Forgotten Television: Dead Man’s Gun

“In the American west a gun touched by evil passed from hand to hand changing the lives of all that possessed it. Its origin unknown, its dark legend grows, until it became known as The Dead Man’s Gun!”

This is the monologue spoken by Kris Kristofferson during the opening credits of each episode of Dead Man’s Gun”, an anthology series on Showtime which ran from 1997 to 1999 with a total of 44 episodes. The show’s premise is simple, in the American old west, a cursed gun changes the lives of those who possess it, usually with dire consequences.  The episodes, in Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits fashion, often had a twist ending revealing a secret that had been hinted at earlier in the episode. This includes the final episode, where we see the twist is that we finally learn who the original owner of the gun was. The show was produced by Henry Winkler, also known as “The Fonz” from the long running television series Happy Days, who also starred in two episodes of the series.  Other stars to have taken possession of the eponymous artifact were Jon Ritter, Ed Asner, Meat Loaf, Michael Dorn, Daniel Baldwin, Gary Cole, Matt Frewer, JoBeth Williams, William Katt, Patrick Duffy, Larry Drake, and Bruce Davison along with many others.

The first three episodes were originally shown as a single TV Movie but were later split into their own episodes.  The first story stars John Ritter as a sideshow trick shot who is supposed to be a master marksman, but it is all illusion and in reality, he is not a sharpshooter, until he comes into possession of the Dead Man’s Gun.  With the cursed weapon he never misses a shot.  He acquires some notoriety and fortune, and his dreams begin to come true. He is not a nice man, and with the gun, he becomes even worse eventually betraying his business partner and mentor, and his wife who stood by him when things were bad. In the end, he chooses the wrong kid to attempt a quick draw duel with and the gun, finds a new owner.  Most of the episodes follow a similar format.  Bad man acquires gun which changes his life, but there is always a price to pay, sometimes with deadly consequences.

I really enjoyed watching this show when it originally came out, but I had forgotten about it until recently and rewatching the first episode reminded me of what a good series it was.  The production value was very good with the settings being appropriate for the “Old West” and, likewise, the music, composed by Terry Frewer, had the same period feel and accentuated the episodes evoking the proper emotions when needed. The writing was clever and the dialogue witty and poignant with both comic and dramatic elements.  The episodes moved at a good tempo and had a decent rhythm. As mentioned above, the cast featured some of the finest actors in television at the time which added to the overall quality of the show.  In the end, this was a great show that had some limited success, but in the end, few people remember it.