death tribble Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 The Wild Wild West TV series is being repeated on the CBS Action channel in the UK. Now I never saw this at all growing up (3 TV channels until the start of the 1980s then a fourth and fifth followed by the satellite ones), so I had no reference at all for it until the Will Smith and Kevin Kline disaster of a film. The TV series on the other hand is really quite a joy and perfect for Pulp. Granted there are no aircraft but you have virtually everything else and it strikes me as a goldmine for taking ideas. Dr Loveless is a great recurring villain and his escapes fit the mood. One of the episodes just aired had a prototype tank, forty years before they were first employed. There are also a variety of death traps for the heroes to evade which are just as relevant to the 1870s steampunk as they can be to the 20s and 30s. The writers also made certain that a seeming disability such as blindness did not deter people from being effective villains. So I would encourage people to look it up and pillage it for ideas. Armory, SteelCold, Hyper-Man and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 Wild Wild West was a series? Who knew?! Guess it must have been poplier for Smith/Kline to go for the film franchise. Not sure it ever made it across the Pond to us, death tribble... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tjack Posted October 31, 2016 Report Share Posted October 31, 2016 I remember the show well. My mom had a crush on Ross Martin, so she never minded me watching it on reruns even though it was a little too old for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
csyphrett Posted November 1, 2016 Report Share Posted November 1, 2016 You can get the box set of all the seasons for fifty bucks at Wal-mart CES Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
st barbara Posted November 2, 2016 Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 I have the box set of "Wild Wild West' (the T V series) and it is fun. As far as I am concerned the movie version was an absolute travesty, done by people with no taste or appreciation of the source material that they were bastardising ! Doc Shadow, Lord Liaden, Tasha and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothere Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 So how Wild is too Wild. Tanks and torpedoes forty years early good, but time travel and diamond juice that makes you a superspeedster out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 I have the box set of "Wild Wild West' (the T V series) and it is fun. As far as I am concerned the movie version was an absolute travesty, done by people with no taste or appreciation of the source material that they were bastardising ! Watch the YouTube video of Kevin Smith talking about his Superman Script. He talks about WildWildWest and how Producers and Studio Execs sometimes turn something good into crap. Language is NSFW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 (edited) The Show was a genre mashup of the very popular Super Spy which was ruling TV at the time and of course Westerns which had always been popular. It was a very well done show with great characters and good writing. It would have stayed on the air longer, but IIRC Ross Martin (Artemus Gordon) had a heart attack and couldn't continue.It's great RPG fodder esp if the players are into the Wild West and are looking for something different than the regular Western Storylines. As an RPG it could be fun doing a mashup between this show and Mission Impossible(Tv Show over the Movies). Where the players are "Secret Service" agents who unravel plots put there by enemies of the US Government. Give it all a slight Steampunk veneer with some fantastic critters tossed in to keep it interesting. You have the Gun Fighter, the Disguise expert, Demolitions expert, Faceperson, Technician. etc. Keep the character types spy feeling, but give it a western spin/flavoring edited to Fix spelling on Artie's name. Edited November 8, 2016 by Tasha Cancer, Scott Baker and bubba smith 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 good idea bubba smith 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 I loved that show, growing up. I remember stating up James West and Artemus Gordon for Champions...2e, was it? Or maybe 3e. Anyway, back in the 80s. I don't have those character sheets any more, but I do remember that Artemus Gordon ended up costing more CP than Jim West did, and being surprised by that at the time. Anyway, it is a good show, particularly the B&W episodes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Baker Posted November 7, 2016 Report Share Posted November 7, 2016 The Show was a genre mashup of the very popular Super Spy which was ruling TV at the time and of course Westerns which had always been popular. It was a very well done show with great characters and good writing. It would have stayed on the air longer, but IIRC Ross Martin (Artemis Gordon) had a heart attack and couldn't continue. It's great RPG fodder esp if the players are into the Wild West and are looking for something different than the regular Western Storylines. As an RPG it could be fun doing a mashup between this show and Mission Impossible(Tv Show over the Movies). Where the players are "Secret Service" agents who unravel plots put there by enemies of the US Government. Give it all a slight Steampunk veneer with some fantastic critters tossed in to keep it interesting. You have the Gun Fighter, the Disguise expert, Demolitions expert, Faceperson, Technician. etc. Keep the character types spy feeling, but give it a western spin/flavoring Ross Martin did have a heart attack and missed some episodes in the 4th season, but the cancellation was due to the violence. If anyone wants the basic overview, Wikipedia seems to have it covered with nothing glaringly wrong at a glance; no need to search and try tp piece everything together yourself unless you really want to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 I loved that show, growing up. I remember stating up James West and Artemis Gordon for Champions...2e, was it? Or maybe 3e. Anyway, back in the 80s. I don't have those character sheets any more, but I do remember that Artemis Gordon ended up costing more CP than Jim West did, and being surprised by that at the time. Anyway, it is a good show, particularly the B&W episodes. Without standing up and going to look, I am pretty sure that both characters were Stated out in Western Hero. Probably renamed to prevent lawsuits. Scott Baker and Joe Walsh 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 Without standing up and going to look, I am pretty sure that both characters were Stated out in Western Hero. Probably renamed to prevent lawsuits. Interesting! I'll have to pull that off the shelf and take a look sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrito Boy Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 I hate to be "that guy" but...it's Artemus, not Artemis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Walsh Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 I hate to be "that guy" but...it's Artemus, not Artemis. Eh, just call him Arty. Or is it Arte? Burrito Boy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burrito Boy Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 It's Artie. Jeez! Joe Walsh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tasha Posted November 8, 2016 Report Share Posted November 8, 2016 I hate to be "that guy" but...it's Artemus, not Artemis. Fixed in my post. I should have known better. I did get spelled Artie right. persnick away! Burrito Boy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted November 9, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2016 The cancellation of the series was a concession to Congress about violence. It seems odd but it is true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Shadow Posted November 9, 2016 Report Share Posted November 9, 2016 Some watchdog group went and compiled a list of all the violent acts in each series. It turned out that WWW had a lot. The acts weren't that violent, mostly punches the show had a lot of fist fights, but they were high in number. But let's be honest, it was an action series. You can't have an action series without action. Tasha and bubba smith 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted November 9, 2016 Report Share Posted November 9, 2016 that Some watchdog group went and compiled a list of all the violent acts in each series. It turned out that WWW had a lot. The acts weren't that violent, mostly punches the show had a lot of fist fights, but they were high in number. But let's be honest, it was an action series. You can't have an action series without action. that you can't Tasha 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba smith Posted November 15, 2016 Report Share Posted November 15, 2016 it is also on netflix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrcreedon99 Posted September 24, 2017 Report Share Posted September 24, 2017 I have thought of running a game of steampunk feeling by allowing the characters to use technology above their time as long as it was considered fragile to point of blowing up risk. The players know they can't have it since if they have it, the bad guys can have a lot more of them. Use it as an invention that can't be recreated or maintained since the knowledge is lost. i.e. inventor killed, major part destroyed or fuel lost. If you run it right, WWW is great source material. I just hated when Will Smith went on Oprah and said nothing like this was ever done before. The movie was pure steampunk and all the ideas were copies of stuff I had seen before. I am an old dude, and remember the series on TV and steampunk origins. (It was the Differential Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, not a fashion movement). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrinku Posted September 28, 2017 Report Share Posted September 28, 2017 Difference Engine (1990) was an important book in the popularisation of the genre, but not the start of it by any stretch of the imagination. GDW published Space:1889 in 1988, and that did a lot to popularise the retro-SF genre among the geek community, or at the very least to get us to look up our old copies of Verne and Wells. That's probably my own tipping point. When I read Difference Engine my main thought was "Huh. Gibson's jumping on this bandwagon, now, eh?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted October 1, 2017 Report Share Posted October 1, 2017 Grew up watching Wild Wild West. And other shows like The Invaders, The Fugitive, The Saint, Man fron Uncle and so on. There were a lot of great series in the spy or scifi action arena too. Though Wild Wild West does occupy unique niche. Armory 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starblaze Posted October 5, 2017 Report Share Posted October 5, 2017 Ross Martin did have a heart attack and missed some episodes in the 4th season, but the cancellation was due to the violence. If anyone wants the basic overview, Wikipedia seems to have it covered with nothing glaringly wrong at a glance; no need to search and try tp piece everything together yourself unless you really want to. Robert Conrad himself said that it was just as well that the show got cancelled because someone was likely to end up dead eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.