The Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS from September 1965 to April 1969. The show was developed by Michael Garrison as a science fiction western to combat the spy genre that was taking hold of American TV. The show starred Robert Conrad as James West, a charming gunslinger, and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon, a brilliant gadgeteer and master of disguise.
The basic concept of the show is that West and Gordon are Secret Service Agents in charge of protecting President Ulysses S. Grant and the United States from all manner of dangerous threats. They travel in a luxury train called the Wanderer that is equipped with everything that they need. In James Bond tradition there are women, gadgets, and arch enemies with insane ideals.
As with many series of the time, each episode began with a similar naming convention. With The Wild Wild West the convention was "The Night…" And as with other series, there were recurring villains. The most notable was Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless, played by Michael Dunn, as a brilliant but insane dwarf. He was first introduced in the episode called "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" and appeared in nine other episodes.
The writing of many of the shows began with the inventions created by the madmen villains and the episodes were developed around these devices. Some of the stories were also inspired by Edgar Alan Poe, H.G. Wells, and Jules Verne.
Robert Conrad did all of his own stunts, at least two fights per episode, and in one he fell 12 feet from a chandelier and suffered a concussion. Ross Martin said of his own role that it was a showoff's showcase because it allowed him to portray over 100 different characters during the series' run.
Then there were the gadgets. Some were recurring and others appeared just once. There was, for example, the sleeve gun, which featured a Remington derringer, as well as other things like a tiny squirt can that contained acid. There was an exploding billiard ball, a blow torch masquerading as a cigar, a thin wire capable of sawing through steel, and a cue stick sword.
The Wild Wild West: The Complete TV Series contains all 104 episodes and two reunion movies. It is contained in a rectangular box with two packages of disks. There are 27 discs and the total running time is over 85 hours. While there would not be enough room to go though all of the episodes, I will highlight my favorite from each season.
Season one, which ran from 1965-1966, had 28 episodes and was filmed all in black and white. One that stands out in my mind is "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" where we are first introduced to Dr. Loveless, who is planning on taking over California which he claims rightfully belongs to him. This episode also features Richard Kiel, famous for the role of Jaws in the Bond film The Spy who Loved Me. I really liked "The Night of a Thousand Eyes" in which West and Gordon investigate a theft at the U.S. Mint. I found that the theft itself proved to be very interesting. I also enjoyed ”The Night of the Puppeteer" where they are trying to prevent the assassinations of Supreme Court Justices, and "The Night of the Whirring Death" where Dr. Loveless returns to thwart West and Gordon from helping the State of California from going bankrupt. Guest stars this season included Leslie Nielsen, Katharine Ross, Martin Landau, Burgess Meredith, Keenan Wynne, and Don Rickles.
Article comments
1 - Marilyn Bertrand-Lawson
This is my all time favorite show. Never missed an episode when it originally aired. Wrote to both Robert Conrad and Ross Martin and got fantastic pics from both...this show has stood the test of time. This is one complete box set that will be on my shelf