The original, classic “The Wild Wild West” television series aired on CBS from 1965 — 1969 and starred Robert Conrad as West and Ross Martin as Gordon. Sold to the studio as “James Bond in the American west”, the show became recognized as “the advent of American “Steampunk” — or the use of advanced “gadgets” and technology using only the science available to the Victorian man. (The “steampunk” concept was originally created by Jules Verne.) “The Wild Wild West” combines espionage with the western and throws in the science fiction of Jules Verne’s fantasy world in a delightful extravaganza.
Following the adventures of two secret service men in the advent of the United States Secret Service in the early Victorian era (1870’s), Martin once joked that the show was “about Gordon and a stunt man.” The joke couldn’t be more true! As “Artemus Gordon” invented gadgets and researched, “Jim West” fought his way to the finale — usually into the arms of a couple lovely ladies in this long-running “buddy action adventure”. A truly classic Western-spy-science fiction-action adventure, “The Wild Wild West” had dashing heroes, beautiful damsels in distress, diabolical villains with mad plots (often the damsels in distress!), and a sense of whimsy about the show itself.
Cawley Entertainment Company, with Retro Film Studios, LLC, will be faithfully recreating this television series after years of — and continued — exhaustive research and development. Exact replica costumes copied from the originals, authentic set drawings and use of the original “Wanderer” train are all things folks can look forward to seeing in the future!
