Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15606 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2006-06-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 7
• Dimensions: .95 pounds
• Running time: 1347 minutes

Product description
The first season of the WILD WILD WEST follows the adventures of James West (Robert Conrad) and his sidekick Artemus Gordon comes as an unlikely pair of Secret Service Agents who work to protect President Ulysses S. Grant and investigate federal crimes in the old west. The 7-disc set is packed with 28 digitally remastered episodes, rare footage, audio commentaries and a special introduction to each episode from Robert Conrad.

Amazon.com
CBS had an instant hit on their hands when The Wild Wild West made its network debut on September 17, 1965. While many of the popular TV Westerns were running out of steam, series creator Michael Garrison ripped a page from the Ian Fleming/Sean Connery playbook and conceived The Wild Wild West as a "James Bond Western," energizing the genre by combining a traditional Western setting (primarily the San Francisco region in the 1870s) with the accoutrements of the spy genre. It was a foolproof formula, further refined by producer Fred Frieberger (who later produced the third and final season of Star Trek), and TWWW held its popular time-slot (7:30-8:30 on Friday nights) for its entire four-season run. Smart casting proved to be another source of audience appeal: While Robert Conrad fit nicely into his role (and tight-fitting costume) as macho Secret Service agent James West, doing his own challenging stunts and charming each episode's obligatory beautiful female guest star, Ross Martin proved an equally excellent choice to play West's skillful sidekick Artemus Gordon, a debonair dandy whose mastery of disguises and dialects would prove essential as they tackled dangerous crime-fighting assignments from President Ulysses S. Grant.

The series' unique appeal arose from its clever and frequently bizarre plots. Every episode title began with a variation of "The Night of..." (including the pilot, "The Night of the Inferno," with more unusual titles thereafter), and as Jim and Arte plotted strategies from the comfort of their tricked-out custom railroad car, their exploits frequently led them into realms of the occult, mad science, bizarre inventions, and villains so eccentrically twisted that they became instant favorites among the show's growing legion of fans. Best of them all was the nefarious Miguelito Loveless, first appearing in "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" (original airdate 10/01/65) and played to perfection by dwarf actor Michael Dunn, a '60s TV regular familiar to Star Trek fans from his memorable role in the original series episode "Plato's Stepchildren." A gifted, intellectual renaissance man (like Ross Martin) with an angelic singing voice, Dunn was an overnight sensation, guest-starring in four of the first season's 28 episodes, with six more appearances in subsequent seasons. Dunn's gleeful malevolence (accompanied by his mute henchman Voltaire, played by giant actor Richard Kiel) was an essential addition to the series' sideshow esthetic; weirdness, humor, gorgeous women, and devious ingenuity (in plotting, action and gadgetry), became the trademarks that set TWWW apart from its more conventional TV Western competition. --Jeff Shannon

On the DVD
For this much-anticipated DVD release, Paramount has made above-average efforts to satisfy fans. Virtually every episode looks and sounds practically brand-new, and with TWWW expert Sue Kesler serving as DVD co-producer, this seven-disc set features a wealth of archival extras, many culled from Kesler's own research as author of the out-of-print guidebook The Wild Wild West: The Series. In addition to excerpts from audio-taped interviews with Frieberger, writer (and "Dr. Loveless" creator) John Kneubuhl (who tells a fascinating story of how Liberace almost guest-starred on the show), music composer Richard Markowitz, and special-effects technician Tim Smyth, each episode includes brief but informative audio introductions by Robert Conrad, who also appears (with Martin) discussing the show (and their subsequent TV-movie revival of TWWW) in a 1978 talk-show appearance. Excerpts from the original music-theme scoring sessions were found in UCLA's Film and Television archive, and other extras include a network series promo clip (from a later season, after TWWW switched to color), a sketch by Ross Martin, a photo gallery, and even one of Conrad's notorious Eveready Battery commercials from the late '70s. All in all, this 40th Anniversary package should give TWWW fans ample reason to celebrate, boding well for the other season-sets to follow. --Jeff Shannon

From the back cover
Relive the heroic adventures of 1870s Secret Service Agents and celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of TV's most popular and imaginative series. The Wild Wild West takes you on the most dangerous, top-secret assignments, given to TV's first 007s of the frontier. Fight alongside the ever-resourceful ladies' man, Federal Agent James West (Robert Conrad) and his colorful sidekick Agent Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin). Crisscross the country in a high tech railroad car, executing impossible missions assigned to them directly from President Grant. These professional troubleshooters risk life and limb to protect the security of the United States by unraveling wicked schemes devised by an array of criminal masterminds.

Customer Reviews

The Night of the Legend's Return!!!
There are no words to adequately express the excitement created by this DVD boxed set release of the complete first season of The Wild, Wild West. While several episodes were only available on DVD in recent years through a pricey enrollment club, this represents the first time the ENTIRE first season of this landmark TV Western icon has been available in ANY format!

Starring Robert Conrad as Agent James T. West, along with the late and deeply lamented, Ross Martin, who portrayed his partner, Artemis Gordon, master of disguise and invention, the series ran on CBS from 1965-1969.

The series focused on their adventures as the country's first secret service agents, working for President Ulysses S. Grant, to thwart all manner of evil doers who directed their villainy at individuals and/or the nation. Mixing espionage, thrilling adventure, western cliff-hanger suspense and high-tech, sci-fi gadgetry the likes of which had never been seen on network TV, the series propelled the actors into international stardom. On the series, West and Gordon traveled in style on a personal train equipped with the amazing gear they used each week to save the day and/or world (the interior of which was used in the epic Gunsmoke episode, "Death Train.")

(Note: Martin, who suffered a heart attack during the first season, was replaced during the last season by the network because they were concerned about his health, which probably resulted in the series' demise. Actor Charles Aidman joined the cast, portraying Jeremy Pike, also a master of disguise, who was supposedly West's former partner. Two later made-for-TV movies, The Wild, Wild West Revisited in 1979, and More Wild, Wild West in 1980, reunited Conrad and Martin.)

The series (set in 1868 primarily in or around San Francisco) continues to be a source of fevered worldwide fan devotion. Like The Avengers, which also aired in the 1960s, The Wild, Wild West was made into a simply awful "blockbuster" big-screen feature film in the 1990s, which failed in every way to capture the quality, fun, adventure, action and entertainment of the original, beloved series.

The brilliant actor, the late Michael Dunn, guest starred in 10 episodes during the show's run (several considered the best in the series) as the diabolical nemesis of West and Gordon, Dr. Miguelito Loveless, who suffered from delusions of grandeur. (At 3 feet-10-inches tall, Dunn suffered from chondrodystroyphy, which eventually took his life. He was also a child prodigy with an IQ of 178 and became a concert pianist at age 15, and was a remarkable singer.)

Dr. Loveless was ably assisted by the devoted Voltaire, portrayed by Richard Kiel (best known for his portrayal of the evil "Jaws" in the James Bond films, "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker"), who is a towering 7-feet-two-inches tall! The juxtaposition of the two actors increased the pathos that Dunn used in his unforgettable performances expressing the doctor's jealousy and hatred of West for his "perfect body" and society in general for its embrace of physical beauty and harsh rejection of those who do not meet that superficial, rigid criteria.

Throughout the series, Conrad insisted on performing all of his own stunts (which were minion) and viewed himself as a tough-guy, developing a devoted stunt crew "family." Dunn, who was no slouch himself, also performed his stunts at the urging of Conrad, despite network fears that both actors would be seriously injured (Conrad did suffer numerous injuries and Dunn injured an ankle.)

As of this writing, the studio had not announced what, if any, special features would be included in the boxed set. The first season (the only one in black and white) had 28 episodes: The Night of the Inferno; The Night of the Deadly Bed; The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth (introducing Dr. Loveless); The Night of Sudden Death; Night of the Casual Killer (the only episode in the entire series to omit "The" before "Night of" in a title); The Night of a Thousand Eyes; The Night of the Glowing Corpse; The Night of the Dancing Death; The Night of the Double-Edged Knife; The Night that Terror Stalked the Town (also featuring Dr. Loveless); The Night of the Red-Eyed Madmen; The Night of the Human Trigger; The Night of the Torture Chamber; The Night of the Howling Light; The Night of the Fatal Trap; The Night of the Steel Assassin; The Night the Dragon Screamed; The Night of the Grand Emir; The Night of the Flaming Ghost; The Night of the Whirring Death (third Dr. Loveless episode); The Night of the Puppeteer; The Night of the Bars of Hell; The Night of the Two-Legged Buffalo; The Night of the Druid's Blood; The Night of the Freebooters; The Night of the Burning Diamond; The Night of the Murderous Spring (Dr. Loveless' final appearance in Season 1); and The Night of the Sudden Plague.

Wildest of any Western
The Wild Wild West was a landmark series in the 1960s. Only two other series from the Sixties stands out in my mind and that is "Star Trek" and "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". I find it fascinating the two best, TWWW and Star Trek, had main characters with the name James and middle initial T. Their cast, directing, writers, music, and the rest the ingredients made these series ahead of their time and unforgettable. Although there had been a couple other secret agent TV shows before TWWW like Danger Man aka Secret Agent Man and Avengers and several that followed it, it was unique in it's approach. Slightly techie for the old West but not overly unrealistic. Several of the devices shown were actually used around that historical period, just watch the history channel. They obviously did their research and tried to keep it somewhat plausible. Certainly not as politically correct or ridiculously implausible as the Will Smith movie, there is no comparison. Robert Conrad and Martin Ross were outstanding as the lead roles and the guest stars where a who's who of current stars for that time period. Many unknowns in it went on to gain stardom. Robert Conrad doing his own stunts made the show more impressive since even us kids could spot stunt doubles easy enough in most series. A couple good reviews here will actually give you the details of the stars since they are obvious fans themselves. It will be good to see those animated drawings duplicate the scene just before a commercial break, but no commercials. Michael Dunn and the rest the villians in this series were masterfully done. Dunn as Miguelito Loveless in particular was excellent and actually made you think about what he was, a complicated man. Unlike previous bad guys there was no black and white easy answer to stopping him. He wanted to accomplish good things, he just had the wrong way of going about it. This set is a must have not only for those of us that watched it when it first aired, but for any fan of westerns or just good TV entertainment.

This price is outstanding and you can choose free shipping. I don't think you will find a better price. I pre-ordered mine here. I hope this set includes interviews. No matter I am sure it will be much better picture and sound quality than the VHS set I currently have. I got my TWWW set and it is great. The picture and sound quality are excellent. To top it off Robert Conrad gives an audio intro before each episode and there are a couple interviews with the production staff. They aren't very good as far as audio-visual since when the series was made they did not think about this sort of thing, but they are at least understandable and give some insight into the making of the series. The reason the interview sound isn't very good is they are from old reel-to-reel tapes, but they are still interesting to listen to for background on the series. I highly recommend this, especially to fans of the series.

My Dream Came True
This show is my dream come true, I always searched for this show in many sites looking for a complete set without luck during the past several years. Finally my dream came true.

The show first telecasted on September 17th, 1965 until it's last telecast on September 7th, 1970 running for a total of Four seasons and a total of 104 episodes which I hope will be released soon.

The First season was rated 23rd out of the best 30 TV shows getting 22% of viewers according to the Nielsen rating (The Nielsen Rating is the percentage of all TV-equipped homes tuned to the program on an average night, as measured by Nielsen Media Research).

The First Season consist of 28 episodes and they are as follows:

1- The Night Of The Inferno - Aired 9/17/1965
2- The Night Of The Deadly Bed - Aired 9/24/1965
3- The Night The Wizard Shook The Earth - Aired 10/1/1965
4- The Night Of Sudden Death - Aired 10/8/1965
5- The Night Of The Casual Killer - Aired 10/15/1965
6- The Night Of A Thousand Eyes - Aired 10/22/1965
7- The Night Of The Glowing Corpse - Aired 10/29/1965
8- The Night Of The Dancing Death - Aired 11/5/1965
9- The Night Of The Double-Edged Knife - 11/12/1965
10- The Night That Terror Stalked The Town - Aired 11/19/1965
11- The Night Of The Red-Eyed Madmen - Aired 11/26/1965
12- The Night Of The Human Trigger - Aired 12/3/1965
13- The Night Of The Torture Chamber - Aired 12/10/1965
14- The Night Of The Howling Light - Aired 12/17/1965
15- The Night Of The Fatal Trap - Aired 12/24/1965
16- The Night Of The Steel Assassin - Aired 1/7/1966
17- The Night The Dragon Screamed - Aired 1/14/1966
18- The Night Of The Flaming Ghost - Aired 1/21/1966
19- The Night Of The Grand Emir - Aired 1/28/1966
20- The Night Of The Whirring Death - Aired 2/18/1966
21- The Night Of The Puppeteer - Aired 2/25/1966
22- The Night Of The Bars Of Hell - Aired 3/4/1966
23- The Night Of The Two-Legged Buffalo - Aired 3/11/1966
24- The Night Of The Druid's Blood - Aired 3/25/1966
25- The Night Of The Freebooters - Aired 4/1/1966
26- The Night Of The Burning Diamond - Aired 4/8/1966
27- The Night Of The Murderous Spring - Aired 4/15/1966
28- The Night Of The Sudden Plague - Aired 4/22/1966

The First & Second season each consisted of 28 episodes and each of the Third & Fourth season consisted of 24 episodes for a total of 104 episodes.

I hope all the remaining three seasons will be released shortly after the 1st season. Thank Yoy for reading my review.