The Odds: Have Gun, Will Travel (November 6, 1960)

“The Odds” is an episode of Have Gun, Will Travel, the old-time radio show, first broadcast November 6, 1960. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

Listen to Have Gun, Will Travel free, live around the clock: every episode, in the order it first aired. No sign-up.

What happens

Paladin's horse breaks down in the Nebraska plains, leading him to the Buford farm where young Jim accidentally shoots him. While recovering, Paladin discusses the burden of living by the gun with Jim's father, a struggling farmer who fears his son is enchanted by the gunfighter's reputation. When Paladin and Jim drive into town, they stumble upon bank robbers making their escape.

Nebraska plains and a small town, 1875. The episode opens in San Francisco at the Carlton Hotel before moving to a remote farm and then to town.

Characters: Paladin, James Buford, Jim Buford, Colonel Van Courtney, Hey Boy

Listen for: Paladin's philosophy on guns and responsibility, the tension between Jim's youthful admiration for gunfighting and his father's desire for him to become a farmer, and the clash between rural life and frontier violence.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.