Two Secret Service Agents, equipped with a wide array of gizmos, work for the government in the Old West. James West and Artemus Gordon are two agents of President Grant who take their splendidly appointed private train through the west to fight evil. Half science fiction and half western, Artemus designs a series of interesting gadgets for James that would make Inspector Gadget proud. A lighthearted adventure series. Seems most of the shows always started off with "Night of the…." adding some mystery. The villains, the great gadgets for West and Gordon and the villains too ! all made this a great show growing up - I still watch the reruns faithfully. Hard to believe now but not sure if everyone is aware but according to Wikipedia despite high ratings, the series was cancelled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence. To his credit, Robert Conrad was inducted into the Stuntman's Hall of Fame for his work on The Wild Wild West (1965) because he did almost all of his own stunts. This show was one of the all time greats - right up there with contemporaries like Man form Uncle, James Bond, Our Man Flint and I Spy. In 1965 someone had the bright idea to mix the two most popular genres at that time, spy shows and westerns, and came up with this classic series. The western elements were obviously the horses, Indians and a strong hero and the espionage elements were the gadgets and megalomaniacal villains. Robert Conrad was excellent as Jim West and Ross Martin was just as great as the master of disguise Artemis Gordon. This chemistry between the two leads helped to make this show a classic. However, Michael Dunn pretty much stole the show as Miguelito Loveless, or as Artie would often call him, "The Little Wizard". This show will always be one of the wildest things about the decade of the 60's.
Pippexten replied
365 weeks ago