Wanted Dead or Alive (TV series)

Wanted Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–1961. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–1959 Western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Vincent Fennelly for Four Star Television in association with CBS.

The series made McQueen, known for the concept of "cool" in entertainment, a television star. He later became the first TV star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.

Synopsis
Josh Randall is a Confederate veteran and bounty hunter with a soft heart. He often donates his earnings to the needy, and helps his prisoners if they have been wrongly accused.

Although Randall is a bounty hunter, he doesn't only chase and capture 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.

Except for a few episodes at the beginning of the series, Randall rode an energetic horse named Ringo.

Beginning with the 1959 episode, "Amos Carter", actor Wright King would appear in a supporting role as Jason Nichols, an eager young deputy sheriff turned bounty hunter. By the start of the third season, Nichols had been dropped. The episode, "The Partners", in which Nichols killed three men who 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.

Three hard mother-grabbin' years, but I learned my trade and it gave me discipline. McQueen, commenting about his experience on the series.

Main
Steve McQueen played Josh Randall, the primary character, appearing in all 94 episodes.

Guest stars

 * Nick Adams
 * Charles Aidman
 * Claude Akins
 * John Anderson
 * R. G. Armstrong
 * Noah Beery Jr.
 * James Best
 * Steve Brodie
 * Anthony Caruso
 * Lon Chaney Jr.
 * James Coburn
 * Royal Dano
 * John Dehner
 * Brad Dexter
 * Lawrence Dobkin
 * King Donovan
 * Betsy Drake
 * Don Dubbins
 * Robert Ellenstein
 * Beverly Garland
 * Don Gordon
 * Dabbs Greer
 * Alan Hale Jr.
 * Skip Homeier
 * DeForest Kelley
 * Douglas Kennedy
 * Martin Landau
 * Michael Landon
 * Cloris Leachman
 * Nan Leslie
 * Ralph Meeker
 * Mary Tyler Moore
 * Lori Nelson
 * Jay North
 * Susan Oliver
 * Luana Patten
 * Stafford Repp
 * Walter Sande
 * Everett Sloane
 * Jay Silverheels
 * Suzanne Storrs
 * Lee Van Cleef

Development
Vincent Fennelly and Four Star Television were considering a spinoff of their current series, Trackdown, which itself was a spinoff of Zane Grey Theater. At the time, McQueen's manager, Hillard Elkins, was also representing Trackdown star Robert Culp. Elkins knew of the spinoff plan and suggested McQueen for the role. McQueen's style was exactly what Fennelly was looking for to fill the role. Initially not interested in doing Westerns, McQueen agreed to the role based on his ability to connect with Fennelly and his vision for the role of Randall. The pilot was filmed before McQueen did The Blob in 1958.

Four Star founder, Dick Powell, was initially hesitant about McQueen in the lead role due to McQueen's short stature, as well as his inability to ride horses, but he changed his mind after seeing early clips of the first episode. It was Powell's idea to give the character of Josh Randall a gimmick weapon.

Prior to initial filming, Steve McQueen did not know how to ride horses and was forced to learn for the show's production.

McQueen had a reputation for being difficult to work with, and he fired three stunt men within the first day's filming, including Richard Farnsworth. Ultimately, that job went to Loren Janes, who also doubled for McQueen in a number of movies.

Although the show and its episodes are fiction, bounty hunters were common in the American West, and there is some historical basis for the stories.

McQueen's initial salary for the show was $750 per episode, but due to the show's popularity, that climbed to $100,000 per year, which was extremely high for the time. The time slot change for the third season that ultimately ruined the show's ratings may have been CBS's way of killing the show due to ever increasing production costs. Another factor was McQueen's strained relationship with Viceroy cigarettes, the show's sponsor.

The show helped launch the careers of several directors.

Writing
Writers included Samuel A. Peeples, Tom Gries and Charles Beaumont.

Filming
The premiere episode was filmed on the 20th Century Fox backlot in West Los Angeles and on location in Arizona, while the rest of the series was filmed at the Selznick Studios. A number of additional shooting locations were used, with the outdoor action sequences of several episodes shot on the famed Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California. A number of sets on the Republic Pictures backlot in Studio City, California, 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.

Music
The main theme was composed by Rudy Schrager. Music was supervised by Herschel Burke Gilbert.

Colorized version
In December 1987, Four Star International colorized Wanted Dead or Alive, making it the first vintage television series to be completely colorized. The colorized version aired on at least 50 independent television stations.

Firearms
Randall carries a gimmick rifle called the "Mare's Leg" in a unique quick-draw holster. The Mare's Leg was a shortened Winchester Model 1892 .44-40, with a gun belt that held .45-70 cartridges that, although they couldn't be fired from the weapon, looked more intimidating. The gun itself was a real, working firearm rather than a prop, and had to be registered with the LAPD.

To learn the art of the quick draw, McQueen turned to Sammy Davis Jr., who he knew from working in New York. Davis was known for being proficient with Western-style pistol work.

Themes
Early television Westerns were aimed at a youth audience, but by the mid-1950s, Western films and television began being made to attract an adult audience. Wanted Dead or Alive was one of the several shows that came to define the "adult Western" of the era, with an attractive leading character in the primary role. Unlike many television Westerns of the era, Wanted Dead or Alive focused on the action rather than character development, and McQueen's method style was unique to the Westerns of the period. McQueen's character was a man of few words and showed little emotion, often appearing to be interested more in the bounty hunter's reward than in justice.

Although most television Westerns of the time were of the classic genre, Wanted Dead or Alive 's Josh Randall was more of an antihero of the Revisionist Western genre. McQueen initially had been reluctant to do a Western, but when the opportunity arose for the character to be less of the traditional hero, he felt he was able to bring more of himself into a realistic portrayal of the bounty hunter.

Broadcast
Wanted Dead or Alive first aired on CBS on September 6, 1958. It aired Saturday nights from 8:30–9 p.m. until September 1960. From September 1960 until March 1961, it aired on Wednesday nights, 8:30–9 p.m.

Home media
On June 7, 2005, New Line Home Entertainment 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.

In June 2009, Mill Creek Entertainment acquired the rights to the series under license from copyright holder StudioCanal, and has subsequently re-released the first two seasons. On August 25, 2009, they released an 11-disc DVD box set featuring all 94 episodes of the series.

Reception
Initially, the show was popular with audiences, but not popular with critics. A review in Variety, September 10, 1958, noted that McQueen's characterization of the bounty hunter was "almost stuffy in its allegiance to the breed. ... Acting is ok. It's obvious what the half-hour needs is scripting and perhaps some cleaner direction." However, by the third season, the ratings had crashed, some of which can be attributed to the change from its original Saturday night time slot to Wednesday nights directly opposite the popular series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

1986 film
In 1986, New World Pictures adapted the series into a low-budget film of the same title; Rutger Hauer played modern-day bounty hunter Nick Randall, Josh's grandson.