Created by David Jacobs and Robert Porter, the series presents the adventures of fictitious gunfighter Ethan Allen Cord, whose sister left her four children in his custody when she died.
Paradise, set from 1890 and on, starred Lee Horsley as Cord, a professional gunfighter who was forced to take custody of the four children of his sister Lucy (Kathryn Leigh Scott), a St. Louis singer who was dying and unable to make any other arrangements for their care.
Cord realized his profession was unsuitable to child rearing and decided to change, renting a farm from Amelia Lawson (Sigrid Thornton), who also owned the local bank in the small town of Paradise, California (the origin of the title).
Cord was close friends with John Taylor (Dehl Berti), a Native American medicine man, who often provided him with wise counsel and insights into human nature.
In a two-part episode, Gene Barry and Hugh O'Brian recreated their famous 1950s television roles of legendary gunslingers Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp.