I'm so delighted that more of us are discovering HGWT. The foundation of Star Trek was laid there. Gene Roddenberry wrote 24 episodes of this sophisticated and unusual western. In Star Trek - The 50 Year Mission, David Gerrold, a vocal Roddenberry critic, likes to say that Gene Roddenberry never had to write for anyone, and that "...he was always a chief, never an Indian". David needs to get hip.
In deference to Gerrold, it's unclear when he said that to Altman and Gross (there are no dates in the book for the interviews). Granted, there's no point when Gerrold could have said that and had it be true, but perhaps that comment came during (a) the heat of anger during
Star Trek: The Next Generation and/or (b) before databases like IMDB and Wikipedia where this information could be accessed so quickly and easily.
Other comments Gerrold makes in the book contradicts his own account in the book he wrote about the making of "The Trouble with Tribbles," so, in general, I wouldn't cite
anything he says in that book without several other sources as confirmation!
For what it's worth, the prospectus also claims that Roddenberry was HGWT's "head writer," which I'm told is an exaggeration, to put it gently.
Roddenberry was a prolific freelance writer for
Have Gun, Will Travel. There was no "head writer," and Roddenberry was never on staff. Though, technically, not
the most prolific freelancer, as is sometimes claimed. Shimon Wincelberg wrote just as many episodes as Roddenberry (24), so you can call it a tie.
--
Speaking of half-hour shows written by Roddenberry, I've recently watched about a dozen episodes of
West Point (sometimes erroneously referred to as
The West Point Story, probably confusing the syndicated Ziv TV series for the movie of that name). Roddenberry wrote about 12 episodes (that's what IMDB says, anyway; I haven't watched them all yet). It's an interesting series -- basically, an anthology, but with characters that will recur in multiple segments, creating a broader sense of continuity.
