The Wild Wild West

This article is about the 1965 television series. For other uses, see Wild Wild West (disambiguation).

The Wild Wild West
Title card from the first act of the episode "The Night of the Poisonous Posey"
Genre
Created byMichael Garrison
Starring
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons4
No. of episodes104 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time49-50 min.
Production companies
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 17, 1965 (1965-09-17) –
April 11, 1969 (1969-04-11)
Related
Wild Wild West
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Wild Wild West is an American Western, spy, and science fiction television series[1][2] that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels were made with the original stars in 1979 and 1980[3][4] and the series was adapted for a theatrical film in 1999.

Developed at a time when the television Western was losing ground to the spy genre, this show was conceived by its creator, Michael Garrison, as "James Bond on horseback."[5] Set during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877), the series followed Secret Service agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) as they foiled the plans of megalomaniacal villains to take over part or all of the United States, protected the President, and solved crimes. The show featured a number of fantasy elements, such as the technologically advanced devices used by the agents and their adversaries. The combination of the Victorian era time-frame and the use of Vernean technology has led several steampunk web sites to cite the show as a pioneering influence on the genre.[6] This aspect was accentuated even more in the 1999 film adaptation.

Despite high ratings, the series was cancelled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence.[7][8]

  1. ^ "The Wild Wild West (1969)". TV.com. Archived from the original on September 4, 2019. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  2. ^ Magers, Boyd. "The Wild Wild West". Western Clippings. Retrieved May 9, 2018.
  3. ^ "The Wild, Wild West Revisited (1979)". www.allmovie.com. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  4. ^ "More Wild Wild West (1980)". www.allmovie.com. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  5. ^ Kesler, Susan E. (1988). The Wild Wild West: The Series. Arnett Press. ISBN 0-929360-00-1.
  6. ^ https://steampunkary.com/entertainment/tv-shows/the-wild-wild-west-tv-show; http://gothicwestern.com/site/wild-wild-west-precursor-steampunk/; https://screenrant.com/best-steampunk-tv-shows/; https://www.imdb.com/list/ls023281302/
  7. ^ "'West' Re-Runs Are No Surprise", Washington Post, July 19, 1970
  8. ^ White, Patrick J. (1991). The Complete Mission Impossible Dossier. Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-75877-6.