Season OneCBS had an instant hit on their hands whenThe Wild Wild Westmade 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 conceivedThe Wild Wild Westas 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 ofStar Trek), andTWWWheld  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 toStar Trekfans 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 setTWWWapart from its more conventional TV Western competition.--Jeff ShannonOn the DVDFor this much-anticipated DVD release, Paramount has made  above-average efforts to satisfy fans. Virtually every episode looks and  sounds practically brand-new, and withTWWWexpert 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 guidebookThe 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 ofTWWW) 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, afterTWWWswitched 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 giveTWWWfans ample reason to celebrate, boding well for the other season-sets to follow.--Jeff ShannonSeason TwoWhether you grew up with it on the tube, want to erase the memory of  1999's disappointing feature-film adaptation, or are simply discovering  it now,The Wild Wild Westrocks. This late-'60s TV show has a  bit of everything: laughs, drama, action, elements of magic, sci-fi,  ghost stories, high- and low-tech gadgets that would do James Bond and  MacGyver proud, great music, pretty ladies, outrageous villains, cool  clothes... and even Sammy Davis Jr. and Richard Pryor, among other  unexpected guests. Droll ladies man and government agent James West  (played by tough guy Robert Conrad, wearing pants so tight they reveal  his... well, they're really tight) and his sidekick, master of disguises  Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), are back at it for this second season  (1966-67), with 28 episodes packaged on seven discs, bringing with them  the same delightfully arch tone as before. Headquartered in their  well-appointed train car, they embark on a variety of oddball  adventures, all of them entitled "The Night of" something (like "...the  Flying Pie Plate," "...the Returning Dead," "...the Surreal McCoy,"  "...the Tottering Tontine," and many more). It's all very  tongue-in-cheek; the villains, both familiar (Doctor Miguelito Loveless,  colorfully portrayed by "little person" Michael Dunn) and new, are  deluded, silver-tongued maniacs camping it up like there's no tomorrow,  while the stories, ranging from Loveless' schemes to take over the world  and various plots to eliminate President Ulysses S. Grant and other  important personages to time travel and green-skinned women from Venus,  are smart, whimsical, and clever.The show's overall vibe, from the  opening credits on, is obviously reminiscent of cartoons and comic  books; the fact that it doesn't take itself at all seriously is arguably  its most appealing feature, along with better-than-average sets,  cinematography, and other technical elements (not to mention a great  title tune by Morton Stevens, the same guy responsible forHawaii Five-0's immortal theme). Inevitably, some of it seems a bit dated now, such as the stereotypical depictions of Indians, but overall,The Wild Wild Westhas held up well. If there's a principal drawback, it's the lack of any  bonus features; even though creator Michael Garrison died before this  second season hit the airwaves, it would have been nice to hear from  some of the others who participated in the making of this terrific show.--Sam GrahamSeason Three"Elaborate little subterfuges" and "intricate dramas" await the suave  and dashing frontier 007, James West (Robert Conrad) and his partner,  master of disguise Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin), courtesy of a gallery  of rogues and flamboyant villains with grandiose schemes of world  domination. Among them: Victor Freemantle ("The Night of Bubbling  Death"), bent on establishing his own Texas Panhandle domain; the Falcon  ("The Night of the Falcon"), who aims his behemoth cannon at Denver and  conspires with a European syndicate to put the rest of the world under  the gun; Emmett Stark ("The Night of the Death Masks"), who breaks out  of prison to stage an elaborate and bizarre revenge against his captors,  West and Gordon; and, of course, West's ultimate nemesis, the  diminutive Dr. Miguelito Loveless ("The Night Dr. Loveless Died"), whose  demise could just be "another typical Loveless prank."You may not findThe Wild Wild Weston any of those "Greatest TV Shows of All Time" lists, but more than 40  years later, it leaves many of the so-called classic shows in the dust.West's blend of Western action, spy adventure, and sci-fi  thrills (less here than in seasons past) still pack quite a kick. The  pleasures of this offbeat, genre-bending series did not diminish in its  penultimate season. There's the classic theme song, the animated opening  credits (with West's bang-zoom dispatch of a femme fatale intact); the  chemistry between one of TV's great buddy teams, and Gordon's primitive  gadgets (like a smoking jacket that really smokes!) that are akin to theFlintstones' prehistoric versions of modern-day appliances.The Wild Wild Westalso rounded-up some great character actors. Robert Duvall appears in  "The Night of the Falcon" as a "mild mannered country doctor" with a  more sinister secret practice. Ray Walston (My Favorite Martian)  and venerable Western bad guy Jack Elam team up to steal Aztec treasure  in "The Night of Montezuma's Horde. Harry Dean Stanton (Big Loveis an innocent man framed for murder in "The Night of the Hangman."--Donald LiebensonSeason FourAt one uncharacteristically poignant point duringWild Wild West's  final season, secret service agent James West raises a glass to toast  "absent friends." That would be Artemis Gordon, West's resourceful  sidekick and a master of disguise and the odd "diversion." Ross Martin,  who portrayed Gordon, had suffered a heart attack and was missing in  action for several episodes, so missed that it took several actors to  fill his shoes: Charles Aidman as Jeremy Pike, William Scharlett (who  early in the season portrays a villain in the episode, "The Night of the  Gruesome Games") as Frank Harper, Pat Paulson, the hangdog  mock-Presidential candidate onThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,  as the seemingly milquetoast Bosley Cranston in "The Night of the  Camera," and Alan "The Skipper" Hale, Jr. as chemist Ned Brown in "The  Night of the Sabatini Death," (which also features Jim Backus and  contains a cuteGilligan’s Islandin-joke at episode’s end). With  or without Martin, this was a wild, wild season that offers  genre-bending kicks in episodes that evoke James Bondian espionage,  Jules Verne fantasy, bizarreAvengers-style villainy, and evenThe Phantom of the Opera.  James and company are up against some entertainingly over-the-top  megalomaniacs bent on world domination. Of course, the sun couldn’t set  on theWestwithout one last encounter with the series’ most  popular villain, the "dictatorial, vain, short-tempered, and  occasionally unreasonable" Dr. Loveless (Michael Dunn), who re-emerges  yet again to pass judgment over those he professes to have wronged him  in "The Night of Marguerite’s Revenge." Two of TV’s comedy icons, Harvey  Koran and a pre-Mary Tyler Moore ShowTed Knight, play it  straight as formidable foes in "The Night of the Big Blackmail" and "The  Night of the Kraken," respectively. "The Night of the Winged Terror,"  the series’ only two-parter, is an effective creep show featuring a  hypnotizing bulging-brained adversary. Conrad, as one character  compliments him, is "better than ever," whether dispatching goons (he  performed all his own stunts) or romancing the ladies ("He said  something about showing the big dipper to the daughter of the Lithuanian  ambassador," Artemis explains West’s absence in "Big Blackmail"). While  there are signs that the series was poised to jump the shark, it is too  bad it ended before further encounters with Professor Montague, who is  introduced in "The Night of the Janis" as the Q-like creator of such  nifty gadgets as a harmonica gun.--Donald Liebenson