Johnny Ringo

Lets be upfront, rated 5 out of 10 because in an age when westerns were a dime a dozen, and you are competing for eyeballs with the likes of Steven McQueen and Richard Boone, this product was nothing more and nothing less than average. In those days (boy do I sound old) every western had a gimmick (except perhaps Gunsmoke, where the gimmick was that there was no gimmick, just tedious dialog.) Boone had his hidden derringer, McQueen had his saw-off with trick holster, Hugh Obrien had his Buntline, etc) here the character had really odd pistol which carried an extra shell. (Trivia note -- the writers based this on a real gun designed in France. Where else?) Invariably, just as Wyatt Earp would end up in a gunfight where the bad guy was too far away to fire back, and Palladin would end up fining his derringer when the bad guy looked the other way, Ringo would face an enemy who believed he was out of ammo (counting shots in a 50s western? wow) and surprise the rogue. The real story however is that this series was part of a "package" that a young producer named Aaron Spelling sold to TV, part of a set of three as I recall. He made them on the cheap (the star of Ringo had to sing his own theme song) and he essentially started a dynasty. So if you are in Business School, the rating is a 10.