The Wild Wild West Revisited

The classic espionage TV series The Wild Wild West, which ran from 1965 to 1969 on CBS, was followed by two TV movie sequels: The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) and More Wild Wild West (1980). The original series episodes ranged from thrilling espionage episodes to more comedic and campy ones, but the follow-up TV movies continued only in the campy and comedic vein. That was considered a let down by some fans of the series who were hoping for something closer to the more serious episodes of the show. I can understand their viewpoint, but I found both movies entertaining for what they were: a fun bit of escapism featuring the reunion of two favorite characters and the actors who played them. The chemistry between these guys can't be beat. Both movies have their weak points, but Conrad and Martin, reunited as an older West and Gordon, make for fun viewing.

Doctor Loveless is dead (alas) but his son (Paul Williams) has apparently kidnapped a lot of world leaders and replaced them with doubles. We've seen it all before.

Too bad it's another Loveless. Michael Dunn was irreplaceable. They ought to have brought back another villain or made up a new one.

Whoever was responsible didn't take the material seriously. I hate that. It's the failing of so many reunions or reboots: they either ignore the sparks that made the originals work ("The Avengers," "The Wild Wild West"--Smith and Klein) or they refuse to take the material with a straight face. But when West and Gordon reunite there's magic in the air.

And for a supposed old coot, Robert Conrad still looks in pretty good shape and takes his shirt off (if you'll forgive the cliche) at the drop of a hat.

I was so excited when my ebay search found this video and then even more excited when I won it on the auction. I was really surprised when no one else bided on this video since I know that there are so many fans of this program. I never even new that this video originally existed till I surfed the web on The WWW sites. I still want to find the other video "More of The WWW." Now my thoughts on the video WWW Revisited. It was great to see them in action again. They looked great. Even though the production wasn't quite as good as the original TV series a little hammed up. Of course all reunion shows are never as good as the original. It was still very entertaining to see my heroes from my child hood back in action. I will say this. The start of the video about where Jim and Artie were in there retirement could not have been more perfect. It just seemed so natural that Artie would be traveling in a side show being that he was so dramatic and so able to act like so many different characters. And where else would Jim be but kicked back with beautiful women taking care of him. The producer/director must have let them write this part of the script, cause it seemed so "them." Now I want to know from someone what the hell happen when they were making this movie. And what idiot and how know one did anything to catch and change the script CAUSE JIM WEST WAS KNOWN FOR ALL HIS GADGETS. Jim West did not use any of his gadgets in this movie. Oh it showed him checking out a couple of tricks in the train but what were they thinking when they made this movie. No heel on the boot gadget, knife in the toe of the boot, gun up his sleeve, no nothing. What's up with this, blows my mind.

Where is Johnathan Winters in the cast listing? He threatens to steal the show and is wonderful villain paradigm. More fun than later big budget version. A presage of Brisco County Junior. Era of poking fun at the cultural narrative of westerns and 007. Loved the steam punk one armed bandits. Pace slows but the surreality of the sets and nuclear bombs going off at regular intervals maintains a threat of urgency against the clever spoofs and twisted familiarity of steam punk renditions of the modern world. Joyce Brothers cameo is precious. Steam Punk takes off with Brisco, but its roots stretch back into wild Wild West.

Though it was good to see them together again the script missed the mark. There wasn't the action and adventure just some corny jokes to cover up the fact that Jim West wasn't using his normal gadgets and fighting action. Artie wasn't up to his old self either. The Jokes were okay but it really wasn't full-blown the Wild Wild West. Too many things were missing. I haven't seen the second one yet but I get a feeling I'm going to be disappointed. I'm a big Wild Wild West TV series fan.