Almost 50 years later and still today; these are the best choreographed fistfights ever. Very competently done and of course Conrad did about 99% of them. A physically gifted actor. Though diminutive, with his speed, grace and power made you easily believe he could take on six guys at once.
Still in my top 5 all time best series.
Yes, Conrad very often came close to serious injury on this show. In "The Night Of The Poisonous Posey" you can see a horse stomp over his ankle; he clearly bangs himself hard going through a window with a bad guy in tow in "The Night of The Cossacks"; drops himself from the top of a veranda in "The Night Of The Falcon" and looks rather like he's hurt himself judging by the way he walks to his horse. Oh, and the classic on camera injury occurs in, I think, "The Night Of The Fugitive" when he falls from a chandelier and bangs his head on the floor below. That goofed-up stunt shut production down for a while and it's just cringing to watch. Conrad certainly suffered for his art.
A physically gifted actor. Though diminutive, with his speed, grace and power made you easily believe he could take on six guys at once.
"Yes, Conrad very often came close to serious injury on this show. In "The Night Of The Poisonous Posey" you can see a horse stomp over his ankle."
I thought I might be the only person that spotted this one. He clearly almost gets stomped big time. So much for, "Come on out, let's celebrate."
A shining rewards a small journey backwards in time brings.
I thought I might be the only person that spotted this one. He clearly almost gets stomped big time. So much for, "Come on out, let's celebrate."
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Knowing Conrad's reputation, I'd bet it was him. During the filming of one scene he's said to have prevented a stuntman who was ready to perform a stunt because he (against the producers' wishes) decided to do it himself. Literally hijacked the gag.
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Conrad has said (while alive) that he preferred playing Pappy Boyington and no doubt had to do with the role being less physically demanding. Sure he got to throw punches most weeks on Baa Baa Black Sheep but on average was far less demanding in terms of wear and tear.
share"Night Of The Big Blackmail" has one of the best fights of the series as West subdues a bunch of sweaty guys in a boiler room that is the source of power for a vault door they need opened. Excellent choreography as he knocks the entire room out cold, and it's Conrad (no stunt double) doing it all in one continuous shot; like to know how many takes it took before they got it right. Also cool: he must keep his hand on a dead man switch in order for the door to remain open which isn't easy when the guys he just knocked out keep coming to. Great sequence in one of the best episodes of the underrated fourth season.
shareI think the best fight came in the 1rst season episode with Mark Richman ad Kung Fu master. West fights a dozen guys as he's trying to escape using his martial arts skills to full advantage. He also has a short but memorable fight with Rickman at the end.
shareI think the best fight came in the 1rst season episode with Mark Richman ad Kung Fu master. West fights a dozen guys as he's trying to escape using his martial arts skills to full advantage. He also has a short but memorable fight with Rickman at the end.
That is true. A year before Bruce Lee did this thing on The Green Hornet James West was karate kicking people all over the place!!!
shareEven in the Columbo episode he was in you could tell he was quite the athlete in real life.
shareEven in the Columbo episode he was in you could tell he was quite the athlete in real life.
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Though his build was smaller and less overdone, Robert Conrad was perhaps a forerunner of Arnold Schwarzenegger and, perhaps more closely, Sly Stallone: the Muscle Man hero.
I've often felt that when the Columbo script was written for "gym franchise owner and musclebound physical fitness nut Milo Janus," the ONLY TV actor who could play the part HAD to be Robert Conrad. They were lucky to get the right guy(Conrad had to agree to play a villain for once, a murderer). Fellow TV spy Robert Vaughn(The Man From UNCLE) played a Columbo villain, but he didn't particularly have a muscleman build; Conrad could play his villain with his shirt off a lot.
I sometimes wondered who might have played ftiness fanatic Milo Janus if Robert Conrad said "no" and the only guess I could make was Chad Everett from Medical Center, which was weird, because he wasn't a muscle man, but he was rather fit and athletic. Thinking it over now, maybe Lee Majors could have done the part, but he was a series star at the time, not likely to play a killer.
Schwarzenegger was around in 1974, but not very famous.
Anybody else?
Nice! That’s awesome!
shareYes, and it almost cost him his life. The chandelier drop landed him on his head, and unconscious for a day or so.
shareI recently saw an episode of "Bonanza" from the early '60s in which Michael Landon and Dean Jones had a fist fight that was spectacularly choreographed and executed, mostly by the actors themselves. It was far above any of the poorly staged fights usually seen in television shows, and even most of those in theatrical films. Perhaps the guy who put it on was the same guy who did the fights on "Wild, Wild West".
shareI recently saw an episode of "Bonanza" from the early '60s in which Michael Landon and Dean Jones had a fist fight that was spectacularly choreographed and executed, mostly by the actors themselves
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Dean Jones? DEAN JONES? Disney's go-to pleasant faced, pleasant voiced sitcom movie hero of the 60's?
THAT, I'd like to see.
On the other hand Dean Jones turned out to be the killer in the whodunit pilot for "Burke's Law." Except hero millionair police detective Amos Burke was played by Dick Powell. Gene Barry took over the role for series after Powell(also the producer of the pilot) died. After Powell's death, the production company became that of Aaron Spelling -- the rest is history.
I knew a short guy like James West. When it came to the martial arts he was a superman!!!
shareThere is a 1996 book called "Inside the Wild Wild West," written by a man named Richard (Dick) Cangey. Not "Cagney." Cangey.
He was one of Conrad's hand-picked "stunt man crew" for all seasons of The Wild Wild West after Season One. The book is a "vanity publication" and I would suppose out of print and hard to find today. But it is worth seeking out. It is really "up close and personal" (and endearingly "unartful" in the writing) on how it was to work for and with "Bob Conrad" on The Wild Wild West.
Conrad was loyal to his stunt crew, and they were loyal to him. At one point, CBS demanded that Conrad fire the four stunt guys "because you see the same henchmen get beat up by Conrad every week." Conrad moved to have the stuntmen wear hoods for the fights, until an exec came on set and named every stuntman by name even with their hoods on. Still, Conrad stuck by them and kept them hired to the end.
Conrad did more for Dick Cangey -- and there are photos and posters in the book to prove it. In the summer between filming seasons, "Conrad and Cangey" would tour the rodeo and Western parade circuit and stage fights and horse falls together. When they went to Cangey's home town of Mahoningtown, Pennsylvania, Conrad let the poster say: "Richard Cangey star of The Wild Wild West returns to Mahoningtown, with Robert Conrad."
The book details Conrad and his "gang" as tough guys, with bar fights in local studio Valley bars , Conrad walking out naked one night from one of them, and other raucous details of how a show with tough fight scenes was made by tough men.
Cangey's book is a fun read of a different era. All gone.