The Wild Wild West is an American Western, spy, and science fiction television series 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 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." 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. 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."'West' Re-Runs Are No Surprise", Washington Post, July 19, 1970
Concept
The Wild Wild West told the story of two Secret Service agents: the fearless and handsome James West (played by Robert Conrad), and Artemus Gordon (played by Ross Martin), a brilliant gadgeteer and master of disguise. Their mission was to protect President Ulysses S. Grant and the United States from all manner of dangerous threats. The agents traveled in luxury aboard their own train, the Wanderer, equipped with everything from a stable car to a laboratory. James West had served as an intelligence and cavalry officer in the American Civil War (1861–1865) on Grant's staff;"The Night of the Lord of Limbo" his "cover", at least in the pilot episode, is that of "a dandy, a high-roller from the East". Thereafter, however, there is no pretense, and his reputation as the foremost Secret Service agent often precedes him. According to the later TV movies, West retires from the Service by 1880 and lives on a ranch in Mexico. When he retires, Gordon, who was a captain in the Civil War, returns to show business as the head of a troupe of traveling Shakespeare players.
The show incorporated classic Western elements with an espionage thriller, science fiction/alternate history ideas (in a vein similar to what would later be called steampunk), in one case horror ("The Night of the Man Eating House") and humor. Episodes were also inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. In the tradition of James Bond, there were always beautiful women, clever gadgets and delusional arch-enemies with half-insane plots to take over the country or the world.
The title of each episode begins with "The Night" (except for "Night of the Casual Killer" in the first season). This followed other idiosyncratic naming conventions established by shows such as Wagon Train (1957–1965), where nearly every episode was titled "The (Name) Story" or "The Story of (Name)"; Rawhide (1959–1965), in which a majority of episode titles began with "Incident"; and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968), whose episodes were titled "The (Blank) Affair".
Episodes
Characters Villains
The show's most memorable recurring arch-villain was Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless, a brilliant but petulant and megalomaniacal dwarf portrayed by Michael Dunn. Initially he had two companions: the towering Voltaire, played by Richard Kiel; and the beautiful Antoinette, played by Dunn's real-life singing partner, Phoebe Dorin. Voltaire disappeared without explanation after his third episode, but Kiel returned in a different role in "The Night of the Simian Terror". Antoinette vanished after her sixth episode due to demands by Dunn's jealous real-life wife.
According to the television film The Wild Wild West Revisited, Loveless eventually dies in 1880 from ulcers, brought on by the frustration of having his plans consistently foiled by West and Gordon. (His son, played by Paul Williams in the TV film, subsequently seeks revenge on the agents.)
Although several actors appeared in different villainous roles, only one other character had a second encounter with West and Gordon: Count Manzeppi, played flamboyantly by Victor Buono. Manzeppi was a diabolical genius of "black magic" and crime, wholike Dr. Lovelesshad an escape plan at the end. Buono played a different villain in the pilot episode, and also returned in More Wild Wild West as "Dr. Henry Messenger", a parody of Henry Kissinger.
Agnes Moorehead won an Emmy for her role as Emma Valentine in "The Night of the Vicious Valentine". Other villains were portrayed by Ed Asner, Christopher Cary, Yvonne Craig, Robert Duvall, Anthony Eisley, Boris Karloff, Harvey Korman, Martin Landau, Delphi Lawrence, Robert Loggia, Ida Lupino, Burgess Meredith, Ricardo Montalbán, Leslie Nielsen, Ramon Novarro, Carroll O'Connor, Susan Oliver, Percy Rodrigues, Jo Van Fleet, Sam Wanamaker, William Windom, and H. M. Wynant.
While the show's writers created their fair share of villains, they often started with the nefarious, stylized and sometimes anachronistic inventions of these madmen (or madwomen) and then wrote the episodes around the devices. Henry Sharp, the series' story consultant, would sketch the preliminaries of the designs (eccentrically numbering every sketch "fig. 37"), and give the sketch to a writer, who would build a story around it."The Dastardly Devices of The Wild Wild West," TV Guide, June 1–7, 1968
Recurring characters Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless (Michael Dunn), ten episodes. The agents' nemesis. Colonel Richmond (Douglas Henderson), ten episodes. West and Gordon's control officer in the Secret Service. President Ulysses S. Grant (James Gregory in the pilot; Roy Engel thereafter), seven episodes. Antoinette (Phoebe Dorin), six appearances. Loveless' female companion, often seen playing a piano or string instrument and singing duet with Loveless. Dorin and Dunn (Loveless) had a real-life nightclub act, "Michael Dunn and Phoebe", in which they sang and exchanged banter. According to Dorin, while filming the episode "The Night of the Murderous Spring", her costume became entangled in the machinery used to pull the boat she and Dunn were in underwater. Dunn did not hesitate to follow her down and help her escape. Jeremy Pike (Charles Aidman), four episodes. One of several agents paired with Jim during Artemus' absence in the fourth season. Appears in the final Loveless episode, "The Night of Miguelito's Revenge". Tennyson (Charles Davis), three episodes. West's butler/valet. Seen randomly in the first season because the episodes were not always broadcast in production order. Voltaire (Richard Kiel), three episodes. Loveless' mostly silent, giant bodyguard. (Kiel also played Dimos Buckley in "The Night of the Simian Terror".) Count Carlos Mario Vincenzo Robespierre Manzeppi (Victor Buono), two appearances. A master of dark magic and leader of a handpicked teams of assassins. (Buono also played Juan Manolo in the pilot episode, "The Night of the Inferno", and Henry Messenger in More Wild Wild West, the final production.) Frank Harper (William Schallert): Another agent paired with Jim in the fourth season. He appears in the series' only two-part episode, "The Night of the Winged Terror". (Schallert played different characters in two other episodes.)
Production Casting and lead actors Before The Wild Wild West, Robert Conrad played private detective Tom Lopaka in ABC's Hawaiian Eye for four seasons (1959–63). In November 1964, he was making the film Young Dillinger (1965) with Nick Adams, Victor Buono and John Ashley (all of whom would later guest star on The Wild Wild West) when his agent sent him to CBS to audition for the West role. Conrad claimed to be the 17th actor to test for the part. Others tested included Robert Horton, Ray Danton and James "Skip" Ward.Philadelphia Inquirer Public Ledger; January 3, 1965, p. 211. Conrad also claimed that John Derek left the audition without testing.
Conrad performed nearly all of his own stunts in the series. "For the first few episodes we tried stuntmen," Conrad explained, "but the setup time slowed production down, so I volunteered. Things started moving quicker when I took the jumps and the spills. We started meeting the budget." Early on, he was doubled by Louie Elias or Chuck O'Brien.
On January 24, 1968, however, during filming of "The Night of the Fugitives" near the end of the third season, Conrad fell from a chandelier onto the stage floor and suffered a concussion. "A little gymnastics — chandelier work," he later explained. "I didn't chalk up properly and I went 15 feet to the concrete and fractured my skull. I was in intensive care for 72 hours, with a six-inch lineal fracture of the skull and a high temporal concussion."Pittsburgh Press, January 8, 1977: 9. As a result, production of the series ended two weeks early. Conrad spent weeks in the hospital and had a long convalescence slowed by constant dizziness. The episode was eventually completed and aired early in the fourth season, with footage of the fall left in. Conrad later told Percy Shain of the Boston Globe, "I have the whole scene on film. It's a constant reminder to be careful. It also bolstered my determination to make this my last year with the series. Four seasons are enough of this sort of thing."Boston Globe, "Wild West Proves Hazardous" September 15, 1968 Thereafter, Conrad was doubled for the dangerous stunts, but still participated in fight scenes.
Prior to The Wild Wild West, Ross Martin co-starred in the CBS series Mr. Lucky from 1959 to 1960, portraying Mr. Lucky's sidekick, Andamo. The series was created by Blake Edwards, who also cast Martin as villains in his films Experiment in Terror (1962) and The Great Race (1965).
Martin once called his role as Artemus Gordon "a show-off's showcase" because it allowed him to portray over 100 different characters and perform dozens of different dialects during the course of the series. He sketched his ideas for his characterizations and worked with the makeup artists to execute the final look. Martin told Percy Shain of the Boston Globe, "In the three years of the show, I have run a wider gamut than even those acknowledged masters of disguise, Paul Muni and Lon Chaney. Sometimes I feel like a one man repertory company. I think I've proven to myself and to the industry that I am the No. 1 character lead in films today." The industry acknowledged Martin's work with an Emmy nomination in 1969.
Martin broke his leg in a fourth-season episode, "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary", when he dropped a rifle, stepped on it, and his foot rolled over it. Martin told Percy Shain, "In the scene where I was hurt, my stand-in tried to finish it. When the shell ejected from the rifle, it caught him in the eye and burned it. We still haven't finished that scene. It will have to wait until I can move around again."