horse Scar looking for work. In the pilot, Britt is out for revenge on the man who killed his brother, Red Lawson (Andrew Duggan). Along the way he encounters Michael Landon's Sandy Ray, an overly confident young gunslinger who's determined to make a name for himself. Landon isn't in much of the episode, but he does a fine job in his few short scenes and exudes the kind of nervously ambitious energy you'd expect from his character, no doubt helped by the fact Landon was, like his character, looking to establish himself.

When "The Restless Gun" did go to series, Payne's character was renamed from Britt Ponset to Vint Bonner. Landon had also moved on to bigger and better things. But he remained indebted to "The Restless Gun" as it ultimately gave him his relationship with the man who would help turn Landon into a star.

Following its pilot, "The Restless Gun" was turned into a full series which ran for two seasons of 78 episodes between 1957 and 1959. John Payne's character was given a new name for the show proper, with the star not only leading all 78 episodes but executive producing the series via his Window Glen Productions. Who else should be producing "The Restless Gun" but David Dortort, who two years after the "Restless Gun" pilot would debut his next Western series, "Bonanza."

One of the greatest Western TV shows ever made, "Bonanza" would also become one of the longest-running, airing on NBC from 1959 to 1973. When Dortort came to cast his show he thought of Landon. As he told the Television Academy, "When it came to writing the part of [Eric] 'Hoss' Cartwright I wrote it with [Dan] Blocker in mind. That was a great advantage because I knew his quality as an actor, he was unknown. And the same thing with Michael Landon I knew his quality, so he he was my Little Joe [Cartwright], I knew it." While "The Restless Gun" pilot might not have directly given Landon his big break, in the end it was the show that led to him becoming a major star.

What's more, like Payne on "The Restless Gun," Landon became intimately involved with "Bonanza" behind the scenes, writing and directing several episodes and establishing himself as much more than an actor. By the time he came to "Little House on the Prairie" he was able to demand much more control, and had come a long way from trying to unsuccessfully face down John Payne in a bit part.