Steve Mcqueen ( Josh Randall ) is a Civil War veteran with a sawed-off rifle as a holstered weapon makes a living as a bounty hunter in the Wild West of the 1870s. TV western series that launched Steve McQueen's movie stardom holds up well even after 50 years. Guest stars among the best on TV at the time and the story lines are varied enough to keep your interest and different enough from competing series to stand out.
McQueen's character of Josh Randall is a Confederate veteran and bounty hunter with a soft heart. He often donates his earnings to the needy and helps his prisoners if they have been wrongly accused. Randall carries a shortened Winchester Model 1892 carbine, called the "Mare's Leg," in a holster patterned after "gunslinger" rigs then popular in movies and television. Randall had the ability to draw and fire this gun with blazing speed, as fast as, or in many cases much faster than, his adversaries with handguns that were much smaller. Two Mare's Legs were used in the series, differing in the shape of the lever, round versus oval.
For several episodes in 1960 Randall had a sidekick named Jason Nichols (Wright King) a former deputy sheriff turned bounty hunter. They worked very well together onscreen, sharing a brotherly chemistry audiences enjoyed. By the start of the third season, Nichols was no longer anywhere to be seen. The episode called, "The Partners", where Nichols killed three men, much to the chagrin of Randall who felt the men could have been taken alive, has been speculated to be the episode that broke up the partnership, but was actually only the second episode where Wright King was shown and far from the last episode in which he appeared.
Wanted Dead or Alive -Sponsors pilot
Watch Steve McQueen try to sell you on the series at the end.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 02 - Fatal Memory
When phony wanted posters put a price on the head of a retired Confederate officer, Colonel Sykes summons Josh Randall to help keep the bounty hunters at bay while also uncovering the person behind the bogus posters.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 03 - The Bounty
A reclusive old man with an Apache bodyguard is wanted for a crime committed long ago. Randall tags along with an overeager bounty hunter to ensure the man is brought back alive.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 04 - Dead End
A rancher hires Randall to bring back a line rider charged with grand theft. The accused man's father accompanies Randall on the trek to the remote shack where the thief is thought to be hiding.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 05 - Passing of Shawnee Bill
Randall is rooked into advancing half the bounty to a man who promises to lead him to the wanted criminal Shawnee Bill, but Bill is closer than Randall thinks and he's not even the only bounty hunter on his trail.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 06 - The Giveaway Gun
A banker with a consuming thirst for vengeance hires Randall to track down the man he believes responsible for his son's death. The man Randall seeks can be identified by his distinctive gun draw.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 07 - Ransom for a Nun
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Full Episode 1x07 - A banker with a consuming thirst for vengeance hires Randall to track down the man he believes responsible for his son's death. The man Randall seeks can be identified by his distinctive gun draw.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 08 - Miracle at Pot Hole
Randall brings a suspected murderer to Pot Hole, but fears the man won't receive a fair trial when he finds the townspeople in the grip of a power-mad bully who serves as the hanging judge over a kangaroo court.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 09 - The Fourth Headstone
When Josh escorts a beautiful woman to a trial that could see her hang for killing her husband, her lover, and a foreman, she uses all her seductive charm on him.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 10 - Til Death Do Us Part
A woman on the lam for murdering her abusive husband seeks the help of her friend Josh Randall, who is willing to investigate her belief that her husband is still alive and responsible for the wanted posters that have made her a lucrative target for bounty hunters.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 11 - The Favor
Owing a favor to a sheriff, Josh agrees against better judgment to go to the lawless town of Bent Horn to bring back a man wanted for bank robbery and murder.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 12 - Ricochet
Josh sets out to help a heartbroken wife locate her missing husband, but his mission of mercy meets with a resistant and tight-lipped townspeople. The mission becomes desperate when Josh discovers another man is also seeking the missing husband, but with murder in mind.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 15 - Rawhide Breed
Following an Indian attack on their stagecoach, Randall and an eastern gentleman unaccustomed to the ways of the West must trek to safety across many long, hot miles of hostile Apache territory.
