Wanted: Dead or Alive (TV series)
| Wanted Dead or Alive | |
|---|---|
Title card
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| Genre | Western |
| Starring | Steve McQueen |
| Theme music composer | William Loose (first season), Herschel Burke Gilbert (second and third seasons) |
| Opening theme | William Loose |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 94 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 25 mins. |
| Production company(s) |
Four Star Television Malcom Enterprises, Inc CBS Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Picture format | Black-and-white |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 6, 1958 – March 29, 1961 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Wanted: Dead or Alive |
| Related shows | Trackdown |
Wanted Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as the bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons in 1958–61. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–59 western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Four Star Television in association with CBS Television.
The series launched McQueen, known for the concept of "cool" in entertainment, as the first television star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.
Josh Randall (McQueen) 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.
Randall carries a shortened Winchester Model 1892 carbine called the "Mare's Leg" in a holster patterned after "gunslinger" rigs then popular in movies and television. Randall can draw and fire his weapon with blazing speed. Three Mare's Legs were used in the series, differing in the shape of the lever and the barrel.
Although Randall is a bounty hunter, he doesn't chase and capture only 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 a horse named Ringo.
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