alternate opening --in same ep. as Mary T. Moore and dir. Richard Donner

This is The magic, secret, elusive gem of an episode! I'm guessing it's stored on a different media (and somewhere else in the network's library) than the other 93 episodes because it's never aired when they broadcast the series in sequence. LoneStar only aired it once (Sept. '07) when they had ended the run and were about to start it from the beginning again, but they aired a couple episodes they'd skipped, including this one. Then they skipped it again in the next run-thru (as they had in all the run-thrus previous).

The only other episodes that have never been aired (to my knowledge) are from Season 2: "The Tyrant", ep. #9, and "A House Divided", #24.

but anyway, this Gem Episode is from Season 3, #5, "The Twain Shall Meet" (which, at first, i was hoping was about Josh running into Mark Twain! which totally coulda & shoulda happened!)
but this episode has an alternate opening to the show.

instead of Steve walking down the sidewalk and pulling the Wanted poster off the wall (like in every episode)
after the 2-minute intro scene, the screen goes black.
you think you've lost your TV signal.
a few seconds later you hear & see 3 flashes of a gun going off with the figure of the man firing the gun briefly illuminated by the blasts. [then the "Wanted" title flashes up on screen] then Steve appears out of the black, into a close-up of the gun going into the holster, then Steve looking menicingly around as a big "starring Steve McQueen" flashes in front of him.

has anybody else ever seen this anywhere before?

this same episode was also colorized by a different company than usual -- "Color Conversion" -- but how & why could this affect the opening?

and this also probably isn't connected, but this was the first episode directed by Richard Donner, who then went on to direct 4 of the other best episodes in the 3rd season, then did a bunch of Twilight Zones, a TON of other TV, then major movies like Maverick, Superman, all 4 Lethal Weapons, The Omen, Ladyhawke, Conspiracy Theory, The Goonies and others.

and this episode also features a pre-"Dick van Dyke" Mary Tyler Moore doing this one 3-minute scene (and it's a classic!) -- playing a gushing Blanche DuBois barmaid trying to win over a visiting journalist with tall tales.

and just SO many things seem different about this episode -- the music, the costumes, the tone, the subject, the quality (depth, twists) of the script, the "rolling stone gathers no moss" quote in 1960, the use of mirrors, camera angles, McQueen with his shirt open for a third of the show (for no particular reason), the comedic overacting of the bad guy, the irony and humor of the journalist character... and even the title, "The Twain Shall Meet", which doesn't have any clear meaning in the script, yet features a lead guest character who's a charismatic traveling New England writer ... ?
but more a Tom Wolfe dandy (years before there was a Tom Wolfe dandy!) than a Twain-like adventurer.

it's just bizarre.

if this is indeed the only time the alternate opening was used, plus all the other stuff above, it makes this the most unusual and unique episode in the 94-show series.