171-455: The Wild Wild West is an American Western , spy , and science fiction television series that ran on the CBS television network for four seasons from September 17, 1965, to April 11, 1969. Two satirical comedy television film sequels were made with the original stars in 1979 and 1980 and the series was adapted for a theatrical film in 1999. Developed at a time when the television Western
342-433: A "Reconstruction beatnik", was played by Adams. He reportedly consulted with John Wayne for tips on how to play the role. Adams wanted Presley to sing the theme song for The Rebel , but the show's producer wanted Johnny Cash . Guest stars appearing on the series during its two-year run included Dan Blocker , Johnny Cash , Leonard Nimoy , Tex Ritter , and Robert Vaughn . A total of 76 half-hour episodes were filmed before
513-561: A "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West". Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a shootout or quick draw duel. The Western genre sometimes portrays
684-463: A Bond TV series. Fleming later contributed ideas to NBC 's The Man from U.N.C.L.E. . In 1955, Ratoff and Michael Garrison formed a production company to make a Casino Royale film, with Ratoff set to direct and 20th Century Fox set to distribute. Production stalled when Ratoff and Garrison could not obtain financing. In 1960, Hedda Hopper reported that Ratoff's film would star Peter Finch as Bond. But Ratoff died that December and his widow sold
855-527: A Cause , about Nick Adams's and Dennis Hopper 's reasons "for getting close to Natalie. 'I remember being in Dennis' dressing room with Nick and Natalie ... I don't know which one of them said this — it was Nick or Dennis — but he said, "We're gonna hang on to her bra straps." Meaning up the career ladder.' Natalie's tutor, who knew Hopper and Adams off set, said, 'Both of those two guys were all over her ... because they could see that this movie
1026-414: A behind-the-scenes power struggle. Garrison was replaced by Phillip Leacock, the executive producer of Gunsmoke , and Freiberger was supplanted by John Mantley, an associate producer on Gunsmoke . The exchange stunned both cast and crew. Garrison, who owned 40% of The Wild Wild West , knew nothing about the changes and had not been consulted. He turned the matter over to his attorneys. Freiberger said, "I
1197-406: A brief biographical article, journalist Bill Kelly wrote Adams "became James Dean's closest pal, although Nick was straight and Dean was bisexual." Moreover, there are neither court documents (such as from the long and drawn-out divorce and child custody proceedings between him and his wife), nor personal letters from Adams, nor directly attributable statements by any alleged male lovers, to support
1368-409: A chandelier onto the stage floor and suffered a concussion . "A little gymnastics — chandelier work," he later explained. "I didn't chalk up properly and I went 15 feet to the concrete and fractured my skull. I was in intensive care for 72 hours, with a six-inch lineal fracture of the skull and a high temporal concussion." As a result, production of the series ended two weeks early. Conrad spent weeks in
1539-546: A different role in "The Night of the Simian Terror". Antoinette vanished after her sixth episode due to demands by Dunn's jealous real-life wife. According to the television film The Wild Wild West Revisited , Loveless eventually dies in 1880 from ulcers , brought on by the frustration of having his plans consistently foiled by West and Gordon. (His son, played by Paul Williams in the TV film, subsequently seeks revenge on
1710-399: A few of his acquaintances that he was murdered (according to author David Kulczyk, Adams was apparently planning to write a tell-all book revealing many sexual secrets of Hollywood names) and claims no trace of paraldehyde (a liquid sedative often given to alcoholics at the time and one of two drugs attributed to his death) was ever found in his home. However, Adams's brother Andrew had become
1881-568: A local television show. However, in November 1966, Nugent resumed the divorce proceedings and obtained a restraining order against him, alleging Adams was "prone to fits of temper", and in an affidavit, charged he had "choked her, struck her and threatened to kill her during the past few weeks." On January 20, 1967, Adams was waiting for a court hearing to start when he was served with a $ 110,000 defamation suit by Nugent's boyfriend, Paul Rapp , who later married Nugent. Nevertheless, nine days later he
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#17328010751232052-568: A medical doctor and prescribed the sedative to him. Moreover, a story in the Los Angeles Times reported stoppered bottles with prescription labels were found in the medicine cabinet near the upstairs bedroom where Adams's body was discovered. Through the years, his children offered speculation ranging from murder to accidental death, the latter perhaps caused by Roeder while trying to calm the actor's nerves with an unintentionally lethal combination of alcohol and prescription drugs (although
2223-467: A miner and the family moved to Jersey City . Adamshock was a successful athlete at Henry Snyder High School , but failed to get a part in the school play when he was a senior. Adamshock's friends teased him about his acting ambitions. "Everybody thought I was crazy," he recalled. "My father said, 'Nick, get a trade, be a barber or something.' I said, 'But, Pop, I want to do something where I can make lots of money. You can't make lots of money with just
2394-673: A newspaper item stating that Nick and Parker were writing a book on Elvis together. Dundy also wrote, "Of all Elvis' new friends, Nick Adams, by background and temperament the most insecure, was also his closest." Adams was Dennis Hopper 's roommate during this period, and the three reportedly socialized together, with Presley "hanging out more and more with Nick and his friends" and glad his manager "liked Nick". Decades later, Kathleen Tracy recalled Adams often met Presley backstage or at Graceland , where Elvis often asked Adams "to stay over on nights": "He and Elvis would go motorcycle riding late at night and stay up until all hours talking about
2565-481: A number of occasions, famous examples being Support Your Local Sheriff! , Cat Ballou , Mel Brooks 's Blazing Saddles , and Rustler's Rhapsody . George Lucas 's Star Wars films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended for Star Wars to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. The Jedi , who take their name from Jidaigeki , are modeled after samurai, showing
2736-682: A parody of Henry Kissinger . Agnes Moorehead won an Emmy for her role as Emma Valentine in "The Night of the Vicious Valentine". Other villains were portrayed by Ed Asner , Christopher Cary , Yvonne Craig , Robert Duvall , Anthony Eisley , Boris Karloff , Harvey Korman , Martin Landau , Delphi Lawrence , Robert Loggia , Ida Lupino , Burgess Meredith , Ricardo Montalbán , Leslie Nielsen , Ramon Novarro , Carroll O'Connor , Susan Oliver , Percy Rodrigues , Jo Van Fleet , Sam Wanamaker , William Windom , and H. M. Wynant . While
2907-482: A part of that." When production was wrapped, Dean said in another press release, "I now regard Natalie (Wood), Nick, and Sal (Mineo) as co-workers; I regard them as friends ... about the only friends I have in this town. And I hope we all work together again soon." Following Dean's 1955 death in an automobile accident, Adams overdubbed some of Dean's lines for the film Giant (these are in Jett Rink's speech at
3078-452: A popular art form. Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas , spurs, and buckskins , use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using frontier justice. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds. The first films that belong to
3249-423: A prescription drug overdose at the age of 36, his widely publicized friendships with James Dean and Elvis Presley would stir speculation about both his private life and the circumstances of his death. In an AllMovie synopsis for Adams's last film, reviewer Dan Pavlides wrote, "Plagued by personal excesses, he will be remembered just as much for what he could have done in cinema as what he left behind." Adams
3420-467: A reconciliation a week later, but his career and personal life following this episode have been characterized as a "tragic freefall". Adams and actress Kumi Mizuno may have had a short affair while he was working in Japan. "That's one of the reasons my parents were divorced," his daughter, playwright Allyson Lee Adams , later said. "My dad had a penchant for becoming infatuated with his leading ladies. It
3591-501: A reporter, "I became a highway delinquent. I was arrested nine times in one year. They put me on probation, but I kept on racing ... nowhere." Adams's widely publicized friendship with Elvis Presley began in 1956 on the set of Presley's film Love Me Tender during the second day of shooting. Presley had admired James Dean, and when the singer arrived in Hollywood, he was encouraged by studio executives to be seen with some of
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#17328010751233762-473: A scathing characterization of Adams: ... Brash struggling young actor whose main scheme to further his career was to hitch his wagon to a star, the first being James Dean, about whose friendship he was noisily boastful ... this made it easy for Parker to suggest that Nick be invited to join Elvis' growing entourage of paid companions, and for Nick to accept ... following Adams' hiring, there appeared
3933-573: A science fiction/horror movie called Murder in the Third Dimension , but when he got there, he found the project had been dropped. Susan Strasberg , who had worked with him 13 years earlier on the hit film Picnic and was living in Italy, encountered a thoroughly demoralized Adams in a Rome bar. On the night of February 7, 1968, his lawyer and friend, ex- LAPD officer Ervin Roeder, drove to
4104-503: A secret agent named Jim West who would perform secret missions for President Ulysses S. Grant . Ralston later sued Warner Bros. over the 1999 theatrical film Wild Wild West , which was based on the series. As indicated by Robert Conrad on his DVD commentary, the show went through several producers in its first season. This was apparently due to conflicts between the network and Garrison, who had no experience producing for television and had trouble staying on budget. At first, Ben Brady
4275-570: A setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived in arcade games focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films and Electro-mechanical games such as Dale Six Shooter (1950), and Sega 's Gun Fight (1970). The first of these games
4446-688: A sheriff in fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming . Originally aired on the A&;E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by Netflix in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017. AMC and Vince Gilligan's critically acclaimed Breaking Bad is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set in New Mexico from 2008 through 2013, it follows Walter White ( Bryan Cranston ), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystal meth to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into
4617-552: A silhouette of Adams wearing the Civil War-era cap from his television series, is inscribed Nick Adams — The Rebel — Actor of Hollywood Screens . Decades later, Adams's highly publicized life and death at a young age, his friendships with cultural icons such as James Dean and Elvis Presley , and his reported drug consumption made his private life the subject of many reports and assertions by some writers who have claimed Adams may have been gay or bisexual . One of
4788-552: A soft drink commercial filmed at Griffith Park . Adams spent three years in the Coast Guard between the time this commercial was shot in late 1950 and the start of filming for Rebel Without a Cause in March 1955. Actor Jack Grinnage , who played Moose, recalled, "Off the set, Nick, Dennis (Hopper) , and the others would go out together — almost like the gang we portrayed — but Jimmy and Corey Allen ... were not
4959-455: A story around it. In 1954, director/producer Gregory Ratoff purchased the film rights to Ian Fleming 's first James Bond novel, Casino Royale , for $ 600. CBS, meanwhile, bought the TV rights for $ 1,000, and on October 21, 1954, the network broadcast an hour-long adaptation on its Climax! series, with Barry Nelson playing American agent "Jimmy Bond" and Peter Lorre playing the villain, Le Chiffre. CBS also approached Fleming about developing
5130-810: A trade.'" After a year of unpaid acting in New York, Adams hitchhiked to Los Angeles. Adams's earliest reported paid acting job in Los Angeles was a stage role at the Las Palmas Theater in a comedy called Mr. Big Shot . Although he was paid about $ 60 a week, Adams had to pay $ 175 for membership in Actors' Equity Association . He also earned $ 25 one night at the Mocambo nightclub, filling in for Pearl Bailey who had fallen ill. Eight years later, Hedda Hopper told Adams she recalled writing about him at
5301-535: A unique way. The series' pilot episode, "The Night of the Inferno", was filmed in December 1964. It was produced by Garrison and, according to Robert Conrad, cost $ 685,000. The episode was scripted by Gilbert Ralston , who had written for numerous episodic TV series in the 1950s and 1960s. (Western novelist and screenwriter Clair Huffaker also worked on the concept.) In a later deposition, Ralston explained that he
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5472-528: A vein similar to what would later be called steampunk ), in one case horror ("The Night of the Man Eating House") and humor. Episodes were also inspired by Edgar Allan Poe , H. G. Wells and Jules Verne . In the tradition of James Bond , there were always beautiful women, clever gadgets and delusional arch-enemies with half-insane plots to take over the country or the world . The title of each episode begins with "The Night" (except for "Night of
5643-641: A wall-to-wall lease on the lot starting in May 1963 and produced Gunsmoke and Rawhide there, as well as Gilligan's Island . The network bought the lot from Republic in February 1967 for $ 9.5 million. Beginning in 1971, MTM Enterprises (headed by actress Mary Tyler Moore and her then-husband Grant Tinker) became the Studio Center's primary tenant. In the mid-1980s the Western streets and sets were replaced with new sound stages and urban facades, including
5814-444: A year or so later with Elvis. He offered himself to the shy, emotionally contorted and rebellious Dean, as a friend, a guide, a boon companion, a homosexual lover – whatever role or service Dean required." Journalist, screenwriter and author of books about Hollywood, John Gregory Dunne wrote that "James Dean was bisexual, as were Nick Adams and Sal Mineo." According to Eric Braun, "Elvis was attracted by Adams' outgoing personality and
5985-589: Is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western was The Virginian (1902) by Owen Wister . Other well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey , from the early 1900s, Ernest Haycox , Luke Short , and Louis L'Amour , from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such as Leigh Brackett , Elmore Leonard , and Larry McMurtry , have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in
6156-405: Is a pushy little fellow". As with Dean, Adams capitalized on his association with Presley, publishing an account of their friendship in May 1957. In August 1958, after the death of Elvis's mother Gladys, Parker wrote in a letter, "Nicky Adams [ sic ] came out to be with Elvis last Week which [ sic ] was so very kind of him to be there with his friend." "The Rebel and
6327-512: Is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns, high fantasy , science fiction, and horror. The protagonist Roland Deschain is a gunslinger whose image and personality are largely inspired by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, the superhero fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. The Western genre has been parodied on
6498-443: Is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like. The character played by Humphrey Bogart in noir films such as Casablanca and To Have and Have Not —an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with films such as Colorado Territory and Pursued . In many of Robert A. Heinlein 's books,
6669-413: Is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms . The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered
6840-635: Is no pretense, and his reputation as the foremost Secret Service agent often precedes him. According to the later TV movies, West retires from the Service by 1880 and lives on a ranch in Mexico. When he retires, Gordon, who was a captain in the Civil War, returns to show business as the head of a troupe of traveling Shakespeare players. The show incorporated classic Western elements with an espionage thriller, science fiction / alternate history ideas (in
7011-557: Is the only episode in which the center panel of the hero is replaced by a sketch of the final scene of an act; he is replaced by the villainous General Cassinello ( Nehemiah Persoff ) at the end of the third act. Western (genre) The Western is a genre of fiction typically set in the American frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and
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7182-757: Is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often prostitutes ), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking ( beer , whiskey , or tequila if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value". Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber identified seven basic plots for Westerns: Gruber said that good writers used dialogue and plot development to develop these basic plots into believable stories. The American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in
7353-412: Is usually punctuated with a Western music score , including American folk music and Spanish / Mexican folk music such as country , Native American music , New Mexico music , and rancheras . Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid , desolate landscape of deserts and mountains . Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting
7524-1342: The Atari 2600 and Gun Fight (1978) for the Bally Astrocade were derivative of Midway's Gun Fight . These early video games featured limited graphical capabilities , which had developers create Westerns to the most easily recognizable and popular tropes of the gunfighter shootouts. Western radio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as Empire Builders and Frontier Fighters ; juvenile adventure programs such as Red Ryder and Hopalong Cassidy ; legend and lore like Red Goose Indian Tales and Cowboy Tom's Round-Up ; adult Westerns like Fort Laramie and Frontier Gentleman ; and soap operas such as Cactus Kate . Some popular shows include The Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933), The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942), Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954), Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), and Gunsmoke (first broadcast in 1952). Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed. Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include League of STEAM , Red Bird , and Arkansas Traveler . Within
7695-537: The Grand Canyon , Yosemite , and the giant redwoods , due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the Great Depression . After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined. The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called
7866-718: The Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City. The express car (No. 21) and passenger car (No. 4) are also at the museum. Another veteran V&T locomotive, the Reno (built in 1872 by Baldwin), was used in the two Wild Wild West TV movies. The Reno, which resembles the Inyo, is located at Old Tucson Studios . The 1999 Wild Wild West film adaptation used the Baltimore & Ohio 4–4–0 No. 25, one of
8037-634: The Screen Actors Guild , but he was unable to find steady acting work, even when "creatively" claiming he had appeared with Jack Palance in The Silver Tassie in New York. Undaunted, Adams joined a theater workshop run by Arthur Kennedy . In January 1952, Adams enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War , serving as an Electrician's Mate . He served until 1955, attaining the rank of Petty Officer Second Class and
8208-457: The space opera series Firefly used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. Anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop , Trigun and Outlaw Star have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example, Kelly's Heroes
8379-419: The "Golden Age of the Western". It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including Robert Aldrich , Budd Boetticher , Delmer Daves , John Ford , and others. Some of the popular films during this era include Apache (1954), Broken Arrow (1950), and My Darling Clementine (1946). The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time. During
8550-509: The "hip" new young actors there. Meanwhile, his manager Colonel Tom Parker was worried that Elvis' new Hollywood acquaintances might influence Presley and even tell him what they were paying their managers and agents (a fraction of what Presley was paying Parker). Elaine Dundy called Parker a "master manipulator" who used Nick Adams and others in the entourage (including Parker's own brother-in-law Bitsy Mott ) to counter possible subversion against him and control Elvis' movements. She later wrote
8721-432: The 1960s and 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns from Italy became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of Sergio Leone 's storytelling method. After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992), and Geronimo (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity. When television became popular in
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#17328010751238892-416: The 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity of televised Westerns , and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections. Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of
9063-407: The 1970s series Switch ). Young also claimed to have added the wry second "Wild" to the series title, which had been simply "The Wild West" in its early stages of production. Young's episodes (2–4) featured a butler named Tennyson who traveled with West and Gordon, but since the episodes were not broadcast in production order, the character popped up at different times during the first season. Conrad
9234-458: The 1970s. These games and drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys. When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based, Mainframe computer game The Oregon Trail was first game to use the West as
9405-582: The American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier ". Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to Wild West shows like Buffalo Bill Cody's . The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western fiction , and were firmly in place before film became
9576-570: The American frontier, the gaucho literature of Argentina , and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback. A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of
9747-683: The Casual Killer" in the first season). This followed other idiosyncratic naming conventions established by shows such as Wagon Train (1957–1965), where nearly every episode was titled "The (Name) Story" or "The Story of (Name)"; Rawhide (1959–1965), in which a majority of episode titles began with "Incident"; and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968), whose episodes were titled "The (Blank) Affair". Before The Wild Wild West , Robert Conrad played private detective Tom Lopaka in ABC's Hawaiian Eye for four seasons (1959–63). In November 1964, he
9918-672: The Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the Russian Revolution , the Russian Civil War , and the Basmachi rebellion. Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in the space Western subgenre of science fiction. Peter Hyams 's Outland transferred the plot of High Noon to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently,
10089-461: The Fair", aired April 27, 1966, and "Days of Wrath", aired January 8, 1968). All three series were filmed at CBS Studio Center and shared other exterior and interior sets. Additionally, the train interior was used for an episode of Get Smart ("The King Lives?", aired January 6, 1968) and the short-lived Barbary Coast ("Funny Money", aired September 8, 1975). After its run on The Wild Wild West ,
10260-593: The Grand Emir" and "The Night of the Gypsy Peril"). He finally received "theme by" credit on both of the TV movies, which were scored by Jeff Alexander rather than Markowitz (few personnel from the series were involved with the TV movies). The animated title sequence was another unique element of the series. Created by Michael Garrison Productions and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, it was directed by Isadore "Friz" Freleng and animated by Ken Mundie, who designed
10431-469: The Inyo and The William Mason appeared in the Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase (1956). The main title theme was written by Richard Markowitz , who previously composed the theme for the TV series The Rebel . He was brought in after the producers rejected two attempts by film composer Dimitri Tiomkin . In an interview by Susan Kesler (for her book The Wild Wild West: The Series ) included in
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#173280107512310602-668: The Inyo participated in the Golden Spike Centennial at Promontory, Utah, in 1969. The following year it appeared as a replica of the Central Pacific's "Jupiter" locomotive at the Golden Spike National Historical Site. The State of Nevada purchased the Inyo in 1974; it was restored to 1895 vintage, including a wider smoke stack and a new cowcatcher (pilot) without a drop coupler. The Inyo is still operational and displayed at
10773-515: The King" by Nick Adams is a first-person account written by Adams about his friendship with Presley. The manuscript was written in 1956 by Nick during Presley's eight days in Memphis when the singer returned home for his big Tupelo homecoming. The manuscript was discovered 45 years later by Adams's daughter and initially published in 2012. In 1959, Adams starred in the ABC series The Rebel playing
10944-669: The New York streets seen in Seinfeld . In 1995, the lagoon set that was originally constructed for Gilligan's Island was paved over to create a parking lot. Among iconic locations used for filming were Bronson Canyon ("Night of the Returning Dead" S02 E05) and Vasquez Rocks ("Night of the Cadre" S02 E26). The TV movies used Old Tucson Studios and Apacheland Studios in Tucson, Arizona, and Gold Canyon, Arizona, respectively. For
11115-524: The Prairie , McCloud , The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams , and the short-lived but highly acclaimed How the West Was Won that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such as Lonesome Dove (1989) and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman . Also, new elements were once again added to
11286-553: The President, and solved crimes. The show featured a number of fantasy elements, such as the technologically advanced devices used by the agents and their adversaries. The combination of the Victorian era time-frame and the use of Vernean technology has led several steampunk web sites to cite the show as a pioneering influence on the genre. This aspect was accentuated even more in the 1999 film adaptation. Despite high ratings,
11457-883: The States. Previous to this time, he also co-starred with Boris Karloff in Die, Monster, Die! (1965), a Gothic horror–sci fi movie filmed in England. In early 1967, Disney released Mosby's Marauders , a Civil War drama told from a southern perspective with Adams in the role of a cruel Union army sergeant. Adams guest-starred in five episodes of four TV series that year, including an installment of his friend Robert Conrad 's The Wild Wild West , an appearance in Combat! and two episodes of Hondo (a short-lived western which also had an ex-Confederate theme). Throughout 1967 and early 1968, he also worked in three low-budget films. One of these
11628-634: The U.S., Adams began accepting parts in Japanese science fiction monster movies ( kaiju eiga ). He landed major roles in two science fiction epics from Toho Studios in Chiyoda, Tokyo . His first Japanese movie was Frankenstein vs. Baragon , in which he played Dr. James Bowen, a radiologist working in Hiroshima who encounters a new incarnation of the Frankenstein monster. Adams next starred in
11799-630: The United States Coast Guard (1952–1955) and subsequent role in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). In his 1986 gossip book about gay Hollywood, Conversations with My Elders , Boze Hadleigh claimed actor Sal Mineo told him in 1972, "I didn't hear it from Jimmy (James Dean), who was sort of awesome to me when we did Rebel, but Nick told me they had a big affair." According to Presley biographer Albert Goldman , "Nick Adams ingratiated himself with James Dean precisely as he would do
11970-663: The United States from all manner of dangerous threats. The agents traveled in luxury aboard their own train, the Wanderer , equipped with everything from a stable car to a laboratory. James West had served as an intelligence and cavalry officer in the American Civil War (1861–1865) on Grant's staff; his "cover", at least in the pilot episode, is that of "a dandy, a high-roller from the East". Thereafter, however, there
12141-419: The Western formula, such as the space Western , Firefly , created by Joss Whedon in 2002. Deadwood was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired on HBO from 2004 through 2006. Hell on Wheels , a fictionalized story of the construction of the first transcontinental railroad , aired on AMC for five seasons between 2011 and 2016. Longmire is a Western series that centered on Walt Longmire ,
12312-881: The Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey . These featured veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they included Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the Sioux (dancing). The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short Kidnapping by Indians , made by Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn , England, in 1899. The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on
12483-645: The Western states and cowboy themes. Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture. After the death of Remington Richard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre. Some art museums, such as the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming and the Autry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art. With anime and manga ,
12654-478: The Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being a Crime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series Better Call Saul . The neo-Western drama Yellowstone was streamed from 2018-2024. Western fiction
12825-541: The actor's house at 2126 El Roble Lane in Beverly Hills to check on him after a missed dinner appointment. Seeing a light on and his car in the garage, Roeder broke through a window and discovered Adams in his upstairs bedroom, slumped dead against a wall. During the autopsy Dr. Thomas Noguchi found enough paraldehyde , sedatives and other drugs in the body "to cause instant unconsciousness." The death certificate lists "paraldehyde and promazine intoxication " as
12996-601: The age of 23, based on his work in Mister Roberts , secured a powerful agent, and signed with Warner Bros. Adams had a small role (as Chick) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Also that year Adams played the role of "Bomber" the paper boy in the widely popular film adaptation of Picnic (1955), which was mostly filmed on location in Kansas , and starred William Holden , Kim Novak , and Susan Strasberg . He
13167-511: The agents.) Although several actors appeared in different villainous roles, only one other character had a second encounter with West and Gordon: Count Manzeppi, played flamboyantly by Victor Buono . Manzeppi was a diabolical genius of "black magic" and crime, who—like Dr. Loveless—had an escape plan at the end. Buono played a different villain in the pilot episode, and also returned in More Wild Wild West as "Dr. Henry Messenger",
13338-646: The autopsy found no alcohol in Adams's blood). Actor Robert Conrad , Adams's best friend, consistently maintained that the death was accidental. Carol Adams is listed as Adams's spouse on his death certificate, evidence the divorce had not become final when the actor died. She and the children were living only a few blocks from his recently-rented house on El Roble Lane. Adams's remains were interred at Saints Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery in Berwick, Pennsylvania . The backside of his gravestone, which bears
13509-409: The award, spending over $ 8,000 on ads in trade magazines, but many of his strongest scenes had been cut from the movie , and he lost to Melvyn Douglas . In 1964, Adams had a leading role opposite Nancy Malone in an episode (" Fun and Games ") of The Outer Limits . A review of this episode written over three decades later would characterize him as an "underrated actor". By this time Adams's career
13680-418: The biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as the leading man in director Raoul Walsh 's spectacular widescreen The Big Trail , which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including
13851-483: The cartoon art in one of the corner panels. The style of freeze-frame art changed over the course of the series. In all first-season episodes other than the pilot, the panels were live-action stills made to evoke 19th-century engravings. In season 2 (the first in color) the scenes dissolved to tinted stills; from "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate" on, however, the panels were home to Warhol -like serigraphs of
14022-680: The cartoon effects and for West's getting himself out of trouble, and the heraldic western outdoor theme over that, so that the two worked together." Session musicians who played on the theme were Tommy Morgan (harmonica); Bud Shank , Ronnie Lang , Plas Johnson and Gene Cipriano (woodwinds); Vince DeRosa and Henry Sigismonti (French horns); Uan Rasey , Ollie Mitchell and Tony Terran (trumpets); Dick Nash , Lloyd Ulyate, Chauncey Welsch and Kenny Shroyer (trombones); Tommy Tedesco and Bill Pitman (guitars); Carol Kaye (Fender bass); Joe Porcaro (brushes) and Gene Estes, Larry Bunker and Emil Richards (timpani, percussion). Markowitz, however,
14193-408: The character Johnny Yuma, a wandering, ex-Confederate, journal-keeping, sawed-off shotgun toting "trouble-shooter" in the old American west. He is credited as a co-creator of The Rebel , but he had no role in writing the pilot or any of the series' episodes. Adams had asked his friend Andrew J. Fenady to write the pilot as a starring vehicle for him. The series' only recurring character, publicized as
14364-618: The classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely Kid Colt, Outlaw , Rawhide Kid , and Red Ryder ) or more modern ones as Blueberry ), cartoons, and parodies (such as Cocco Bill and Lucky Luke ). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the fantasy , horror and science fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in Preacher . More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g., Jonah Hex and Loveless ). Video game Westerns emerged in
14535-577: The closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States , particularly the Southwestern United States , as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada . The frontier is depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled by cowboys , outlaws , sheriffs , and numerous other stock gunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern
14706-752: The conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g., True Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order
14877-468: The course of the series. He sketched his ideas for his characterizations and worked with the makeup artists to execute the final look. Martin told Percy Shain of the Boston Globe , "In the three years of the show, I have run a wider gamut than even those acknowledged masters of disguise, Paul Muni and Lon Chaney . Sometimes I feel like a one man repertory company. I think I've proven to myself and to
15048-428: The culture, such as spaghetti Westerns (Italy), meat pie Westerns (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India). Being period drama pieces, both the Western and samurai genre influenced each other in style and themes throughout the years. The Magnificent Seven was a remake of Akira Kurosawa 's film Seven Samurai , and A Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Kurosawa's Yojimbo , which itself
15219-407: The earlier British film A Daring Daylight Burglary ), Edwin S. Porter 's film starring Broncho Billy Anderson , is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and William K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to The Great Train Robbery ". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set
15390-399: The earliest published mentions on this overall topic was made by gossip columnist Rona Barrett in her 1974 autobiography, in which she made no assertion Adams was homosexual or bisexual but claimed Adams had told her, along with a "whole roomful of people," that he wasn't making it because no one in Hollywood's upper stratosphere would accept his wife. Barrett called it "untrue. She was one of
15561-463: The early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color. Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes in demographic targeting along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included Hec Ramsey , Kung Fu , Little House on
15732-465: The film rights to producer Charles K. Feldman for $ 75,000. Feldman and director Howard Hawks were interested in making Casino Royale with Cary Grant as Bond. Eventually Feldman was offered $ 500,000 and a percentage of the profits to let Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli make the film with Sean Connery. Feldman turned them down, and eventually produced the spoof Casino Royale in 1967. By then, Garrison and CBS had brought James Bond to television in
15903-474: The final three episodes to be filmed. The show's most memorable recurring arch- villain was Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless , a brilliant but petulant and megalomaniacal dwarf portrayed by Michael Dunn . Initially he had two companions: the towering 7'2" Voltaire, played by Richard Kiel ; and the beautiful Antoinette, played by Dunn's real-life singing partner, Phoebe Dorin. Voltaire disappeared without explanation after his third episode, but Kiel returned in
16074-442: The first season DVD boxed set, Markowitz recalled that the original Tiomkin theme "was very, kind of, traditional, it just seemed wrong." Markowitz explained his own approach: "By combining jazz with Americana, I think that's what nailed it. That took it away from the serious kind of thing that Tiomkin was trying to do...What I did essentially was write two themes: the rhythmic, contemporary theme, Fender bass and brushes, that vamp, for
16245-440: The freeze-frames. The end credits were displayed over each episode's unique mosaic of scenes. In the final season, however, a generic design was used under the end credits. Curiously, in this design, the bank robber is unconscious, the cardsharp has no card and the lady is on the ground, but the six-shooter in the upper left-hand panel has returned. The freeze-frame graphics were shot at a facility called Format Animation. The pilot
16416-426: The genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g., Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime), Trigun (1995–2007 manga), and Outlaw Star (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such as Koya no Shonen Isamu , a 1971 shonen manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or El Cazador de la Bruja , a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico. Part 7 of
16587-576: The gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice , freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny , and the national history and identity of the United States . Native American populations were often portrayed as averse foes or savages . Originating in vaquero heritage and Western fiction , the genre popularized the Western lifestyle , country - Western music , and Western wear globally. Throughout
16758-464: The harshness and isolation of the wilderness, and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific settings, such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, the saloon usually emphasizes that this is the Wild West ; it
16929-466: The heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress . Similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or Clint Eastwood 's Unforgiven , about an old contract killer ) are more morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress
17100-676: The history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres. The classic Western is a morality drama , presenting the conflict between wilderness and civilization . Stories commonly center on the life of a male drifter , cowboy , or gunslinger who rides a horse and is armed with a revolver or rifle . The male characters typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crowned Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas , vests , and cowboy boots with spurs . While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives include buckskins and dusters . Women are generally cast in secondary roles as love interests for
17271-451: The hospital and had a long convalescence slowed by constant dizziness. The episode was eventually completed and aired early in the fourth season, with footage of the fall left in. Conrad later told Percy Shain of the Boston Globe , "I have the whole scene on film. It's a constant reminder to be careful. It also bolstered my determination to make this my last year with the series. Four seasons are enough of this sort of thing." Thereafter, Conrad
17442-492: The hotel) and dated co-star Natalie Wood . Adams tried to capitalize on Dean's fame through various publicity stunts, including a claim he was being stalked by a crazed female Dean fan, allowing himself to be photographed at Dean's grave in a contemplative pose, holding flowers, and surrounded by mourning, teenaged female fans along with writing articles and doing interviews about Dean for fan magazines. He also claimed to have developed Dean's affection for fast cars, later telling
17613-401: The illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearby Albuquerque , much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between
17784-508: The immediate cause of death, along with the notation "accident; suicide ; undetermined." During the 1960s, drug interaction warnings were not so prominent as they later would be, and the American Medical Association has subsequently warned these two types of drugs should never be taken together. The death of Nick Adams has been cited in articles and books about Hollywood's unsolved mysteries along with speculation by
17955-532: The industry that I am the No. 1 character lead in films today." The industry acknowledged Martin's work with an Emmy nomination in 1969. Martin broke his leg in a fourth-season episode, "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary", when he dropped a rifle, stepped on it, and his foot rolled over it. Martin told Percy Shain, "In the scene where I was hurt, my stand-in tried to finish it. When the shell ejected from
18126-715: The influence of Kurosawa. The character Han Solo dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the Mos Eisley cantina is much like an Old West saloon. Meanwhile, films such as The Big Lebowski , which plucked actor Sam Elliott out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, and Midnight Cowboy , about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage. Nick Adams (actor, born 1931) Nick Adams (July 10, 1931 – February 7, 1968, born Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock )
18297-406: The larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as spaghetti Westerns , maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such as neo-Westerns or space Westerns . For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with
18468-788: The late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite. Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as: The Lone Ranger (1949–1957), Death Valley Days (1952–1970), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961), Cheyenne (1955–1962), Gunsmoke (1955–1975), Maverick (1957–1962), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963), Wagon Train (1957–1965), The Rifleman (1958–1963), Rawhide (1959–1966), Bonanza (1959–1973), The Virginian (1962–1971), and The Big Valley (1965–1969). The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
18639-485: The literary descendants of the knights-errant , who stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian romances . Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight-errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds, and bound to no fixed social structures, but only to his own innate code of honor. Like knights-errant,
18810-461: The major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. An exception was The Big Trail, a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity
18981-563: The male lead; or in supporting roles as saloon girls, prostitutes or as the wives of pioneers and settlers . The wife character often provides a measure of comic relief . Other recurring characters include Native Americans of various tribes described as Indians or Red Indians, African Americans , Chinese Americans , Spaniards , Mexicans , law enforcement officers , bounty hunters , outlaws , bartenders , merchants , gamblers , soldiers (especially mounted cavalry ), and settlers ( farmers , ranchers , and townsfolk). The ambience
19152-683: The manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". Golden Kamuy (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the Russo-Japanese War , specifically focusing on Hokkaido and Sakhalin , and featuring the Ainu people and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes. Western comics have included serious entries, (such as
19323-602: The mid-1950s, photographs of him with actress Natalie Wood were widely publicized in fan magazines. Modern Screen wrote at the time "their relationship has been mostly for fun" and they shared "a tendency toward moodiness and unpredictability." The magazine also reported they had given joint interviews "in which they admitted they adored each other" and "they even came terribly close to getting married" in Las Vegas. The same article also remarked that on one of their trips they "posed for innumerable publicity photographs — that
19494-583: The most refreshing wives in the entire community" and went on to say Adams "had become the companion to a group of salacious homosexuals" who flattered the actor, which affected his judgment and caused him to blame Carol. Hollywood biographer Lawrence J. Quirk claimed Mike Connolly (a gay gossip columnist for The Hollywood Reporter from 1951 to 1966) "would put the make on the most prominent young actors, including Robert Francis , Guy Madison , Anthony Perkins , Nick Adams, and James Dean ." According to American Film (1986), "Nick Adams, who was ...gay,
19665-494: The new season's ninth episode, "The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse", Garrison fell down a flight of stairs in his home, fractured his skull and died. CBS assigned Bruce Lansbury , brother of actress Angela Lansbury , to produce the show for the remainder of its run. In the early 1960s Lansbury had been in charge of daytime shows at CBS Television City in Hollywood, then vice president of programming in New York. When he
19836-731: The oldest operating steam locomotives in the U.S. Built in 1856 at the Mason Machine Works in Taunton, Massachusetts , it was later renamed The William Mason in honor of its manufacturer. For its role as "The Wanderer" in the film, the engine was sent to the steam shops at the Strasburg Rail Road for restoration and repainting. The locomotive is brought out for the B&;O Train Museum in Baltimore's "Steam Days". Both
20007-408: The pain of celebrity" and enjoying prescription drugs. Almost 40 years later, writer Peter Guralnick wrote that Presley found it "good running around with Nick ... there was always something happening, and the hotel suite was like a private clubhouse where you needed to know the secret password to get in and he got to change the password every day." Presley's girlfriend June Juanico complained
20178-467: The passenger car was constructed on Stage 6 at CBS Studio Center . Designed by art director Albert Heschong, the set reportedly cost $ 35,000 in 1965 (over $ 290,000 in 2021 dollars). The interior was redesigned with lighter wood when the show switched to color for the 1966–67 season. The train interior was also used in at least one episode of Gunsmoke ("Death Train", aired January 27, 1967) and in at least two episodes of The Big Valley ("Last Train to
20349-760: The passenger car, originally served the Virginia and Truckee Railroad in Nevada. They were among the V&;T cars sold to Paramount Pictures in 1937–38. The Inyo appears in numerous films including High, Wide, and Handsome (1938), Union Pacific (1939), the Marx Brothers ' Go West (1940), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Red River (1948), Disney 's The Great Locomotive Chase (1956) and McLintock! (1963). For The Wild Wild West , Inyo's original number plate
20520-432: The pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre". The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from Tom Mix and William S. Hart . Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928,
20691-704: The pilot episode, "The Night of the Inferno", the producers used Sierra Railroad No. 3 , a 4-6-0 locomotive that was, fittingly, an anachronism : Sierra No. 3 was built in 1891, 15 to 20 years after the series was set. Footage of this train, with a 5 replacing the 3 on its number plate, was shot in Jamestown, California . Best known for its role as the Hooterville Cannonball in the CBS series Petticoat Junction , Sierra No. 3 probably appeared in more films and TV shows than any other locomotive in history. It
20862-522: The previous films. An English dub was commissioned by Henry G. Saperstein, and produced by Titra Studios. This English version was never released in the U.S., but there were rumors of the English dub being released in Yugoslavia. The most interesting aspect of this film, is that Adams actually performed his own fights scenes using Kenpo, a style he had been learning under Senior Grand Master Ed Parker in
21033-457: The producers had promised to rewrite the scripts for his new character, but this simply amounted to scratching out the name "Artemus Gordon" and penciling in "Jeremy Pike" (his character's name). Pat Paulsen (one episode as Agent Bosley Cranston) is frequently thought of as a Martin substitute, but he appeared in one of Aidman's episodes, and his character would have been present even if Martin had appeared. Martin returned in mid-December to work in
21204-607: The rifle, it caught him in the eye and burned it. We still haven't finished that scene. It will have to wait until I can move around again." A few weeks later, after completing "The Night of Fire and Brimstone", Martin suffered a heart attack on August 17, 1968 (this was exactly two years after the show's creator, Michael Garrison, died). Martin's character was replaced temporarily by other agents played by Charles Aidman (four episodes as Jeremy Pike), Alan Hale Jr. (as Ned Brown) and William Schallert (two episodes as Frank Harper), and West worked solo in two other episodes. Aidman said
21375-496: The rise of the studio star system, in which several actors spent time on the homosexual casting couch and dated girls or even entered into sham marriages in order to cover their homosexuality. "In the Henry Willson date pool," the author says, "Nick Adams was one client, among many, who glommed on to Natalie Wood to get his picture taken." Suzanne Finstad cites actor Jack Grinnage , one of the gang members in Rebel Without
21546-483: The series was cancelled in 1961. Reruns were syndicated for several years. Adams went back to TV and film work, along with a role in the short-lived but critically successful television series Saints and Sinners . Adams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an unlikable murder suspect in the film Twilight of Honor (1963), which featured the film debuts of both Linda Evans and Joey Heatherton . He campaigned heavily for
21717-400: The series was cancelled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence. The Wild Wild West told the story of two Secret Service agents: the fearless and handsome James West (played by Robert Conrad ), and Artemus Gordon (played by Ross Martin ), a brilliant gadgeteer and master of disguise. Their mission was to protect President Ulysses S. Grant and
21888-484: The series. "For the first few episodes we tried stuntmen," Conrad explained, "but the setup time slowed production down, so I volunteered. Things started moving quicker when I took the jumps and the spills. We started meeting the budget." Early on, he was doubled by Louie Elias or Chuck O'Brien. On January 24, 1968, however, during filming of "The Night of the Fugitives" near the end of the third season, Conrad fell from
22059-637: The settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in his Tunnel in the Sky , settlers set out to the planet New Canaan, via an interstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, in Conestoga wagons , their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding a Palomino horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines. Stephen King 's The Dark Tower
22230-467: The show as a Bond spoof laid in 1870, and we all knew where we stood. Each new producer tried to put his stamp on the show and I had a terrible struggle. I fought them line by line in every script. They knew they couldn't change the James West role very much, but it was open season on Artemus Gordon because they had never seen anything like him before." On August 17, 1966, however, during production of
22401-531: The show became noticeably campier. The Wild Wild West was filmed at CBS Studio Center on Radford Avenue in Studio City in the San Fernando Valley. The 70-acre lot was formerly the home of Republic Studios , which specialized in low-budget films, including Westerns starring Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and Saturday morning serials (which The Wild Wild West appropriately echoed). CBS had
22572-633: The show was a fantastic success. And that's how it started, because he saw the nightclub act." Loveless was introduced in "The Night the Wizard Shook The Earth", the show's sixth produced, but third televised episode. The character became an immediate hit and Dunn was contracted to appear in four episodes per season. Because of health problems, however, Dunn only appeared in 10 episodes instead of 16. After 10 episodes (5–14), Freiberger and executive producer Michael Garrison were, according to Variety , "unceremoniously dumped," reputedly due to
22743-409: The show's writers created their fair share of villains, they often started with the nefarious, stylized and sometimes anachronistic inventions of these madmen (or madwomen) and then wrote the episodes around the devices. Henry Sharp, the series' story consultant, would sketch the preliminaries of the designs (eccentrically numbering every sketch "fig. 37"), and give the sketch to a writer, who would build
22914-410: The show. In the three seasons shot in color, the overall backdrop was an abstracted wash of the flag of the United States , with the upper left panel colored blue and the others containing horizontal red stripes. The original animation sequence is: Each episode had four acts. At the end of each act, the scene, usually a cliffhanger moment, would freeze, and a sketch or photograph of the scene replaced
23085-475: The singer was always talking about his friend Adams and James Dean. She also was upset that Adams had started inviting himself to see Elvis, and Juanico felt that she was trying to compete for Elvis' attention. Adams would talk often about Natalie Wood to Elvis, constantly discussing her figure and her beauty, something else that caused Juanico to feel that she would soon lose Elvis to the glitz of Hollywood. Presley's own mother even commented about Adams, "He sure
23256-535: The sixth Godzilla film, Invasion of Astro-Monster (known in the U.S. as Monster Zero ), in which he played Astronaut Glenn, journeying to the newly discovered Planet X. In both films, his character had a love interest with characters portrayed by actress Kumi Mizuno . On the set of Monster Zero , Adams and co-star Yoshio Tsuchiya (who played the villainous Controller of Planet X) reportedly got along well and played jokes on each other. Adams made three films in Japan between 1965 and 1966. Adams' final film for Toho
23427-470: The time; and he replied by reciting back to her, "Nick Adams, gas station attendant from New Jersey, did an impersonation of Jimmy Cagney and a scene from Glass Menagerie ." After three years of struggle and optimistic self-promotion, his first film role came in 1951, an uncredited one-liner as a Western Union delivery boy in George Seaton 's Somebody Loves Me (1952). This allowed him to join
23598-420: The titles for the film The Great Race and the TV series Secret Agent , I Spy , Rawhide and Death Valley Days . The screen was divided into four corner panels abutting a narrow central panel that contained a cartoon "hero". The hero looked more like a traditional cowboy than either West or Gordon, and from each corner panel encountered cliché western characters and situations that never appeared in
23769-413: The young actors caused quite a stir, cruising round Los Angeles with Natalie Wood , Russ Tamblyn and others on their Hondas." In 2005, Byron Raphael and Presley biographer Alanna Nash wrote that Adams may have "swung both ways" like "Adams's good pal (and Elvis's idol) James Dean. Tongues wagged that Elvis and Adams were getting it on." Adams regularly dated actresses with whom he made movies. During
23940-470: Was Mission Mars (1968) which has been described as "rarely seen, and utterly dreadful." Adams's costume for this movie included an off-the-shelf motorcycle helmet. Reacting to Mission Mars over 30 years later, SciFi reviewer Gary Westfahl wrote, "The only quality that Adams could persuasively project on film was a desperate desire to be popular, to be liked ... which helps to explain why Adams got his foot in many doors." Adams's last U.S. production
24111-439: Was Midway 's Gun Fight , an adaptation of Taito 's Western Gun (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind. Atari 's Outlaw (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery. Early console games such as Outlaw (1978) for
24282-449: Was a film director, but is now a costume designer and activist. Sometimes acrimonious marital problems reportedly interfered with his ability to get lucrative acting parts after 1963. While promoting Young Dillinger during a television appearance on The Les Crane Show in early 1965, Adams "shocked" the viewing audience with an announcement that he was leaving his wife, seemingly without telling her first. The couple publicly announced
24453-578: Was a financial failure due to Depression era theatres not willing to invest in widescreen technology. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a pulp genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such as Dodge City starring Errol Flynn , Jesse James with Tyrone Power , Union Pacific with Joel McCrea , Destry Rides Again featuring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich , and especially John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach starring John Wayne , which became one of
24624-627: Was a movie filmed in Iowa called Fever Heat . His last film appearance was in the little-seen Spanish-language western Los Asesinos , filmed in Mexico City, Mexico. Adams married former child actress Carol Nugent in 1959. Nugent had appeared in an episode of The Rebel . They had two children, Allyson and Jeb Stuart Adams. Jeb was a child actor, then gave up acting, and is now a successful realtor in Ventura County, California. Allyson
24795-545: Was a way for him to take on the role he was playing at the time." Rumors of a romance between the two were common occurrence until Mizuno denied it during an interview in 1996. By July 1965, Adams and Nugent were legally separated; Nugent filed for divorce in September. The following month, while Adams was in Japan, Nugent was granted a divorce and custody of the children. In January 1966, Adams and Nugent announced another reconciliation on Bill John's Hollywood Star Notebook ,
24966-635: Was an American film and television actor and screenwriter . He was noted for his roles in several Hollywood films during the 1950s and 1960s, including Rebel Without a Cause and Giant along with his starring role in the ABC television series The Rebel (1959–1961). He also led the cast of several Japanese productions, including Frankenstein Conquers the World , Invasion of Astro-Monster , and The Killing Bottle . Decades after his death from
25137-471: Was approached by Michael Garrison, who "said he had an idea for a series, good commercial idea, and wanted to know if I could glue the idea of a western hero and a James Bond type together in the same show." Ralston said he then created the Civil War characters, the format, the story outline and nine drafts of the pilot script that was the basis for the television series. It was his idea, for example, to have
25308-673: Was awarded the National Defense and Korean War Service Medals . About two years later, in June 1954, his ship docked in Long Beach harbor and, after a brash audition for director John Ford during which Adams did impressions of James Cagney and other celebrities while dressed in his Coast Guard uniform, he took his accumulated leave and appeared as Seaman Reber in the 1955 film version of Mister Roberts . Adams then completed his military service, returned to Los Angeles and, at
25479-488: Was born as Nicholas Aloysius Adamshock in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania to Catherine (Kutz) and Peter Adamshock, an anthracite coal miner . His mother was of Ukrainian descent. In 1958, he told columnist Hedda Hopper , "We lived in those little company houses — they were terrible. We had to buy from the company store and were always in debt and could never leave." After a mining accident, Adamshocks father quit his job as
25650-717: Was built by the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works in Paterson, New Jersey . When The Wild Wild West went into series production, however, an entirely different train was employed. The locomotive, a 4-4-0 named the Inyo, was built in 1875 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. Originally a wood-burner, the Inyo was converted to oil in 1910. The Inyo, as well as the express car and
25821-614: Was doubled for the dangerous stunts, but still participated in fight scenes. Prior to The Wild Wild West, Ross Martin co-starred in the CBS series Mr. Lucky from 1959 to 1960, portraying Mr. Lucky's sidekick, Andamo. The series was created by Blake Edwards , who also cast Martin as villains in his films Experiment in Terror (1962) and The Great Race (1964). Martin once called his role as Artemus Gordon "a show-off's showcase" because it allowed him to portray over 100 different characters and perform dozens of different dialects during
25992-513: Was fired for accomplishing what I had been hired to do. I was hired to pull the show together when it was in chaos." Conrad said, "I was totally shocked by it. Let's face it, the show is healthy. I think Fred Freiberger is totally correct in his concept of the show. It's an administrative change, for what reason I don't know." Mantley produced seven (15–21) episodes, then returned to his former position on Gunsmoke and Gene L. Coon took over as associate producer. By then, Garrison's conflict with CBS
26163-460: Was going to be a big thing for Natalie ... they were game for anything in order to be noticed and to get ahead in the business.' " Actress Olive Sturgess relates: "When Nick and I went out, it was a casual thing —no great love or anything like that ... I thought he was very troubled ... You could feel he was troubled. It was the manner he had —that was the way he was in real life, always brooding ... When we went out, it
26334-489: Was granted temporary custody of the children. His son Jeb Adams later recalled, "He saw it as a competition, basically, more than anything of getting custody of us. But, a matter of a week or two later, he gave us back to my mom." Nugent later regained legal custody of the children. After finishing Los Asesinos (1968), produced by Luis Enrique Vergara and filmed in Mexico, Adams bought a plane ticket with his own money and flew to Rome , Italy , to co-star with Aldo Ray in
26505-546: Was in New York. Garrison said to himself, 'Michael Dunn would make the most extraordinary villain. People have never seen anything like him before, and he's a fabulous little actor and he's funny as hell.' And, Garrison felt, if Michael Dunn sang on every show, with the girl, it would be an extraordinary running villain. He came backstage and he told us who he was and he said he was going to do a television show called The Wild Wild West and we would be called. We thought, 'Yeah, yeah, we've heard all that before.' But he did call us and
26676-470: Was inspired by Red Harvest , an American detective novel by Dashiell Hammett . Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially John Ford . Despite the Cold War , the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own take on the genre, the so-called Red Western or Ostern. Generally, these took two forms: either straight Westerns shot in
26847-419: Was losing ground to the spy genre, this show was conceived by its creator, Michael Garrison , as " James Bond on horseback." Set during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877), the series followed Secret Service agents James West ( Robert Conrad ) and Artemus Gordon ( Ross Martin ) as they foiled the plans of megalomaniacal villains to take over part or all of the United States, protected
27018-477: Was making the film Young Dillinger (1965) with Nick Adams , Victor Buono and John Ashley (all of whom would later guest star on The Wild Wild West ) when his agent sent him to CBS to audition for the West role. Conrad claimed to be the 17th actor to test for the part. Others tested included Robert Horton , Ray Danton and James "Skip" Ward. Conrad also claimed that John Derek left the audition without testing. Conrad performed nearly all of his own stunts in
27189-420: Was named producer, but he was shifted to Rawhide , which had its own crisis when star Eric Fleming quit at the end of the 1964–65 season. Rawhide lasted another 13 episodes before it was cancelled by CBS. The network then hired Collier Young . In an interview, Young said he saw the series as The Rogues set in 1870 ( The Rogues , which he had produced, was about con men who swindled swindlers, much like
27360-509: Was never credited for his theme in any episode; it is believed that this was due to legal difficulties between CBS and Tiomkin over the rejection of the latter's work. Markowitz did receive "music composed and conducted by" credits for episodes he had scored (such as "The Night of the Bars of Hell" and "The Night of the Raven") or where he supplied the majority of tracked-in cues (such as "The Night of
27531-488: Was never on his motorcycle! That's one trick he couldn't pull on me. We always went in a car!" Because of morality clauses in studio contracts, along with practical marketing concerns, most homosexual actors during the 1950s and 1960s were forced to be discreet about their sexuality. However, Adams was known in Hollywood for embellishing and inventing stories about his show business experiences and long tried to capitalize on his associations with James Dean and Elvis Presley. In
27702-486: Was not perceived by casting directors as tall or handsome enough for leading roles, but during the late 1950s, Adams had supporting roles in several successful television productions, including one episode of Wanted Dead or Alive (1958) starring Steve McQueen , and films such as Our Miss Brooks (1956), No Time for Sergeants (1958), Teacher's Pet (1958), and Pillow Talk (1959). Adams initially may have met James Dean in December 1950 while jitterbugging for
27873-560: Was not sorry to see Young go: "I don't mind. All that guy did creatively was put the second 'wild' in the title. CBS did the right thing." Young's replacement, Fred Freiberger , returned the series to its original concept. It was on his watch that writer John Kneubuhl , inspired by a magazine article about Michael Dunn , created the arch-villain Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless . Phoebe Dorin, who played Loveless' assistant, Antoinette, recalled: "Michael Garrison came to see [our] nightclub act when he
28044-506: Was resolved and he returned to the executive producer role. Coon left after six episodes (22–27) to write First to Fight (1967), a Warner Bros. film about the Marines. Garrison produced the last episode of season 1 and the initial episodes of season 2. Garrison's return was much to the relief of Ross Martin, who once revealed that he was so disenchanted during the first season that he tried to quit three times. He explained that Garrison "saw
28215-476: Was stalling. He had high hopes his co-starring performance with Robert Conrad in Young Dillinger (1964) would be critically acclaimed, but the project had low production values, and both critics and audiences rejected the film. Also that year, Adams guest-starred in an episode of the short-lived CBS drama The Reporter . In 1965, after publicly insisting he would never work in films produced outside
28386-471: Was tapped for The Wild Wild West , Lansbury was working with his twin brother, Edgar , producing legitimate theater on Broadway. The first season's episodes were filmed in black and white and they were darker in tone. Cinematographer Ted Voightlander was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on one of these episodes, "The Night of the Howling Light". Subsequent seasons were filmed in color and
28557-400: Was temporarily changed from No. 22 to No. 8 so that footage of the train could be flopped horizontally without the number appearing reversed. Footage of the Inyo in motion and idling was shot around Menifee, California , and reused in virtually every episode. Stock footage of Sierra No. 3 occasionally resurfaced as well. These trains were used only for exterior shots. The luxurious interior of
28728-527: Was the butt of anti-gay humor in Pillow Talk ". Some writers later called Adams a "Hollywood hustler" or a "street hustler". One journalist also refers to Adams as a "pool hustler" who made money in pool halls when he was a teenager in New Jersey and later while struggling to make ends meet during his early years in Hollywood. It is uncertain whether James Dean and Adams met before his service in
28899-490: Was the final film in the "International Secret Police" Series, which began with the film "Key of Keys" Kokusai himitsu keisatsu: Kagi no kagi (国際秘密警察 鍵の鍵, International Secret Police: Key of Keys), which was the basis for the Woody Allen scripted spoof What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966). The English title for this final film was "The Killing Bottle", Toho shot the film in Japanese with Adams doing his lines in English as in
29070-515: Was the first Western television series written for adults, premiering four days before Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955. The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to Wyatt Earp : The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp , Bat Masterson , Tombstone Territory , Broken Arrow , Johnny Ringo , and Gunsmoke . Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in
29241-466: Was the real reason for the trip — " and "Right now, both Nick and Natalie are inclined to deny the whole Las Vegas episode." In his 2004 biography Natalie Wood: A Life biographer and screenwriter Gavin Lambert wrote in passing, Wood's "first studio-arranged date with a gay or bisexual actor had been with Nick Adams." In his biography of gay Hollywood agent Henry Willson , Robert Hofler deals with
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