- ISBN13: 0097368532144
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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, the Artemus designs a series of interesting gadgets for James that would make Inspector Gadget proud. A light hearted adventure series.At one uncharacteristically poignant point during Wild Wild West‘s final season, secret service agent James West raises a glass to toast “absent friends.” That would be Artemis Gordon, West’s resourceful sidekick and a master of disguise and the odd “diversion.” Ross Martin, who portrayed Gordon, had suffered a heart attack and was missing in action for several episodes, so missed that it took several actors to fill his shoes: Charles Aidman as Jeremy Pike, William Scharlett (who early in the season portrays a villain in the episode, “The Night of the Gruesome Games”) as Frank Harper, Pat Paulson, the hangdog mock-Presidential candidate on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, as the seemingly milquetoast Bosley Cranston in “The Night of the Camera,” and Alan “The Skipper” Hale, Jr. as chemist Ned Brown in “The Night of the Sabatini Death,” (which also features Jim Backus and contains a cute Gilligan’s Island in-joke at episode’s end). With or without Martin, this was a wild, wild season that offers genre-bending kicks in episodes that evoke James Bondian espionage, Jules Verne fantasy, bizarre Avengers-style villainy, and even The Phantom of the Opera. James and company are up against some entertainingly over-the-top megalomaniacs bent on world domination. Of course, the sun couldn’t set on the West without one last encounter with the series’ most popular villain, the “dictatorial, vain, short-tempered, and occasionally unreasonable” Dr. Loveless (Michael Dunn), who re-emerges yet again to pass judgment over those he professes to have wronged him in “The Night of Marguerite’s Revenge.” Two of TV’s comedy icons, Harvey Koran and a pre-Mary Tyler Moore Show Ted Knight, play it straight as formidable foes in “The Night of the Big Blackmail” and “The Night of the Kraken,” respectively. “The Night of the Winged Terror,” the series’ only two-parter, is an effective creep show featuring a hypnotizing bulging-brained adversary. Conrad, as one character compliments him, is “better than ever,” whether dispatching goons (he performed all his own stunts) or romancing the ladies (“He said something about showing the big dipper to the daughter of the Lithuanian ambassador,” Artemis explains West’s absence in “Big Blackmail”). While there are signs that the series was poised to jump the shark, it is too bad it ended before further encounters with Professor Montague, who is introduced in “The Night of the Janis” as the Q-like creator of such nifty gadgets as a harmonica gun. –Donald Liebenson
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May 5, 2010
#1
The 4th and final season of TWWW. Affected by the anti-violence kick at the time — drastically toning down the action in the later episodes and missing, for much of the season, Ross Martin due to a heart attack, nonetheless, still much to cheer about. The spy craze that began with the theatrical release of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE IN 1963 winding down. THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. AND I SPY had both been cancelled the previous season. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE & GET SMART would last a couple of more seasons. Robert Conrad would go on the next season to work for Jack Webb on THE DA (a series inspired by Vincent Buliousi(?), the man who prosecuted Charles Manson) — to be followed by ASSIGNMENT VIENNA (the late Roy Schieder starred in the pilot), the pilot (which aired as a tv movie but never made it to a series) THE ADVENTURES OF NICK CARTER, BLACK SHEEP SQUADRON, A MAN CALLED SLOANE, HIGH MOUNTAIN RANGERS and probably a few inbetween I can’t recall. For Ross Martin, there would be a lot of guest shots on various tv shows but never another series. The heart attack had left to expensive to insure for a weekly show. (Though Martin would do a never sold pilot for a Charlie Chan series that raised the ire of the Asian American community at the time). It was fun to see the both of them again in the early 80′s reunion films but it was all tongue-in-cheek and not at all the same. A moment in tv history never to be repeated.
May 5, 2010
#2
James and Arty are still at their jobs of catching he bad guys. A couple of new gadgets or inventions from Arty, but otherwise pretty much the same old, same old. Still enjoy the series though as it brings back memories of growing up.
May 5, 2010
#3
Haven’t had a chance to watch all of the episodes, but this is pretty comparable to the 3rd season.
May 5, 2010
#4
In the audio commmentary, Robert Conrad says that the series ended because of the concern that too much violence was being shown on television at the time the 4th season was in progress, this being 1968-1969. Sad, because everytime there is an uproar about something happening on TV, shows are cancelled and then within five years shows are worse than they were.
I like the series because I saw it to be differnt from the other westerns that were airing in the mid 1960′s. The mainstay of shows were human dramas set in a western US setting. The Wild Wild West was free-for-all approach to a western, blending technology, science, science fiction, the occult, adventure, action, pretty young ladies, humor, and wonderful character portrayals by Ross Martin. All of this wrapped up in a mystery to be unravelled as the show progress.
Though I haven’t seen every episode of the season, it seems that the shows are starting to lose something compared to Season 1. Some of the props and sets have been reused so much that they are instantly familiar, thus somewhat stale. But the plots continue to be interesting. Two of the most disappointing episodes are TOF Bleak Island and TOF Miguelitos Revenge. Bleak Island was fine except the attempt at the end to turn the story back on itself seemed very corny. Miguelitos Revenge was a very poor last episode for such a clever adversary as Dr. Loveless. The plot lacked the intensity of the earlier Dr. Loveless episodes and became poor attempt to introduce a science fiction element. The absence of Antionette and Voltaire was also disappointing. To properly tie up the Dr. Loveless legacy, I would have expected to see the clever Dr. once again plotting to get control of California, which is what he wanted in his first appearance in Season 1.
Overall, Season 4 continues the tradition of the series. I wouldn’t say it is better or worse than other seasons. The episodes still surprise me when I see the unique blend of elements. The ladies are still incredibly beautiful and Jim and Arty keep finding their way into the lair of the bad guys and putting them out of business.
May 5, 2010
#5
The fourth season of this great show suffered somewhat from the long absence of Artemus Gordon, due to the actor’s health, I believe. The people helping Jim in his stead were okay, but of course there’s nothing like Artie and his voices, disguises, accents, and other quirks.
That said, it looks like the series ended at exactly the right time, as they’d run through so many villains, gadgets, and similar plots.