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Wild Wild West

This show falls into absolutely no known category.   The premise of the show was to follow two early secret service agents in the Old West. A sixties spoof of the spy genre, Wild Wild West was filled with action and James Bond style innuendo that made it a smash hit. It got cancelled during the sixties push for less violence on television rather than for poor ratings. The show is just as popular now as it was 30 years ago.  The locales of this show are literally wide open. Almost any location in the United States of the time period is fair game.

These episodes were filled with action. Two or more fight scenes per show was the norm with a lot of interplay between the male lead characters and the women of the week.   The writers used every writer device known to man including but not limited to supernatural or clairvoyant powers, superhuman abilities, paranormal activity, dream sequences and extreme talents.  The villains were eccentric geniuses or diabolical madmen. Everything in this show was larger than life.  The shows were kept in the time period with no flashbacks to childhoods or family involvements.  Occasionally, the pure western theme was used to good effect but that’s the exception not the rule. Modern inventions are simply used for that time period with no respect for time line other than to make them cruder by appearance.

The "formula" that was used by the series writers included a storyline that usually opened and ended on the "train". The train was a private train that provided West and Gordon with a mobile office of sorts. They would receive assignments via telegraph and go off to risk life and limb to accomplish the task of saving the United States from imminent disaster. Each episode included several fight scenes, one scene where West was tied up or trapped, one scene where James West was shirtless (for the ladies in the audience), and one or more scenes where the girl was thoroughly kissed. (It should be noted that the writers can and did combine several of these elements into one scene.)

The two "buddies" that were the center of the show are as follows:

James West is the dashing playboy secret agent with the great body, devilish good looks and a lot of personal magnetism. He’s an accomplished fighter and can handle himself with his fists, his guns or practically any other weapon known to mankind. Drafted into the secret service after the Civil War, he was formerly a Major in the United States Cavalry. His ability to think on his feet and his total lack of concern for his own personal safety made him a formidable opponent. Trained in the martial arts, James would often astound his enemies with feats that appeared to them to be superhuman. Breaking boards with his bare hands, smashing concrete or leveling a larger man with a hard punch to the jaw were considered trademarks for him. His only Achilles heel was for the ladies and even there, he managed to have good survival skills and an ability to seduce even the most resistant of women. Highly intelligent, James still found it more to his liking to hit a problem head on.

Artemus Gordon was the partner that spent most of his time extricating James from one precarious situation after another. He was a master of disguise and felt that resorting to physical force was "cheating". He prided himself on his abilities to use guile and superior intellect to extricate himself from impossible situations. Being the sophisticated intellectual, he was the brain to West’s brawn. He had a chemistry lab on train which he used to invent gadgets that assisted them on their missions. He was a talented linguist and spoke several languages. He was an amateur mathematician and scientist as well as an accomplished musician claiming to be able to play most instruments. A connoisseur of fine wines and a gourmand, he charmed women of all shapes and ages with his good looks and fine manners.

The remainder of the cast was always in flux. The most notable returning characters were President Grant and the secret service agents immediate superior, Mr. Cadwallader. The only villain that returned again and again to match wits against West and Gordon was the diminutive genius, Dr. Loveless. The woman of the week was always created for the episode and then never seen again.

Storylines were almost always wrapped up within the one hour segment. As a rule, the scenes were equally distributed between James and Artemus. Some stories were run where James was featured more heavily but they were rare. It was more common for Artemus to be called back to Washington and leave James to work with another partner for a show. By and large the most popular episodes were those where the two men worked together in an equal partnership.