The Wild Wild West (1965–1969)

Two Secret Services agents, equipped with a wide array of gizmos, work for the government in the Old West.

Creator:

Michael Garrison

Stars:

Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Michael Dunn

Won 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 5 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Robert Conrad	...	James T. West (104 episodes, 1965-1969)
Ross Martin	...	Artemus Gordon (104 episodes, 1965-1969)

Storyline

James West and Artemus Gordon are two agents of President Grant who take their splendidly appointed private train through the west to fight evil. Half science fiction and half western, Artemus designs a series of interesting gadgets for James that would make Inspector Gadget proud. A lighthearted adventure series.

---

Plot Keywords:

gadget | agent | secret | train | spoof | 

---

Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller | Western

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1965 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Wild West

Filming Locations:

Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bruce Lansbury Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), Michael Garrison Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min 50 min (104 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White (season 1) Color (seasons 2-4)

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Robert Conrad did all his own "fight choreography", including the stunts, until he almost killed himself when one of them backfired.

---

Goofs

Throughout the series various characters mispronounce "cavalry" as "calvary", confusing a pair of near-homonyms with Latin origins. Cavalry means soldiers on horseback. Calvary means something shaped like a skull.

---

Crazy Credits

The opening credits as originally designed for the pilot (and included on the season 1 DVD) show the animated cowboy knocking down the woman trying to stab him. In the first season as aired, the cowboy kisses the woman, who dreamily turns away instead of trying to stab him. Later episodes reinstated the cowboy knocking the woman down.

---

Connections

Referenced in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: The Wild, Wild Witch (2000)

User Reviews

The One & Only Wild Wild West

This is it, & it will never happen again. This is a wild west with great acting chemistry, & the best stunt work in the history of television. This series had it all.

Gordon always has different roles. West usually got caught in at least 1 cliff-hanger in every episode. Lots of super villains and wild women kept things moving. Special effects were most often good & gadgets that would make sense or sometimes non-sense.

Michael Dunn as Dr. Loveless is often pointed out as a great villain & he was, with Richard Kiel early on as his aide Voltaire, & always with a good looking woman on his side though sometimes West would make them change their side. Loveless would always do the impossible to boot. Wish Michael Dunn could have found more roles in his life.

The rest of the guest villains were a veritable who's who of talent. Harvey Korman, Agnes Moorhead, Orsen Welles, Harold Gould, Burgess Meredith, and others. When the talent did not match the villain, the plot would still wrinkle it for the viewer to enjoy plenty of action.

Fred Friedberger, Gene L Coon, both who worked with Gene Roddenbury on the original Star Trek series worked behind the cameras on this show too. Trekies take note, there are several common themes used on Star Trek & on this series including Michael Dunn who did a guest shot on Star Trek. James T Kirk's fight stunts were NBC's answer to James Wests. John Mantley who did a lot of Gun Smoke work with James Arness did some episodes of Wild Wild West too.

I wish they could still make a show like this. Doubt there are enough talented stunt men around today, & without Conrad, Martin, & Dunn, the talent pool has gotten too shallow. Enjoy this series, there is only one and it will never be better.