Western TV Week: The Wild Wild West

Back again kids and welcome to Western TV Week and let’s kick off this shindig right with embracing right after the Civil War we still have dangers to the country so President Grant enlisted some deep cover operatives for a long term operation.  So let’s dust off your spurs, grab your Stetson and your six-shooter.  This is The Wild Wild West.

 

Yes ladies I am a bit sweaty.

James T. West: It wasn’t your spoiler.

Lydia Monteran: It was…until you made me give it back.

Under the order of President Grant, James T. West (Robert Conrad of Sea Hunt, 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye, Young Dillinger, The Bandits, The D.A., Assignment Vienna, Black Sheep Squadron, Centennial and The Lady in Red) a Civil War veteran and military intelligence officer is assigned to a long term deep undercover agent as well as his partner who is a master of disguise and tinkerer Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin of Geronimo, The Ceremony, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, The Return of Charlie Chan, Vega$ and Jana of the Jungle).  West is decked out as an East Coast dandy with a private train and more than a few bucks to spare for the expansion.   

Snap out of it, West! You've been playing 8 ball all day!

With no back up, no real cavalry to speak of these two men are outfitted with the true sense of steampunk based weapons.  Hidden blades, unusual firearms and a few odds and ends stave off warlords, privateers and banditos.    During the midst of this madcap tales there were plenty of reoccurring villains such as; Doctor Loveless (Michael Dunn of Ship of Fools, Get Smart, Burke’s Law, You’re a Big Boy Now and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) and Count Carlos Mario Vincenzo Robespierre Manzeppi (Victor Buono of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, 77 Sunset Strip, Perry Mason, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Batman and Target: Harry) both note worthy rogues in this den of thieves.  When West and Gordon are not trading punches and bullets they are wooing the ladies and let’s face it, a private train is the cat’s meow fellas.  Methinks that pool table got more than a few things racked on it.

And now I have just a few points to make about the show itself.  Primarily shot around Iverson Ranch in Chatsworth California as well as many horseback chases and gunfights found in a popular Paramount shooting location known as the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, commonly used for Gunsmoke, Star Trek and The Planet of the Apes films.   Another very popular location for filming was Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park for its more hilly terrain and greenery as it has been shot for TV show such as: Bonanza, Star Trek, Gunsmoke, Knight Rider and MacGyver. 

Mmm...hope she comes with the house.

This show is a conglomerate of Ian Fleming’s James Bond savvy, the hard hitting western era and a smidgeon of Jules Vernes science fiction.  Our villains could double for the 1930’s serials or comic book characters.  You commonly saw anything from a secret society in the wings to mad scientists, revolutionaries of the Mexican Army, former Confederates to corrupt politicians feathering their own nest of ill repute.   I always got a kick out of the newest invention or mad scientist weapon of mass destruction every other week.