The Wild Wild West/Avengers mashup

You might think The Wild Wild West and The Avengers wouldn’t have much in common besides being part of the 1960s spy craze.

Afterall, The Wild Wild West was produced in the U.S. while The Avengers was a U.K. production. The formats were different. The Wild Wild West had spies operating in the 1870s American west. The Avengers was a fanciful series set in the then-present day in the U.K.

But if you look closer, there’s more in common than you might guess. (Original air dates via IMDB.com)

HERO GETS SHRUNK

The Wild Wild West, “The Night of the Raven,” Sept. 30, 1966: U.S. Secret Service agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) have their fifth encounter with mad scientist Dr. Michelito Loveless (Michael Dunn).

After the usual fun and games, Loveless pulls a big surprise on West. The intrepid agent is reduced in size via a powder (Loveless puts it in a cigar that West smokes) where he is only a few inches tall. Among other things, West has to deal with a normal-sized cat. West gets the anecdote just in time and achieves normal size again.

The Avengers: “Mission…Highly Improbable,” Jan. 10, 1968: John Steed (Patrick Macnee) and Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) investigate some mysterious disappearances. It turns out those missing were shrunk via a ray. Steed and Emma are separately reduced in size to where they are only a few inches tall.

The duo manage to turn the tables. They achieve normal size while shrinking the villains.

With both episodes, the art departments built huge sets to simulate characters who have been reduced in size.

VILLAIN GOES ON A REVENGE RAMPAGE RELATED TO A PREVIOUS WAR

The Wild Wild West, “The Night of the Steel Assassin,” Jan. 7, 1966: An 1870s half-man, half-machine cyborg, Torres (John Dehner) is hunting down former military officers from the Civil War. His last target is President Ulysses S. Grant. West and Gordon try to prevent the president from being killed.

The Avengers, “Game,” Sept. 23, 1968: Five men are killed after playing games set up the villain. The deaths are being investigated by Steel and Tara King (Linda Thorson). The one thing the deaths have in common: The dead men were involved in an Army court-martial of a person who is coming back for revenge. There is a sixth target: Steed.

Greatest villain of the spy craze?

James West (Robert Conrad) has his first encounter with Dr. Loveless (Michael Dunn)

During the 1960s, the James Bond films unleashed many spy adventures featuring memorable villains. But which villain was the best?

Possibly, it was Dr. Loveless, a dwarf mad scientist played by Michael Dunn (1934-73). Dunn had played Mr. Big in the pilot to Get Smart.

Dunn’s character appeared in 10 of the 104 episodes of The Wild Wild West, which ran from 1965 to 1969. The mad scientist had some capers that exceeded the likes of those planned by Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

The Wild Wild West featured eight Loveless episodes in its first two seasons. The production team eased off, with only one Loveless story in each of its final two seasons.

Here is a sampling of the Loveless stories:

The Night of the Wizard Shook the Earth: In the doctor’s debut, he wants to kill off Professor Neilsen, who has come up with a powerful explosive that Neilsen intends to give to the U.S. government. Loveless has his own powerful explosive and manages to kill Neilsen.

U.S. Secret Service agent James West (Robert Conrad) is not deterred and proceeds with his investigation. He comes across Loveless, assisted by his giant assistant Voltaire (Richard Kiel). West discovers Loveless has come up with inventions that are many, many years ahead of their time (such as penicillin and television).

In the climax, West has to overcome Voltaire to foil Loveless’s plan to kill many thousands of people.

The Night of the Murderous Spring: In Dr. Loveless’s fourth encounter with James West and his partner Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), the mad scientist has come up with a powder that causes people to lose their inhibitions. They become homicidal. Loveless intends for most of mankind to kill one another so nature can again reach a balance. (Richard Kiel was in the first three Loveless episodes but his Voltaire character had been forgotten by this time.)

The Night of the Raven: Early in season two, we find Loveless survived the end of The Night of Murderous Spring. The scientist has abducted a princess from an Indian tribe. If the tribe doesn’t get her back, war will break out. This time, Loveless has come up with a formula that can reduce a grown man to six inches tall. Naturally, he uses it on James West. A similar notion would be used in The Avengers episode Mission: Highly Improbable.

The Night of the Surreal McCoy: This time out, toward the end of season two, Loveless has either discovered or created dimensions within paintings. In a wonderful “villain’s speech,” Michael Dunn’s Loveless said it took 30 years of work to come up with this. Portraits painted by Loveless will be placed at key targets and killers/assassins will come out at the appropriate time.

James West gets zapped into one such painting, where he will have to duel with “Lighting McCoy,” an ace gunman. Luckily, Artemus Gordon has intercepted Lighting and has taken his place in disguise.

Dr. Loveless was created by writer John Kneubuhl (1920-92). He penned eight episodes of The Wild Wild West and five of the Loveless episodes.

The Wild Wild West now on Amazon Prime

Robert Conrad, right, in a publicity still with Ross Martin for The Wild Wild West

The Wild Wild West, which combined spies and cowboys, is now on (at least in the U.S.) the Amazon Prime streaming service.

The series ran for 104 episodes from 1965 to 1969. It featured Robert Conrad as agent James West and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon, a disguise expert and inventor.

The duo traveled in a stylish train for their adventures. Conrad often did many of his stunts, including wild fight scenes. He was seriously injured in a third-season episode, which shortened that season.

The greatest adversary of West and Gordon was the dwarf mad scientist Michelito Loveless (Michael Dunn), who appeared in 10 episodes. For the first three of those installments, Loveless was aided by the giant Voltaire (Richard Kiel).

Other guest stars playing villains included Victor Buono, Robert Duvall, and Ted Knight. Future Bond woman Lana Wood appeared in two episodes.

Below is a fan edit mostly recreating a second-season promo. It features music composed by Richard Shores from the episode The Night of the Eccentrics.”

How the 1970s were tough on TV spies

Robert Conrad in a publicity still for A Man Called Sloane

After a boom for spy shows in the 1960s, things dried up in the 1970s. Nevertheless, there were various attempts to return to the espionage genre.

The Spy Command Feature Story Index, the blog’s sister site, has a new story, 1970s: Tough times for spy TV. It examines a combination of unmade projects, unsold pilots and short-lived series. It’s based on some recent posts in the blog.

Among the examples: An unmade TV movie for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and unsold pilots devised by the likes of Sam Rolfe (U.N.C.L.E.) and Brian Clemens (The Avengers).

G. Gordon Liddy dies at 90

National Lampoon parody of G. Gordon Liddy, Agent of C.R.E.E.P., as drawn by Dick Ayres

G. Gordon Liddy, one of the most colorful figures in the Watergate scandal that brought down U.S. President Richard Nixon, has died at 90, The New York Times reported.

Liddy “concocted the bungled burglary” that led to the scandal. Liddy worked for the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein abbreviated that to CRP. But it was popularly abbreviated as C.R.E.E.P. The National Lampoon eventually published a comic book parody of G. Gordon Liddy, Agent of C.R.E.E.P. Artist Dick Ayres did a cover that emulated a 1968 cover of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. by Jim Steranko

An excerpt from the obit by the Times:

As a leader of a White House “plumbers” unit set up to plug information leaks, and then as a strategist for the president’s re-election campaign, Mr. Liddy helped devise plots to discredit Nixon “enemies” and to disrupt the 1972 Democratic National Convention. Most were far-fetched — bizarre kidnappings, acts of sabotage, traps using prostitutes, even an assassination — and were never carried out.

Liddy was among the many Watergate figures who did prison time. He was sentenced to six to 20 years but only served 52 months.

Liddy defied the saying that crime does not pay.

The one-time felon wrote an autobiography published in 1980. It was turned into a 1982 made-for-TV movie starring Robert Conrad as Liddy. Liddy went on to host a nationally syndicated radio talk show. Naturally, Conrad was a guest on one installment. Anyone who listened could tell Liddy loved that Conrad had played him.

Liddy also wrote spy novels along the way, such as Out of Control. And he picked up about 20 acting credits, according to his IMDB.COM ENTRY.

Ron Moore (briefly) talks about Wild Wild West

Cover to a 2017 CD soundtrack of The Wild Wild West

Ron Moore, a successful TV writer-producer, gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter mostly covering recent and upcoming projects. But he also touched briefly on one that got away — a proposed new version of The Wild Wild West.

Moore didn’t say a lot. But here’s an excerpt from the interview, presented in Q&A format.

What’s the project that got away?

The Wild Wild West. Naren Shankar and I wrote a version of the rebooted Wild Wild West for CBS about 10 or 15 years ago. I loved that original show as a kid and thought it was an interesting mix of James Bond and the west with occult overtones that would deal with werewolves periodically. It was a really out-there genre piece and very unique. I was excited at the thought of getting my hands on it and disappointed when it didn’t go forward. I’d still love to find a way to get my hands on it again. It’s owned by CBS so unfortunately not something I have access to.

The project surfaced in 2010. CBS has begun a new version of Hawaii Five-0 (it would eventually run 10 seasons). So the network looked at The Wild Wild West, another property it owned and which ran from 1965 to 1969. As noted above, a new version didn’t come together.

Despite being set in the 1870s, The Wild Wild West may have have been the most fantastical show of the 1960s spy craze. Plots included alternate dimensions inside paintings and the captured brains of major scientists.

The show followed the exploits of U.S. Secret Service agents James West (Robert Conrad) and Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin). The agents traveled in style in a private train on their way to missions. Guest stars playing villains included Michael Dunn (as arch-enemy Dr. Loveless), Victor Buono, Ted Knight and Robert Duvall.

Spy entertainment in memoriam

In the space of 12 months — Dec. 18, 2019 to Dec. 18, 2020 — a number of spy entertainment figures passed away. The blog just wanted to take note. This is not a comprehensive list.

Dec. 18, 2019: Claudine Auger, who played Domino in Thunderball (1965), dies.

Jan. 8, 2020: Buck Henry, acclaimed screenwriter and co-creator of Get Smart (with Mel Brooks), dies.

Feb. 8, 2020: Anthony Spinner, veteran writer-producer, dies. His credits include producing the final season of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and a 1970s version of The Saint.

Feb. 8, 2020: Robert Conrad, star of The Wild Wild West and A Man Called Sloane, dies.

March 8, 2020: Actor Max von Sydow dies. His many credits playing a villain in Three Days of the Condor (1975) and Blofeld in Never Say Never Again (1983).

April 5, 2020: Honor Blackman, who played Cathy Gale in The Avengers and Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (1964), dies.

Sept. 1, 2020: Arthur Wooster, second unit director of photography on multiple James Bond movies, dies.

Sept. 10, 2020: Diana Rigg, who played Emma Peel in The Avengers and Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), dies.

Sept. 21, 2020: Michael Lonsdale, veteran French actor whose credits included playing the villain Hugo Drax in Moonraker (1979), dies.

Oct. 5, 2020: Margaret Nolan, who was the model for the main titles of Goldfinger and appeared in the film as Dink, dies.

Oct. 31, 2020: Sean Connery, the first film James Bond, dies. He starred in six Bond films made by Eon productions and a seventh (Never Say Never Again) made outside Eon.

Dec. 12, 2020: David Cornwell, who wrote under the pen name John le Carre, dies. Many of his novels were adapted as movies and mini-series.

Dec. 18, 2020: Peter Lamont, who worked in the art department of many James Bond films, including production designer from 1981-2006 (excluding 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies), dies.

Music from A Man Called Sloane is coming

Robert Conrad in a publicity still for A Man Called Sloane

An upcoming limited-edition soundtrack release will contain music from A Man Called Sloane, the short-lived TV spy series from 1979.

Sloane, starring Robert Conrad, only lasted a half-season on NBC in the fall of 1979. It was one of the last series made by QM Productions.

La-La Land Records is bringing out its third volume of soundtracks from Quinn Martin TV series, this one focused on The Streets of San Francisco.

Composer Patrick Williams (1939-2018) composed the themes for both Streets and Sloane. As a result, music from both series is on the CD set. Jon Burlingame, producer of the Quinn Martin series for La-La Land Records announced the Sloane portion of the project on social media.

The Streets/Sloane set will be out on Sept. 15 along with other new soundtracks, La-La Land said on Twitter.

UPDATE (Sept. 2): See comment from a reader below. A Man Called Sloane was the last QM series (Quinn Martin had sold the company off some time before). Barnaby Jones remained on the air into 1980. QM also made a TV movie, The Return of Frank Cannon, in 1981.

Wilford Brimley in spy entertainment

Wilford Brimley as President Cleveland in The Wild Wild West Revisited.

Wilford Brimley died over the weekend at the age of 85. He’s being remembered for a number of roles in movies, TV and commercials. But his long career included some appearances in the spy genre.

Brimley (born Sept. 27, 1934) was less than a year older than actor Robert Conrad (born March 1, 1935). But in 1979, Conrad reprised his role as dashing U.S. Secret Service agent James West, with Brimley playing President Grover Cleveland in The Wild Wild West Revisited.

In the TV movie, Michelito Loveless Jr. (Paul Williams) has kidnapped Cleveland, Queen Victoria, the Czar of Russia and the King of Spain. The villain has replaced them with clones (referred to as “replicas”).

West and his partner Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) finally meet up with the president. “Aren’t you the people who are supposed to be sure this doesn’t happen to the president of the United States?” Brimley’s Cleveland asks.

A bigger spy role for Brimley was in 1985’s Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.

The film was intended to launch a franchise. The producers enlisted two alumni of the James Bond film franchise, director Guy Hamilton and screenwriter Christopher Wood.

Brimley was the head of a secret United States organization which took on missions where the U.S. could disavow its operatives (sounds familiar). Brimley’s chief character was prepared to commit suicide if things came to that.

The agency abducts a New York City policeman (Fred Ward) and trains him to be an agent. Ward’s character is trained by Chiun (Joel Gray) and is assigned to take out an evil businessman who is also a U.S. military contractor.

UPDATE (Feb. 3, 2020): Here’s the trailer for Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins.

 

Robert Conrad, who mixed spies with cowboys, dies

James West (Robert Conrad) has his first encounter with Dr. Loveless (Michael Dunn)

Robert Conrad, who made the concept of spies with cowboys work, has died at 84, Deadline: Hollywood reported.

Conrad played U.S. Secret Service agent James T. West in The Wild Wild West, the 1965-69 series as well as two TV movie revivals in 1979 and 1980.

The concept originated with producer Michael Garrison. For a time, Rory Calhoun was a contender to play West. But Conrad emerged as the choice.

The Wild Wild West was steam punk (“genre of science fiction that has a historical setting and typically features steam-powered machinery rather than advanced technology”) before the term was coined.

Conrad and Ross Martin, as West’s partner Artemus Gordon, made the concept work. The athletic Conrad looked like he really could fight a roomful of villains. Martin’s Gordon dabbled with inventions but could still hold his own during fights.

The intrepid agents encountered many menaces in 19th century, especially Dr. Loveless (Michael Dunn), whose rage against the world knew no bounds.

Just another day at the office for Robert Conrad’s James West in The Night of the Eccentrics.

In the fourth Dr. Loveless episode (The Night of Murderous Spring), near the end of the show’s first season, one of Loveless’s mute goons was played Leonard Falk, Conrad’s real-life father.

Conrad already was a television star, having been in Hawaiian Eye, the 1959-63 series that was part of the family of Warner Bros. private eye shows on ABC. Still, James West was the actor’s defining role: a man of action and a ladies man.

The Wild West West wasn’t an easy series to make, with stunts that went wrong, including one where Conrad was seriously injured.

The Wild Wild West was canceled in 1969 amid concern about violence in television generally.

Conrad remained busy, including playing the leads in series such as The D.A., Assignment: Vienna and Black Sheep Squadron. In the fall of 1979, NBC aired A Man Called Sloane, starring Conrad, which a cross between The Wild Wild West and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It only lasted 12 episodes.

Conrad and Marin did get a chance to repeat their Wild Wild West roles in two TV movies, The Wild Wild West Revisited and More Wild Wild West.

In January 2013, there was a tribute to Conrad with fans attending. It consisted of long video clips from his long career followed by a question and answer session.

The Wild Wild West was very much like catching lightning in a bottle, mixing fantasy, spies and, as noted above, steam punk.

Robert Conrad, along with Ross Martin, who died in 1981, made the concept work. Conrad’s passing closes the door on an era we won’t see again.