Wanted Dead or Alive (TV series)

Wanted Dead or Alive
Title card
GenreWestern
Starring
Theme music composer
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes94 (list of episodes)
Production
ProducerVincent Fennelly
Camera setupSingle-camera
Running time25 mins.
Production companies
Original release
NetworkCBS
ReleaseSeptember 6, 1958 (1958-09-06) –
March 29, 1961 (1961-03-29)
Related
Trackdown
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Wanted Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–1961. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–1959 Western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Vincent Fennelly for Four Star Television in association with CBS.[1][2]: 895 

The series made McQueen, known for the concept of "cool" in entertainment,[1] a television star.[3]: 105  He later became the first TV star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.[4]

  1. ^ a b Billy Hathorn, "Roy Bean, Temple Houston, Bill Longley, Ranald Mackenzie, Buffalo Bill, Jr., and the Texas Rangers: Depictions of West Texans in Series Television, 1955 to 1967", West Texas Historical Review, Vol. 89 (2013), pp. 103–104
  2. ^ McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-02-4916-8. Retrieved May 28, 2021.
  3. ^ West, Richard (1987). Television Westerns: Major and Minor Series, 1946–1978. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0899502526.
  4. ^ Todd, McCarthy (March 31, 1998). "Steve McQueen: The King of Cool". Variety. Retrieved 2023-02-15. As Daily Variety editor-in-chief Peter Bart points out, McQueen was the first TV star – 'Wanted Dead or Alive' made him one – to cross over to comparable status on the big screen.