Shotgun Slade

"Shotgun Slade" was a first-run syndicated half-hour western series which ran for a single season during the '59-'60 television season. Character actor Scott Brady starred as Shotgun Slade, a detective who roamed the west taking on cases for stagecoach lines, railroads, banks, and other businesses, usually tracking down bank/train robbers, embezzelers, and the like. As westerns in general were beginning to fade in the ratings during the early '60's more and more of them began relying on "gimmicks" to try to lure viewers back. This series actually employed a couple of gimmicks. One was that Slade did not utilize the normal six-shooter as his weapon of choice. Slade relied instead on an over-and-under combination shotgun (the lower barrel fired a 12-gauge shotgun shell)rifle (the top barrel fired a.32 caliber rifle bullet) giving Slade both heavy stopping power at close range and distance when needed. The second gimmick was that a modern jazz score was used instead of normal western themed music. This was undoubtedly a result of the popularity of such current-day detective series of this period such as "Peter Gunn". Indeed, "Shotgun Slade" seemed in many ways to be patterned after "Peter Gunn" with the exception of the fact that "Shotgun Slade" was very pedestrian in virtually all respects. A fair time-killer at best.