WILD WILD WEST S2 RELEASE 03/20/07! (1 Viewer)

[Doug Wallen]

Went out at lunch to find this. Looking forward to watching several episodes of this tonight. Glad to finally get the next season. Read a review which raved about the colors. Can't wait to sample these myself.

 

[Jeff#]

Robert Conrad mentioned in one of his first season commentaries (probably the pilot) that he couldn't understand why CBS was so cheap filming it in black & white. The Wild Wild West had a lot of colorful characters, and like anything else looked better and more natural in color.

The red, white, and blue colors of the American flag that appear in the opening montage and lead into each commercial starting in the 2nd season makes one wonder how the French got the complete series in one huge box set before we did. Maybe it was very late payback for the Statue of Liberty?

 

[Doug Wallen]

Just watched the Count Manzeppi and Dr. Loveless episodes off the first disc. They look glorious.

Was interesting to note that the home of the Mexican president was a reverse angle on the Barkley ranch.

Also interesting to hear Dr Loveless and Antoinette singing "The Sloop John B" years before(?) the Beach Boys.

 

[michaelHAR]

Is this complete? I looked at it versus the Season 1 set. I noticed that season 1 is labeled as the COMPLETE first season. Season 2 is simply labeled as season 2. I've read on some of the threads(WKRP In Cincy) that when COMPLETE is left off, it's generally for a reason of something missing or cut.

Any ideas with season 2?

Michael H.

 

[Jeff#]

So how is it that Dr. Loveless and Antoinette were able to sing that song in the 1870s, some 30 years before the accident wrecked the John B.?

Can you say time travel?


I knew that you could?

 

[Duane Alford]

I just got done watching Season 1 today and was hoping to jump on Hawaii Five-O. I'm totally lost on what day it is, I found it at WalMart tonight and picked it up. Now Hawaii Five-O's gonna have to wait a while, along with the other 18 sets!

 

[Doug^Ch]

I have watched the first four shows on The Wild Wild West Season 2, and I have to say that I have never seen such bold, eyepopping color on any other TV on DVD set that I have watched before. I don't know if they are using special film or how they achieved this kind of pallette. As good as the Hawaii Five-0 transfers were, I would say that so far, IMHO, this set blows even that well done set out of the water.

 

[Bob Hug]

Sounds like Paramount has done another great job! As far as the major studios are concerned, Paramount's really running away from the pack when it comes to releasing classic/vintage TV series on DVD . . . looks like they'll be getting some more of my money!

 

[Doug Wallen]

I also noticed this and have been totally amazed by the brilliant color of these episodes. Gorgeous colors that really look impressive 40 years later.

 

[Jeff#]

The reason the colors used on The Wild Wild West look so impressive is simply because the 1870s was a very colorful period, and the producers of WWW in the 1960s realized it was necessary to convey that with the wardrobe and designing the sets. GUNSMOKE's 12th, 13th, and 14th seasons look similar in that regard. The film stock itself used for WWW was no different than most TV shows from that era.

 

[Rob_Ray]

Also, virtually all shows from the first years of color television preferred a bright, colorful eye-popping pallette as a way to sell color televisions and to play up to the very novelty of color television in a big way. I've often thought that the garish color schemes of late sixties indoor architecture, kitchen design, etc. were due in some small part to all the bright colors all over television in those years.

 

[Jeff#]

Well, the first years of color television were the 1950s.

Many homes had color TV by the time Wild Wild West was produced a decade and 1/2 later. From what I've seen produced from that period, the American networks were filming all prime time shows in color starting with the 1966-1967 season. As a result they instructed the networks to play up the color schemes and designs on their shows. A prime example of this outside of WWW is Amanda Blake on GUNSMOKE. For the first 11 years of the show (particularly starting around 1959 or 60) Amanda had the popular more natural look of that time which complemented a woman's appearance with a minimum of makeup. But once they started filming in color, the makeup lady went way overboard on her face powder. Fortunately, the wardrobe people gave her some elegant 1870s-style sequin gowns to wear that were perfect for the switch to color film.

 

[Brian Himes]

This has been happening since season 1 of the show. In fact, there are a few episodes where they use the interior set for the Barkley ranch as well.

I've started watching season 2 this weekend and I must say I'm very impressed with the quality. Just like Hawaii Five-O, these transferes look great.

Let’s face it. Robert Conrad as James West was the James Kirk of The Wild Wild West. Without much exception, each episode of the Wild Wild West always manages, and usually without any logic whatsoever, to get Conrad out of his shirt. If this hasn’t happened at the beginning of the show, then at just about the twenty minute mark, just after the first commercial break (at which point in the story, West has been captured by that episodes bad guy), you can lay money on it that the next shot of Conrad will be without his shirt. Sometimes, but not always, tied spread eagle in front of that week’s villain. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Just pointing out the obvious. The James Kirk similarities don’t stop there. In most episodes of The Wild Wild West there is always some damsel (not always in distress, sometimes the villain and at other times the villain’s lady in waiting) to swoon over Conrad’s baby blues and chiseled features. The way women fall at his feet, this show would have you believe that James West was the ONLY good looking man in the ENTIRE United States in the 1870’s. And finally, just like Kirk, a fist fight always breaks out. Usually started by West.

 

[Jeff#]

The comparison between James West and James Kirk primarily ends with their sharing the first name.

But it's another Jim that Mr. West has been compared to: Bond....James Bond. This show portrayed him as the 007 of the Old West because it was designed that way in its own unique style in mixing of genres (with added touches of fantasy & sci-fi soon thrown in). Of course, that isn't to diminish the important role of his partner Artemus Gordon -- the show's master of disguise and man of many acting talents.

The only western that the 1960s Star Trek was alluded to by the late Gene Roddenberry was Wagon Train, as Star Trek was created in 1964 -- a year before WWW.

 

[Charles H]

The Rat Pack and Doris Day-Rock Hudson started the pre-feminist attitude towards women that there were two kinds of woman: the virgin and the nymphomanic, and there were more nymphomaniacs than virgins by a long shot. The antecedants were in the film noir. If you catch any of the old "Burke's Law" shows, nobody even gets an opportunity to say "Hello" or fill a martini glass. They are a hoot-and-a-half. On "Wild, Wild West West," you can see that all the villains are either homosexuals or lesbians (also true in the Bonds and many of the noirs). These were the days of unrepentent heterosexuality!

 

[Corey3rd]

It's all about Conrad's pants. He's like Van Damme - you can not take your eyes off his ass of steel.

 

[Charles H]

Conrad was always very underrated as an actor. He never even attempted to make the leap from the small screen to movies. He was outstanding as G. Gordon Liddy in WILL and in the remarkable "male-menopausal" mini-series BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO. He was the only actor who could play Pappy Boyington in BAA BAA BLACKSHEEP (and I am surprised that Bellasario never used him in in his subsequent series as a guest star, although he does use Conrad's kids). ...And then there is CENTENNIEL.

 

[Jeff#]

Conrad headlined some other shows though.

"A Man Called Sloane" was a spy series the first about a year after Black Sheep Squadron ended, and he worked on that in between the two WWW TV movie sequels (reuniting with Ross Martin). I haven't seen it, but from what I've read it seemed kind of silly. Michele Carey's sexy voice as Sloane's computer Effie apparently wasn't enough.

Then in the late 1980s Bob starred with his two adult sons in a drab series in which they played mountain rangers. "High Mountain Rangers" didn't last long, but at least Conrad got to direct again.

Everything he's done on TV since then has been in guest roles, such as playing himself on the sitcom Just Shoot Me.

 

[Brian Himes]

Either way, both characters in their respective shows are very similar. Both characters usually end up without their shirt for no logical reason. Every woman falls at their feet. And both like to start fist fights.

Don't get me wrong. I love The Wild Wild West. It is one of my all time favorite shows, but it's just really amusing the similarities between Kirk and West.

 

[cardinalmark]

I bought the 2nd season as well! The color is great, however, I noticed a deleted scene from "The Night of the Skulls". Ross Martin(Arte) is fighting Tigo, they never show the end of the fight with Arte winning the fight, and using the horses to find where Jim is located. They jump to the jury finding Jim West guilty. This is also the way TNT showed this show as well, cutting out this important scene. Too Bad.