Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,906
edits
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (defaultsort, updated) |
No edit summary |
||
(23 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work|wppage=The Wild Wild West}}
[[File:dekjna5.jpg|frame|Our Heroes, from the first season of the show. (Later seasons were filmed in color.) Artie's the one on the left.]]
Following the show's cancellation, two [[Reunion Show|reunion movies]] were produced in the early
In November 2010, CBS [https://web.archive.org/web/20110119091050/http://www.cinemaspy.com/Television-News/CBS-and-Ron-Moore-Revisiting-The-Wild-Wild-West/4783 announced plans] for a [[Revival]] to be helmed by Ronald Moore (''[[Star Trek]]'', ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'') and Naren Shankar (''[[CSI]]''), but nothing ever came of it.
▲In November 2010, CBS [http://www.cinemaspy.com/Television-News/CBS-and-Ron-Moore-Revisiting-The-Wild-Wild-West/4783 announced plans] for a [[Revival]] to be helmed by Ronald Moore (''[[Star Trek]]'', ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'') and Naren Shankar (''[[CSI]]''), but nothing ever came of it. As of this writing, yet another try is being proposed for 2018.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acting for Two]]: "The Night of the Torture Chamber" (the governor is kidnapped and replaced with a double) and "The Night of the Puppeteer" {{spoiler|(the title villain turns out to be a lifesize lookalike puppet manipulated by the real (and now disfigured) thing)}}. In the tag scenes for "The Night of the Bottomless Pit" and "The Night of the Plague" the [[Girl of the Week]] introduces our heroes to her fiancé, who in the former episode is played by
** "The Night of the Big Blast" has this
* [[Actor Allusion]]: In "The Night of the Sabatini Death", West is temporarily teamed with Ned Brown, a character played by
* [[Accidental Murder]]: Several times, usually on part of the villain, tragically played in "The Night of a Thousand Eyes".
* [[Ambiguously Jewish]]: Ross Martin was a Jew who was born in Poland. (He grew up in a non-English speaking household.) Though the only hints on the show are his knowledge of Eastern European languages, a scene where he explains the Hebrew meaning of a young woman's name and the episode "The Night of the Vicious Valentine" where he disguises himself as a Jewish tailor using a perfect Yiddish accent, Artie's Jewishness is [[Fanon]].
Line 17:
* [[Animated Credits Opening]]
* [[Backwards-Firing Gun]]: Miguelito Loveless hands James West such a pistol, but he sees through the ruse.
** Also used for one of the murders in "The Night of the Tottering Tontine", for a murder in "The Night of the Braine", '''and''' for a murder in "The Night of the Winged Terror — Part I".
* [[Big Guy, Little Guy]]: First-season recurring villains Dr. Miguelito Loveless and Voltaire.
* [[Bond Villain Stupidity]]: Almost every villain in the series puts Jim and/or Artemus into a death trap... and leaves the room.
* [[Brain In a Jar]]: The villains in "The Night of the Druid's Blood" have several of them.
* [[Breakout Villain]]: Dr. Miguelito Loveless debuted in the third episode, where he was caught (as he was in his second episode - from his third episode onward he was never captured again). But he was so popular (and was a good friend of Robert Conrad's in [[Real Life]]), that he returned several times a year for the first two seasons and [[Commuting on a Bus|once a year after that]] for the rest of the series.
* [[Captain Ersatz]]: James West to [[James Bond]].
* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Tough call. On the one hand, Ross Martin actually called his role "a showoff's showcase"; on the other hand, Robert Conrad really (and often literally) threw himself into the fight scenes, so much so that he was prone to splitting his pants (something not always fixed in the editing room - see "The Night of the Pistoleros").
* [[Cattle Punk]]: More or less invented the genre, which makes ''The Wild Wild West'' the [[Ur Example]] but an [[Unbuilt Trope]].
* [[Christmas Episode]]: "The Night of the Whirring Death"
* [[Cool Train]]: The Wanderer, West and Gordon's mobile headquarters.
* [[Creative Differences]] / [[God Does Not Own This World]]: CBS did ''not'' want the show's creator Michael Garrison to be overseeing the show because of how much the pilot had cost, which led to Garrison having a legal battle with the Eye throughout season one while the show went through ''seven'' producers - some of whom never even got to do one episode - before Garrison got control back. Eventually, Garrison did get in a producer to his liking (besides Fred Freiberger, under whose reign Loveless was created - in fact, the first episode to be shown after the pilot was a Freiberger-produced one) in the form of Bruce Lansbury... but CBS still got a Garrison-less show in the end, [[Author Existence Failure|though not in the manner anyone would have preferred]].
* [[Death Trap]]: Most episodes, especially in season one, from the classic [[Descending Ceiling]] to a glass box specially rigged to become a [[Gas Chamber]] if escape was attempted.
* [[Decoy Leader]]: The [[Big Bad]] in the pilot, "The Night of the Inferno", uses this.
Line 33 ⟶ 34:
* [[Diving Save]]: "The Night of the Gruesome Games". Artemus Gordon sees a woman about to be shot by a cannon. He runs over and pulls her out of the way just before it fires.
* [[Dramatic Thunder]]: Especially in "The Night of a Thousand Eyes."
* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: Some episodes have somewhat misleading titles (like "The Night of the Druid's Blood") but a lot don't, most notably "The Night of the Grand Emir"
* [[Executive Meddling]]: The show was
** And the show ended up being lucky to survive its first season. After the show was picked up by the network, and placed on the fall schedule, one of the biggest television corporate bloodlettings happened, taking out nearly all of the network executives who helped develop the show. The new regime, wanting to put the past regime behind them, changed the new schedule as best as they could in the short time available to them, dropping a number of shows that were developed for the new season. ''[[The Wild Wild West (TV series)|The Wild Wild West]]'' survived this purge, but barely, as the new executives didn't get the show, and were concerned about the show's cost, which was expensive for a show of that era. Had the show not become a hit from the get-go, it's likely it would have been canned faster than you can say Artemus Gordon.
* [[Explosion Propulsion]]
Line 40 ⟶ 41:
* [[Fake Defector]]
* [[Fake Nationality]]: All over the place, particularly Pilar Seurat as a very un-Chinese-looking Chinese princess in "The Night The Dragon Screamed," Paul Wallace doing an [[Fake Brit|English accent]] that isn't even good enough to be called excruciating in "The Night of the Eccentrics" and Ricardo Montalban as a Confederate Army colonel in "The Night of the Lord of Limbo." (And this being Ricardo Montalban, [[Not Even Bothering with the Accent|he doesn't even bother with an accent]].)
** In-universe examples: "The Night of the Inferno" has
* [[Foot Focus]]: In "The Night of the Undead", a woman walks barefoot over hot coals.
* [[Giant Spider]]: "The Night of the Raven" [[Playing with a Trope|plays with]] this trope. Technically, it's a normal-sized spider since Jim and the episode's [[Girl of the Week]] have been shrunk by Loveless. On the other hand, [[Wild Wild West (film)|the movie]] ''does'' have a [[Giant Spider]], albeit a mechanical one.
Line 50 ⟶ 51:
* [[Grappling Hook Pistol]]
* [[Green-Skinned Space Babe]]: "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate"
* [[Guile Hero]]: Artie, especially in the first (black-and-white) season. His forte was disguises, patter, and misdirection. In one episode late in the first season, he complained that he "cheated" when taking out two opponents because he had to use force.
* [[Hard Head]]: The author of [http://fanficdepot.com/writerguide.html A Writer's Guide to "The Wild Wild West"] has calculated that in 95 episodes, Jim was knocked unconscious by blows to the head 46 times, and Artemus 29 times.
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Jim and Artemus, obviously.
Line 71 ⟶ 73:
* [[Mix and Match]]
* [[The Mole]]: Sir Nigel Scott in "The Night of the Bleak Island".
** Also
* [[The Napoleon]]: Dr. Loveless.
* [[Not with the Safety On, You Won't]]: James tells this to a woman holding a gun on him in one episode, causing her to hesitate enough that he can grab the pistol and move the barrel away from him - at which point {{spoiler|she pulls the trigger and we discover the safety wasn't on after all}}.
* [[Obfuscating Disability]]: The titular villain in "The Night of the Braine" <ref>Yes, that is the correct spelling... although the onscreen title of the episode is "The Night of the Brain"</ref> starts out in a steam-powered wheelchair, but it is then revealed that he uses it because he believes that literally every ounce of a person's energy should be devoted to thinking.
* [[Pretty in Mink]]: A few show up, when appropriate, as in "The Night of the Whirring Death" (the opera singer episode) and "The Night of the Cossacks".
* [[Punny Name]]/[[Epunymous Title]]: The Wild Wild...James West?
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: Ross Martin's health problems forced him to sit out a few episodes, which led to the [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]] played by Charles Aidman. It also affected at least one episode Martin ''did'' appear in; when he broke his leg while filming the climax of "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary"<ref>which necessitated a stand-in to complete the scene - who unfortunately looked ''nothing'' like him
* [[Rebellious Prisoner]]: While James West is taken prisoner [[Once Per Episode]], it usually isn't for long. This trope comes into play during the second season episode "The Night of the Bottomless Pit" when he's tossed into the titular pit in the prison on [[wikipedia:Devil's Island|Devil's Island]].
* [[Recycled in Space]]: It's [[James Bond]]
* [[Recycled Soundtrack]]: Episodes used music from ''[[Gunsmoke]]'' and, believe it or not, ''[[Hawaii Five-O]]'' (see "The Night of the Bleak Island" and "The Night of the Winged Terror, Part 2").
* [[Retroactive Precognition]]
* [[Reunion Show]]: The TV Movies ''The Wild Wild West Revisited'' and ''More Wild Wild West''.
* [[Rogues Gallery]]: Dr. Miguelito Loveless and Count Manzeppi are the only recurring main villains. But there's also Loveless' loyal assistants Antoinette and Voltaire - although Antoinette vanishes during season 2 and Voltaire never appears after season 1<ref>
* [[Romantic Runner-Up]]: Originally Artemus Gordon, despite saving the day or having an equal part in saving the day as Jim, rarely got the girl; many episodes in the first season end with him looking on forlornly as Jim kisses the [[Damsel in Distress]] [[Girl of the Week]] (although even then there were exceptions - both Jim and Artie get lucky in "The Night of the Torture Chamber" and "The Night of the Glowing Corpse," and "The Night of Sudden Death" is a rare example where ''Jim'' is the [[Romantic Runner-Up]] as Artie literally walks away with '''two''' ladies!). From season two onwards neither agent was lacking in female companionship.
* [[Shoe Phone]]: James West's favorite place to carry some moldable explosive was in the false heel of his shoe. The other shoe's heel held the blasting cap. In the first season, he'd occasionally carry a break-apart derringer in his heels, instead.
* [[Skeleton Key]]: Jim West carried
* [[Steampunk]]
* [[Stunt Double]]: Not for Conrad so much as his opponents - see in particular "The Night The Dragon Screamed" {{spoiler|in which during the climax Ben Wright, as the [[Big Bad]], suddenly turns into someone who ''isn't'' 15 years older than Robert Conrad and then turns into a dummy when Conrad flings him onto a bed of spikes}}.
Line 95 ⟶ 97:
* [[Sword Cane]]: Sword ''pool cue'' actually.
* [[Ten Little Murder Victims]]: "The Night of the Tottering Tontine", "The Night of the Bleak Island"
**
* [[Time Stands Still]]: "The Night of the Burning Diamond"
* [[Tuxedo and Martini]]: Whenever there was an episode set back east, the Western tropes took a back seat to the Spy Drama tropes... and Jim and Artie were already using "rich playboy" cover identities.
* [[The Wild West]]▼
* [[Wig, Dress, Accent]]: Artemus Gordon's disguises are generally of this variety.
▲* [[The Wild West]]
* [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]]: Usually true, although subverted in "The Night of the Firebrand"
* [[X Meets Y]]: James West is [[James Bond]] meets [[John Wayne]].
* [[You Look Familiar]]: When [[Richard Kiel]] returned to the show in "The Night of the Simian Terror", it was to play a different character than he had played in various first season episodes.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:The Wild Wild West]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Series]]
[[Category:The Sixties]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Crime and Punishment Series]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wild Wild West (TV series), The}}
|