The Wild, Wild West (TV series)

The Wild, Wild West (TV series) (vt The Wild West, USA working title). TV Series, CBS 1965-70, 104 60-min. episodes. Jus Addiss and Leon Benson, dirs. Bruce Lansbury, Fred Frieberger, prod. Michael Garrison credited by Jim Dowdie as "creator." IMDb gives production companies: CBS TV, Michael Garrison Productions, Bruce Lansbury Productions. Distribution companies: CBS TV, Viacom, CBS Films, Paramount Television. Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, stars.

Recombinant TV, set mostly in the American west during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant (1969-77), not long after the US Civil War, putting together the Western, secret-agent saga, and SF to form a precursor of "steampunk" (and a Western version of James Bond). Jim West and Artemus Gordon (Conrad and Martin) use a wide variety of gizmos and gadgets, at the cutting edge and beyond of 19th-c. science and technology. For influence of The Avengers and Jules Verne on the series, see Jim Dowdie interview with Lansbury and Friedberger, Cinefantastique 31.7 (August 1999): 44-45.