Wanted Dead or Alive (TV series)

Wanted Dead or Alive
Title card
Genre	Western
Starring	Steve McQueen
Theme music composer	William Loose (first season), Herschel Burke Gilbert (second and third seasons)
Opening theme	William Loose
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	94 (list of episodes)
Production
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	25 mins.
Production company(s)	Four Star Television Malcom Enterprises, Inc CBS Productions
Release
Original network	CBS
Picture format	Black-and-white
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	September 6, 1958 (1958-09-06) – March 29, 1961 (1961-03-29)
Chronology
Followed by	Wanted: Dead or Alive
Related shows	Trackdown

Wanted Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons in 1958–61. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–59 western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Four Star Television in association with CBS Television.^[1]

The series launched McQueen, known for the concept of "cool" in entertainment,^[1] as the first television star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.^[2]

Synopsis

Mare's Leg

Josh Randall (McQueen) is a Confederate veteran and bounty hunter with a soft heart.^[3] He often donates his earnings to the needy and helps his prisoners if they have been wrongly accused.

Randall pleads with a mother (Virginia Gregg) to obtain medical treatment for her son. (1959)

Randall carries a shortened Winchester Model 1892 carbine called the "Mare's Leg" in a holster patterned after "gunslinger" rigs then popular in movies and television.^[4] Randall can draw and fire his weapon with blazing speed. Three Mare's Legs were used in the series, differing in the shape of the lever and the barrel.

Although Randall is a bounty hunter, he doesn't chase and capture only men on wanted posters. He also settles a family feud, frees unjustly jailed or sentenced men, helps an amnesia victim recover his memory, and finds missing husbands, sons, fathers, a fiancée, a suitor, a daughter who had been captured many years earlier by Indians, an Army deserter, a pet sheep, and even Santa Claus. This variety, as well as his pursuit of justice and not just money, contributed to the show's attraction and popularity.^[5]

Except for a few episodes at the beginning of the series, Randall rode a horse named Ringo.^[4]

Several episodes in 1960 included a sidekick named Jason Nichols (Wright King), a deputy sheriff turned bounty hunter. He and Randall worked well together on-screen, sharing a chemistry audiences enjoyed. By the start of the third season, Nichols had been dropped. The episode called "The Partners", where Nichols killed three men that Randall felt could have been taken alive, is often considered the episode that broke up the partnership, although that was actually only the second episode with Wright King and long before the last episode he appeared in.^[6]

Episodes

Season 1 (1958–59)

Season 2 (1959–60)

Season 3 (1960–61)

Guest stars

Dyan Cannon billed as Diane Cannon daughter of magician Season 2- Episode 52.

Wright King appeared as Jason Nichols in eleven episodes in 1960.

Guest stars included Noah Beery, Jr., James Best, Lon Chaney, Jr., James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Brad Dexter, Lawrence Dobkin, John Dehner, Betsy Drake, Alan Hale, Jr., DeForest Kelley, Martin Landau, Michael Landon, Nan Leslie, Ralph Meeker, Jay North, Warren Oates, Susan Oliver, Luana Patten, Steve Brodie, William Schallert, Beverly Garland, King Donovan, Jay Silverheels, Suzanne Storrs, Mary Tyler Moore, and Lee Van Cleef.

Production notes

The series was filmed in black and white at the Selznick Studios and produced by Four Star Television. A number of additional shooting locations were used, with the bulk of the outdoor action sequences shot on the famed Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., widely regarded as the most heavily filmed outdoor shooting location in the history of TV and the movies. A number of sets on the Republic Pictures backlot in Studio City, Calif., also appear in the series, notably the Western street and the Duchess Ranch set, which at the time of production on the series consisted mainly of a large barn, a main house and a bunkhouse.

Writers included Samuel A. Peeples and Charles Beaumont.

The first season theme song was written and conducted by William Loose. It was replaced by a new theme titled "Wanted". This theme was used until the end of the series and was written and supervised by Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Ratings

• October 1958 – April 1959: No. 16 – 28.0 (tied with Peter Gunn)
• October 1959 – April 1960: No. 9 – 28.7
• October 1960 – April 1961: not in top 30

Colorized version

In December 1987, Four Star International colorized Wanted: Dead or Alive making it the first vintage TV series to be completely colorized; the colorized version aired on at least 50 independent television stations.^[8]

1987 film

In 1987, New World Pictures adapted the series into a low-budget film of the same name;^[9] Rutger Hauer played modern-day bounty hunter Nick Randall, Josh's grandson.

DVD releases

On June 7, 2005, New Line Home Video released season 1 of Wanted: Dead or Alive on DVD in Region 1. In 2007, BCI Eclipse acquired the distribution rights to the series and released the final two seasons on DVD. Season 2 was released on July 17, 2007, and season 3 on October 16, 2007. These releases are now out of print as BCI Eclipse ceased operations in December 2008.^[10]

In June 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to the series and have subsequently re-released the first two seasons.^[11][12] On August 25, 2009, they released an 11-disc box set featuring all 94 episodes of the series on DVD for the first time.^[13]

References

Notes