The TV series The Wild Wild West came up recently. This was a show that combined two popular TV genres of the 1960s – cowboys and spies, and can be summed up as James Bond in the Wild West.
James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) were Secret Service agents, with their own train – as the gadget-packed spy car had not yet been invented. It was fitted out with all the crime fighting essentials, and was basically the Batcave on rails.
President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-77) appeared in a few episodes. But there were few other regular characters, apart from villain Miguelito Loveless.
Fighting mad super villains, the series ran for 104 episodes over four seasons, 1965-69. The first series was in black and white, and the rest in colour.
There were also two TV movies – The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979), and More Wild Wild West(1980), with the original leads. These were followed by a very poor Wild Wild West movie in 1999, with a new cast.
This magnificent boxed DVD set contains all the TV episodes, the two TV movies, and various extras, on 27 discs. Copyright date 2010.
Paul Adams from New Zealand
That's a great looking box set Paul. A presentation pack. I've never seen a single episode of this fab sounding series.
ReplyDeleteIt was certainly on TV in NZ in the 1970s, and I loved it. Long before I saw any James Bond movies. A series you need to see.
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