"Wanted: Dead or Alive" (1958) TV series 1958-1961

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

6 September 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

A young man with a sawed off rifle as a holstered weapon makes a living

Plot Keywords:

Gunslinger | Bounty Hunter | Cult Favorite | Anti Hero | Cult Western

Cast

Steve McQueen

...

Josh Randall (94 episodes, 1958-1961)

Runtime:

30 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-18 (self applied) (DVD) (2007) | Argentina:Atp | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Apacheland Movie Ranch, 4369 S. Kings Ranch Road, Gold Canyon, Arizona, USA

Company:

Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Trivia:

According to the A&E Biography profile of Steve McQueen (featured in the Season ONE DVD Set), McQueen took the role of Josh Randall because his prospects for acting in movies were drying up. When the series started becoming hit, McQueen began getting more and more noticed by the film industry. So much so that director John Sturges, who'd used McQueen in the war movie Never So Few (1959) cast McQueen in the western hit The Magnificent Seven (1960), the movie that launched McQueen's rise to stardom. After making "Mag-7", McQueen began to get more and more movie offers again and decided to quit the show to pursue his film career, thus canceling the series.

Movie Connections:

Spin off from "Trackdown" (1957)

The parts actors have to play before they are stars

"Wanted: Dead or Alive" is currently playing weekly on Sapporo televsion. When I watch it now, I am reminded of a biography I read of Steve McQueen in 1971 that described arguments young actor McQueen often had with the producers of the show at the time. As is evidenced by what I see almost every week now, the scripts were forever having Josh Randall surrounded by two, three, or four big guys, and Josh Randall diving in to get in as many first strike punches as possible before they beat him up. According to the biography, almost every time McQueen read such a script, he would protest the stupidity of such a scenario. But he was always overruled by the studio brass. But what bothers me much more than the suicidal actions of Josh Randall in the script is the mechanical impossibility of the sawed off Winchester rifle he carried. First of all, the four inch long cartridges he carried would have been far too big to insert into the side slot of the rifle. Secondly, it the rifle had somehow been modified to permit insertion of the elephantine cartridges, the sawed off tube of a magazine below the barrel would have been able to hold three rounds at most. And yet, in the series Josh Randal is often pumping rapid fire shots like a semi-automatic assault rifle. Incidentally, "Wanted Dead or Alive" never shows Josh Randall inserting the cartridges into the weapon and the series almost never shows Josh Randall with his cartridge belt anything but completely full. In other words, he is often shooting his rifle but never using his supply of cartridges.