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An Aaron Spelling production, the weekly, half-hour western The Guns of Will Sonnett debuted September 8, 1967 on ABC. Heading the cast was "the distinguished actor Walter Brennan" (as he was billed in the series' publicity), playing grizzled former Cavalry scout Will Sonnett Sometime in the 1870s, Sonnett hit the trail with his grandson Jeff Sonnett (Dack Rambo), whom he'd raised alone since Jeff's dad (and Will's son) James Sonnett left home 19 years earlier to become a notorious gunman. Now the time had come for Will to be reunited with the son he barely knew, and for Jeff to meet the father's he's never met. In virtually every town they visited, Will and Jeff were confronted by someone with ample reason to despise the fugitive Jim Sonnett, who had left a long and wide trail of corpses behind him. Fortunately for their own well-being, Will and his grandson were themselves expert shots. As Will explained, Jeff was the third-best gunman in the west; Jim was second-best, Will went on, "And I'm better'n both of 'em. No brag, jest fact." During the series' first season, Jason Evers made fleeting token apperances as Jim Sonnett, always frustratingly out of the reach of his loved ones (and the law). By the second season, Will and Jeff had come face to face with Jim on a number of occasions, and by the end of the series' run had convinced him to change his ways and join them as lawmen in the small town of Samson. This "pivotal" episode of The Guns of Will Sonnett had actually been filmed as the opening salvo of the series' third season, but ABC decided not to renew the show and thus it was seen as the series' finale on September 15, 1969.