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.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 17 - Drop to Drink
Thieves are lying in wait to ambush mail carriers and eventually Josh is hired to help insure that the mail will get through. The thieves have news about a $20,000 Diamond Ring that is being delivered which they are waiting for. The trail is through desert country with no water for miles.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 18 - Rope Law
Josh and Brace Logan are met on the range by a group of men who want Logan, Josh's prisoner. When he refuses, he's hit from behind and loses Logan. When he gets to town to file a complaint he is surprised to find the sheriff was the leader of the men and his son was the one who hit him. Josh takes an interest in the case now and is determined to find the truth...especially since the sheriff's son wants to organize a lynching.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 1 Episode 19 - Six-Up to Bannach
Josh needs a ride to Brannach fast in order to stop an unjust hanging. The only mode of transportation available is a coach carrying a load of dynamite with a surly driver who doesn't take well to Josh. He reluctantly agrees to allow Josh and his prisoner to travel with them. There are a number of obstacles on the way to slow them down...a river to pass, a washed out bridge and a prisoner who doesn't want to cooperate.
Jason brings in "Doc" Phillips hoping he can lure Clell Fanning out as he has an old score to settle with Clell. He is shot by one of Clell's henchman and he must rely on the deputy, Nichols, who takes over after the Sheriff is killed.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 2 Episode 22 - The Partners Josh is arrested on a bogus horse-stealing charge. Jason shows up to get him out of jail and together they kill 3 brothers wanting revenge against Josh for killing their brother.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 2 Episode 23 - Tolliver Bender
To net a thousand-dollar reward, Josh saves Tolliver Bend from a hanging so he can testify in a nearby trial. Double-crosses are immediately hatched by those who want Tolliver dead and by those who want the money.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 2 Episode 15 - Chain Gang
Josh is captured by a corrupt deputy and is forced by the sheriff to work on a chain gang. With the help of other members of the chain gang, Josh brings the culprits to western justice.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 2 Episode 16 - Vanishing Act
Randall is tracking a magician who, along with two other guys, robs banks. When Randall catches him, he turns him over to the sheriff, but the man escapes. So Randall tracks him down and is shot but keeps the man and his daughter at bay. Later the accomplices show up, demanding that they're going to do things their way from now on.
Wanted Dead or Alive Season 2 Episode 27 - The Pariah
Randall learns "hate comes high" in a town whose people have hired a trio of killers to murder their fellow resident Randy Holleran, a sniveling drunkard whom Josh has promised to protect.
