Jim West

I was born in 1960, I admit it and all the great TV shows of my youth that I remember naturally hail from the late 60's and early 70's. What a feast of programmes there seemed to be in those days, I just love it when one of the series I remember airs on TV again. Of course it was a time of escapism and fuelled by the success of the James Bond films, TV shows quickly picked up on variations of the spying game for our edification and delight.

The twist with "The Wild Wild West" was that it depicted two secret service agents saving the USA and / or the world from the master-villain-of-the week, usually an unhinged megalomaniac, only it was set in the mid-1800's out in, naturally, the Wild West. Every week, the intrepid duo of Jim West and Artemis Gordon (Robert Conrad and Ross Martin) faced up to the threat of some century-ago Blofeld-equivalent and did so with style, humour and excitement.

Conrad's Jim West loses no opportunity in getting his shirt off and displaying his six-pack and invariably gets romantically involved with some passing female in every "The Night Of..." adventure. He's the more all-action of the duo, gets into more scrapes and fights, indeed I believe Conrad did many of his own stunts in the show. Martin's Artemis Gordon ran back-up, usually intervening when his buddy was held captive as he usually was, donning flamboyant disguises to hoodwink the bad guys as he did so. He provided the show with a somewhat sardonic humorous slant, sort of Bones McCoy to Jim Kirk. Every episode saw one or both of them in a life-or-death situation which they always miraculously or ingeniously escaped, while the women in the show invariably play second-fiddle and are usually stereotypically pretty, helpless and adoring.

With a distinctive theme tune and title sequence too, it was a great way to spend a fun hour back in the late 60's, indeed it's still a great way to spend a fun hour today.

They say time can play tricks, but I would bet that if some cable channel started to show "The Wild Wild West" again it would work its magic on me the same way it did when I watched it as a youngster in Barbados in the 1980s. Just the animated opening titles were spellbinding; this may sound weird, but I always thought it was a plus when the last panel to be filled in was one of the lower two (especially the one with the lady on the ground). It had action, it had mystery, it had everything.

It also had a theme tune that was a helluva lot better than anything in that dispiriting 1999 movie (if Warner Bros thought no one would remember it, they were wrong). Robert Conrad, Ross Martin (RIP), and creator Michael Garrison, we salute you.

I loved the "Wild, Wild West" TV series that blended horror , the western & Steam-punk on many episodes. Robert Conrad was James West &Ross Martin was Artemus Gordon, "Man of a thousand faces".It had different stories each week but there were recurring villains- Dr. Miguelito Loveless ( What a great name for a villain !) was played by Michael Dunn ( Star Trek's" Plato's Step-Children") &Count Manzeppi (magician turned assassin) was played by Victor Buono. "Wild, Wild West" was the closest TV ever got to capturing the flavor of comic books. I hope you will someday get to see this series, perhaps on DVD. There are a few episodes out on video. I particularly recommend " The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth", the first Dr. Loveless episode. I loved the Dr. Loveless episodes & the 2 with Victor Buono as Count Manzeppi. Quintessential "Wild, Wild West "episode- "Night of the Vicious Valentine" that deservedly won guest-star Agnes Moorehead an Emmy.

"The wild wild west" is the most eccentric espionage series that blends the Ian Fleming's James Bond character, the western genre and the Jules Verne's fantasy world into a baroque and glamorous extravaganza. This show has a huge identity : the leitmotiv music and its different themes, the title design (the freeze frame sketch), the bizarre universe and the foe-characters (secret society, mad inventors, wizards, monsters, revolutionaries, corrupted politicians, putschists), the disguises and the gimmicks, the gorgeous women, a special sense of humour combined with camaraderie, action and stunts. In other words, something that is very, very rich, colourful and varied and far away from today's imagination. In my opinion, the most important aspect of this unusual drama comes from the characters : James T. West, the tough-as-nails dandiest dude secret agent with his fancy train and his fancy costumes full of hidden weapons (I like the knife boots and the sleeve-gun, re-used by Martin Scorsese in "Taxi driver") who works with his partner : the dashing Artemus Gordon aka Arte who is an expert in masks, bombs, magic tricks and acting; the president Grant and the Colonel Richmond. Above all, the regular outrageous villain that sums up the flavor of the series : Dr. Miguelito Loveless, the genius prankster dwarf. The most clever device created by him is the painting-traveling machine in The night of the surreal Mc Coy. Without forgetting the flamboyant Count Manzeppi, of course, in The night of the eccentrics and The night of the feathered fury. The whole show is a crazy circus : a madhouse. The series also makes reference to classic sci-fi novels such as : "The incredible shrinking man" in The night of the raven, "Frankenstein" in The night of the big blast, "The time machine" in The night of the lord of limbo. "The wild wild west" has a lot of similarities with "Mission : impossible". For instance : the characters of Artemus Gordon/Rollin Hand and James West/Jim Phelps. They have the same psychologic patterns. Producer Bruce Lansbury and composer Richard Markowitz worked on both series. But the first series is delirious and the second one is stone-cold. My advice is not to miss the Loveless episodes : 1.The night the wizard shook the earth, 2.The night that terror stalked the town, 3.The night of the whirring death, 4.The night of the murderous spring, 5.The night of the raven, 6.The night of the green terror, 7.The night of the surreal Mc Coy, 8.The night of the bogus bandit, 9.The night of Dr. Loveless died, 10.The night of the Miguelito's revenge. Another best and maverick show of the 60's decade.

I've just read the comments posted here and agree with almost everything positive said. I don't think Ross Martin received enough praise at the time for the work he did. Nor do I think the show receive the respect it deserved.

It was riveting when it first aired, and had the feel of a really good mystery show, with many excellent twists and turns of plot.

But, I can't believe no one mentioned that this show had the greatest theme song of all time! If you can find it do hear it. It has both a "western" sound to it, as well as a really great theme and arrangement. Warning: there were two versions produced. The original is better, but both are excellent.