The Guns of Will Sonnett

An old former Army scout and his grandson search the west for the man's son, a gunfighter on the run.

Genre: Western

Cast:Walter Brennan , Dack Rambo , Jason Evers , Chuck Horne , Rex Holman , Dennis Cross , Bing Russell , Don Wilbanks , Bill Coontz , Myron Healey , Bartlett Robinson , William Smith , Harry Swoger , Walter Burke , Jonathan Hole , Hal Baylor , Chubby Johnson , Eddie Quillan

1Season 1

S1.E1 ∙ Ride the Long Trail

Fri, Sep 8, 1967

Jeff and Will encounter a man who lost an arm in a gunfight with Jim Sonnett.

2Season 1

S1.E2 ∙ A Bell for Jeff Sonnett

Fri, Sep 15, 1967

With Will's gun arm injured, Jeff is forced into his first-ever gunfight against a master gunfighter (Charles Grodin, of all people) who uses every psychological trick in the book.

3Season 1

S1.E3 ∙ A Grave for James Sonnett

Fri, Sep 22, 1967

Arriving in a Mexican town, the Sonnetts find Jim's grave and a curiously reticent padre, and tangle with a bandito leader who may -- or may not -- have killed James. Features an exceptionally lively gunfight at the end.

4Season 1

S1.E4 ∙ The Natural Way

Fri, Sep 29, 1967

Will stops by a town intending to visit his old friend Morgan. Turns out, he is the sheriff. He tells Will the town wants him and Jeff to move along as they are not wanted. But a cattle baron comes into town, intent on confronting Morgan.

5Season 1

S1.E5 ∙ Of Lasting Summers and Jim Sonnett

Fri, Oct 6, 1967

Hearing Jim Sonnett is to be hanged, Will and Jeff hurry to a Western town. A man says he is Jim. Will disputes it but Jeff believes. The Sheriff fears they will try to break him out. The carnival atmosphere in the town unhinges Jeff.

6Season 1

S1.E6 ∙ Message at Noon

Fri, Oct 13, 1967

The Sonnetts talk to a sheriff who knows Jim, hoping to learn where he is. The sheriff is unsure of their intentions so he doesn't tell them Jim is expected next day. But Jim encounters a challenger before he gets there and has to reroute.

7Season 1

S1.E7 ∙ A Son for a Son

Fri, Oct 20, 1967

A farmer provides Jeff, ill with fever, a bed while his wife tends. The Sonnett's don't know the farmer offered because Jim Sonnett killed their son in a shootout in the last year. The wife, sick with grief, thinks Jeff is the dead son.

8Season 1

S1.E8 ∙ Meeting at Devil's Fork

Fri, Oct 27, 1967

The Sonnetts are accosted by four gunmen who claim to be friends of Jim's, saying they can take them to him. They agree to ride with them but soon realize they are being used as bait to draw Jim out of hiding for an ambush at Devil's Fork.

9Season 1

S1.E9 ∙ First Love

Fri, Nov 3, 1967

When Will and Jeff land in jail, a pretty girl puts up the bail and asks them to stay.

10Season 1

S1.E10 ∙ The Favor

Fri, Nov 10, 1967

The Sonnetts tend to an injured man wanted for bank robbery. They agree to turn him in and send bounty money to his poor family. But his former gang pose as lawmen to do the same minus the altruism and hold a murderous grudge against Will.

11Season 1

S1.E11 ∙ Ride the Man Down

Fri, Nov 17, 1967

A dying bank robber names Jim Sonnett as his accomplice in a bank robbery where the clerk was shot dead. The sheriff demands a posse's help. Using aliases, Will and Jeff join the posse ponied by the bank owner with $500 reward and liquor.

12Season 1

S1.E12 ∙ The Turkey Shoot

Fri, Nov 24, 1967

Near broke, Will enters Jeff in a shooting contest where a prize bull is at stake put up by a local cattle baron who keeps local breeders dependent. Tensions escalate as the Sonnett's hear of how they treated Jim on an earlier visit.

13Season 1

S1.E13 ∙ And a Killing Rode in Town

Fri, Dec 1, 1967

Will and Jeff are startled to be introduced to Mrs. Jim Sonnett who is being tormented by a local ruffian. Jeff believes her story but Will has doubts. When she appeals for protection their disagreement mushrooms towards a falling out.

14Season 1

S1.E14 ∙ Find a Sonnett, Kill a Sonnett

Fri, Dec 8, 1967

Jeff is being held by the sons of a man that was killed by Jim Sonnett, demanding Will bring him for Jeff's release. The local town is unwilling to help so Will enlists a broken down former gunslinger and Will begins his rehabilitation.

15Season 1

S1.E15 ∙ Sunday in Paradise

Fri, Dec 15, 1967

In the town of Paradise, Will reconnects with an old friend who still owns a brothel. She is looked down upon by the very men of the town who have unpaid accounts. Rather than have them pay up, she just asks them to help build a church.

16Season 1

S1.E16 ∙ The Secret of Hangtown Mine

Fri, Dec 22, 1967

Will and Jeff travel to Hangtown to speak with a doctor that treated Jim but the doctor is out of town. They visit the doctor's wife at their home but she and the hired hand have sinister plans for them and a treacherous secret concealed.

17Season 1

S1.E17 ∙ The Hero

Fri, Dec 29, 1967

When Will is shot in a bank robbery he and Jeff stumble into the middle of, Jeff insists on joining the local sheriff in pursuing the robbers. While Will convalesces, he learns the sheriff's wife knows a shocking truth about the robbery.

18Season 1

S1.E18 ∙ What's in a Name

Fri, Jan 5, 1968

The Sonnett's meet a small-time hustler posing as Will to mooch meals and drinks with trick shooting. When confronted, he admits he began the scam after helping Jim when he was shot. A local gunslinger challenges the poser to a gunfight.

19Season 1

S1.E19 ∙ End of the Rope

Fri, Jan 12, 1968

Jeff and Will arrive in a town and hear that Jim Sonnett will soon hang there. Jeff visits him in jail, giving him his first glimpse of his dad. Jim is accused of robbing and murdering a rancher. Will finds a hole in the prosecution case.

20Season 1

S1.E20 ∙ And He Shall Lead the Children

Fri, Jan 19, 1968

The Sonnett's travel to the remote area of Will's younger days. They find a mother bedfast with tick fever, an old flame of Will's with troubles married to an outlaw who's away. They nurse the woman well and tend to her children.

21Season 1

S1.E21 ∙ Look for the Hound Dog

Fri, Jan 26, 1968

Accused of a murder he didn't commit, Jeff is arrested and faces hanging. The local lawyer is afraid to defend Jeff because most of the town owes the murdered man a lot of money. Will has to either defend Jeff or find someone who can.

22Season 1

S1.E22 ∙ Stopover in a Troubled Town

Fri, Feb 2, 1968

Will and Jeff befriend a saloon girl who is a single mother unable to both care for her baby and please her cruel taskmaster employer. Her father is to arrive but she's afraid because she married her faithless husband against his wishes.

23Season 1

S1.E23 ∙ Alone

Fri, Feb 9, 1968

Will awaits the arrival of Jeff as they are to reunite in a deserted town. An unidentified gunman starts shooting at Will and Will is knocked senseless when grazed by a bullet. Will then experiences waking dreams of accusers from his past.

24Season 1

S1.E24 ∙ The Sins of the Father

Fri, Feb 23, 1968

Visiting a farmhouse where a wounded James Sonnett stayed, Jeff is shocked when the illegitimate son of the daughter seems to be his half-brother, ostracized by the girl's father because of her sin and James leaving. Plot twist at the end.

25Season 1

S1.E25 ∙ The Warriors

Fri, Mar 1, 1968

South Dakota, 1890: Will meets up with an old friend, a Sioux chief planning to join the doomed Ghost Dance uprising. When Will schemes to foil a gunrunner's sale of rifles to the tribesmen, the peddler and a crooked sheriff retaliate.

26Season 1

S1.E26 ∙ A Fool and His Money

Fri, Mar 8, 1968

An old friend of Will's is posing as a wealthy man to land a woman and asks for Will's help. However, a couple of disreputable, former business partners aim to demand their share of Charlie's apparent newfound wealth.

1Season 2

S2.E1 ∙ Reunion

Fri, Sep 27, 1968

James Sonnett finally learns that his father and son are trying to track him down -- but the way he learns is from a vengeful young punk who's ploying Will and Jeff for information -- and posing as Jeff.

2Season 2

S2.E2 ∙ The Trap

Fri, Oct 4, 1968

The Sonnets are railroaded on trumped-up charges in a small town where they heard Jim stayed 4 days. Rather than let them pay a fine, the judge sentences them to work the local railroad tunnel for 30 days. On the job, things become grim.

3Season 2

S2.E3 ∙ Chapter and Verse

Fri, Oct 11, 1968

The Sonnett's encounter a bounty hunter team who are pursuing Jim Sonnett and other fugitives. Will challenges their ruthless tactics and use of Bible scriptures to justify them and later discovers they have crossed the line.

4Season 2

S2.E4 ∙ Pariah

Fri, Oct 18, 1968

Will attempts to help a friend who's been terrorized by a maniac for accidentally causing the death of the other man's daughter.

5Season 2

S2.E5 ∙ Joby

Fri, Nov 1, 1968

The Sonnets arrive at the town of Willow where a saloon flunky loves to instigate gun fights. Having instigated one between Jim Sonnett and a local earlier, he's delighted when Will and Jeff arrive.

6Season 2

S2.E6 ∙ The Straw Man

Fri, Nov 8, 1968

Will and Jeff arrive in town to find Jim Sonnett literally hanged in effigy. The widow of a back-shooting victim has coerced the town into building gallows in the town square that dangle a Jim scarecrow. Now any Sonnett is sufficient.

7Season 2

S2.E7 ∙ A Difference of Opinion

Fri, Nov 15, 1968

When Jeff and Will ride into a town run by unscrupulous marshals who rule over the townspeople, they become further incensed when they discover the marshals claim to have run Jim out of town. Jeff goes against his grandfather's advice and confronts the marshals on the main street in full view of the town. Will finally backs his grandson's play and they run the marshals out of town.

8Season 2

S2.E8 ∙ Home Free

Fri, Nov 22, 1968

An old storekeeper friend of Will's is stubbornly unwilling to forgive the young farmer who stole from his store, even though the young man has served his time and needs to support his wife and child but can't get a job.

9Season 2

S2.E9 ∙ Guilt

Fri, Nov 29, 1968

Three brothers believe Will and Jeff are in town to avenge James, whom one of the brothers thinks he killed in an ambush. Now that brother thinks the only way to prevent being killed is to ambush Will and Jeff as well.

10Season 2

S2.E10 ∙ Meeting in a Small Town

Fri, Dec 6, 1968

Will and Jeff have a not-so-friendly hello to a bounty hunter in a small town. Jim Sonnett appears at the end in an unrelated (but chilling) segment.

11Season 2

S2.E11 ∙ The Fearless Man

Fri, Dec 13, 1968

Dave Henry rescues Will and Jeff from a trio of horse thieves. Henry appears totally without fear, and Jeff thinks of him as a kind of idol, but Henry's apparent fearlessness actually masks a terrible secret.

12Season 2

S2.E12 ∙ Where There's Hope

Fri, Dec 20, 1968

Will and Jeff try to find a home for a little girl named Hope, whose drunken father just died in a house fire. But finding a family willing to take her is not easy.

13Season 2

S2.E13 ∙ Join the Army

Fri, Jan 3, 1969

Will and Jeff meet a young man on the trail who is eager to join the army. But instead, an old hunter talks the young man into joining him slaughtering and skinning buffalo in excess numbers, which could lead to an Indian war.

14Season 2

S2.E14 ∙ Time Is the Rider

Fri, Jan 10, 1969

Three outlaws, one posing as an Army major, talk Jeff into accompanying them to meet his father, but they actually have more sinister plans for both Jeff and James. Will teams with an old prospector to look for them.

15Season 2

S2.E15 ∙ Robber's Roost

Fri, Jan 17, 1969

With reason to believe James has been through the area, Will and Jeff both enter a town which has been taken over by an outlaw gang that has practically enslaved the residents.

16Season 2

S2.E16 ∙ Trail's End

Fri, Jan 31, 1969

A maniacal man avenging the death of his brother -- allegedly a murder by James Sonnett, though this is never proved -- will empty his gun through a hotel window just on the rumor that Jim Sonnett is on the other side. Though the hotel-shooting is the result of a cruel practical joke, the gunman still thinks he has a line on Jim's whereabouts through a saloon hostess who was recently Jim's girlfriend. When Will and Jeff arrive in the town, the sheriff and the hostess work separately to prevent a disastrous gunfight.

17Season 2

S2.E17 ∙ A Town in Terror: Part 1

Fri, Feb 7, 1969

When Will and Jeff run right into the middle of a deadly cattle versus sheep feud which has enveloped a grazing town, James Sonnett, a hired gun for the sheep ranchers, runs right into a cattleman's hired gun who looks just like him (played by a different actor) -- and gets into a fatal gunfight.

18Season 2

S2.E18 ∙ A Town in Terror: Part 2

Fri, Feb 14, 1969

Posing as his own killer, Jim Sonnett reports to the cattlemen who hired the killer in a cattlemen-sheepmen feud (he's working for the sheepmen, as are Will and Jeff), and meets Jeff face-to-face for the first time, knocking him unconscious with a sucker punch in order to keep his secret ... but the cattlemen figure out the secret and hold Jim hostage just as Will and Jeff come to the rescue.

19Season 2

S2.E19 ∙ Jim Sonnett's Lady

Fri, Feb 21, 1969

Will and Jeff try and foil a trap set by an old enemy of Jim's. Meanwhile Jim spends some downtime with a beautiful saloon owner with an agenda of her own.

20Season 2

S2.E20 ∙ The Trial

Fri, Feb 28, 1969

Will and Jeff learn that James may be coming to the town they're in to testify in favor of a man accused of murder---and that a powerful rancher who may be the real killer intends to make sure he never gets the chance.

21Season 2

S2.E21 ∙ One Angry Juror

Fri, Mar 7, 1969

After bringing Jeff to a doctor to recuperate from a fever, Will is ordered to serve as a juror in the case of a man accused of killing a powerful rancher's son. Will has his doubts about the man's guilt, and refuses to go along with the other jurors who just want to quickly convict and go home.

22Season 2

S2.E22 ∙ The Sodbuster

Fri, Mar 14, 1969

Will and Jeff stay with a poor family that James recently stayed with, and try to help them, not only with their struggle to keep their home and farm, but with the husband and wife's deteriorating relationship.

23Season 2

S2.E23 ∙ The Man Who Killed Jim Sonnett

Fri, Mar 21, 1969

Will and Jeff stop in a town where a play is being staged about the killing of James Sonnett, and many in the town, including the actors, claim that it really happened that way.

24Season 2

S2.E24 ∙ Three Stand Together

Tue, Sep 16, 1969

Intended either as a series finale or the pilot for a revamped series which never materialized (shades of "Bret Maverick"), Will and Jeff finally meet up with Jim and convince him to join them as lawmen in a small town. This episode was overlooked in compilations until the early 2000s because of its scheduling at the end of a summer of reruns.