MovieChat Forums > The Wild Wild West (1965) Discussion > Episodes without Ross Martin: bad

Episodes without Ross Martin: bad

posted 12 years ago by gavbrown01
26 replies | jump to latest

So I bought the whole series from Amazon. Now watching season 4, the eps currently on have various actors who were subbed in for Ross Martin, who played Artemus Gordon and who had a heart attack and so was off the series for a while. I must say, these eps really are bad. Conrad and the various actors they brought in seem to have no chemistry, the show lacks any humor at all (a strength of the eps with Ross Martin was the comedic chemistry between him and Conrad). Conrad also seems to be getting tired of the series, he doesn't give it quite so much as he used to. The writing also seems to be not as good, just watched the "Raven" ep and thought it was terrible. Wonder if the show will recover when Artie comes back.

[–] alpha128 12 years ago

the show lacks any humor at all... just watched the "Raven" ep and thought it was terrible.- gavbrown01

Don't worry, you're almost to the episode where the cast of Gilligan's Island shows up. No, I'm not kidding...

[–] gavbrown01 12 years ago

Nooooooooooooooooo....

[–] a_l_i_e_n 12 years ago

the show lacks any humor at all (a strength of the eps with Ross Martin was the comedic chemistry between him and Conrad).

Yeah, Pike was not as funny in disguise as Gordon. Charles Aidman even admitted he wasn't going for laughs the way Ross Martin would. I do, however, enjoy most of the Artie-less episodes; particularly "Night Of Bleak Island". Conrad seemed to have particularly good chemistry with guest partner John William.

On a whole, the fourth season is my favourite (seems like I'm the only one feels that way, too) as I really found the parade of guest partners in Artie's absence quite interesting. Some good (the aforementioned John Williams); some bad (Alan Hale Jr. displaying the exact same moves in this rare chance for him to play a hero as he brought to playing the Skipper on "Gilligan's Island"). Ross Martin was clearly a very capable and funny actor, but I must admit I wasn't always crazy about his portrayal of Artemus. And I think they demonstrated that they could carry on fairly successfully without him. The West character really seemed to be the heart of the series. Having said that, though, I still would've liked them to have attempted another episode like "The Night Of The Big Blast" where Artie got to be the focus of the story- atleast until the the end of Act 3. Anyways, I think they produced some superior entries like "The Night Of The Kraken", "The Night Of Miguelito's Revenge" and "The Night Of The Big Blackmail", and the composers came up with some exceptionally good music for this, the show's final season.

[–] NBVautrain 12 years ago

To me, it's not "The Wild Wild West" without Artemus Gordon.

A shining rewards a small journey backwards in time brings.

[–] gavbrown01 12 years ago

I agree

[–] alpha128 12 years ago

Yeah, Pike was not as funny in disguise as Gordon. Charles Aidman even admitted he wasn't going for laughs the way Ross Martin would. I do, however, enjoy most of the Artie-less episodes; particularly "Night Of Bleak Island". Conrad seemed to have a good chemistry with guest partner John William. -
a_l_i_e_n

I agree with you. Nobody liked that Artie was gone, but all things considered the creators did good job carrying on without him.

Charles Aidman did a fine job in the utterly thankless role of Jeremy Pike.

As you mention, "Night Of Bleak Island" was a great episode, essentially a retelling of "The Hound Of The Baskervilles". And the "guest agent of the week" format allowed for plot points like Jim's friend, Sir Nigel Scott of Scotland Yard, was actually the villain!

[–] DrGlitterhouse 11 years ago

I would argue that "Night of the Falcon" and "Night of the Iron Fist" were nearly as Artemus-centric as "Night of the Big Blast." And do you notice how in the Henry Sharp-scripted Dr. Loveless episodes, Artemus is the one who foils Loveless' plans?
"He IS Redstone."

[–] Gialmere 11 years ago

I enjoyed "Pelican" too. But did you happen to notice that it is essentially a remake of Season 2's "The Night of the Deadly Blossom"?

Yeah, but "Pelican" had a puppet show. Top that "Blossom". Hmph.

[–] alpha128 11 years ago

I enjoyed "Pelican" too. But did you happen to notice that it is essentially a remake of Season 2's "The Night of the Deadly Blossom"? - alpha128 (me)

Yeah, but "Pelican" had a puppet show. Top that "Blossom". Hmph. - Gialmere

So "TNOT Pelican" is a remake of Season 2's "TNOT Deadly Blossom" and Season 1's "TNOT Puppeteer"!

[–] Gialmere 11 years ago

Ahh, but it was a Chinese puppet show.

[–] alpha128 11 years ago

Ahh, but it was a Chinese puppet show. - Gialmere

True enough!

[–] alpha128 12 years ago

I enjoyed The Night of the Pelican. - newdickmorris

I enjoyed "Pelican" too. But did you happen to notice that it is essentially a remake of Season 2's "The Night of the Deadly Blossom"?

From Susan Kesler's book:

"Blossom": Gordon makes use of a stevedore's permit he found as a clue, by going to the docks to investigate. In his search he discovers a crate of rockets, and stows away inside one, as it is shipped off to Barclay's secret launching site.

"Pelican": Pike disguised as a stevedore, gets into the docks, finds a crate of rockets, and stows away in one of the crates heading for Alcatraz.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] alpha128 12 years ago

I wonder how much time the writers had to react to Martin's absence. How many of the plots were original, and how many were just reworked West and Artie scripts? - newdickmorris

Susan Kesler's book presents this relevant quote from Charles "Pike" Aidman:

They said that if I'd do it, they would rewrite everything. There was only one thing they rewrote and it was only on the first script. That was the character's name. That was it. I didn't realize it because I saw the script come to me; the changes came to me. It all had Jeremy Pike by the time I got the second script. You're to be called Jeremy Pike, but it's Artemus Gordon, so it had already been written. They didn't change anything.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] alpha128 11 years ago

Very interesting. I wonder if EVERY Artie-less episode was a reworked script, of if at some point they started doing doing serious rewrites/original scripts? The Night of the Sabatini Death for instance. Or The Night of the Bleak Island. - newdickmorris

From what I've gathered, the early Artie-less scripts were standard TWWW scripts with "Artemus Gordon" scratched out and replaced with "Jeremy Pike".

Also from Susan Kesler's book:

Two scripts had been written with the Artemus Gordon character in mind. CBS didn't want to create another character, and didn't want to change the show because they kept hoping that Ross would return. "By this time Bruce (Lansbury) had things fairly organized and the scripts had been decided upon, so they just found an actor who could play what Ross played. Besides, having a 'guest peddler' was hard to write for. This way they didn't have to change any scripts," Aidman said.

However, later on CBS made a conscious decision to switch to a "guest agent of the week" format. Those scripts were probably original stories or heavily rewritten. It's hard to imagine that "TNOT Bleak Island" script was ever intended to include Artie.

[–] a_l_i_e_n 12 years ago

I thought that the first part of TNOT Winged Terror was excellent.

I agree. "The Night Of The Winged Terror" (the show's only two part episode) is a solid entry. Great music, too.

My favorite sub was William Schallert. he was great.

Tall, thin and slightly over-the-hill William Schallert is, indeed, surprisingly good cast against type as a secret agent. I think they should've scrapped the Jeremy Pike character and just made Frank Harper Artie's replacement. That way we'd have more William Schallert episodes to enjoy.

[–] deana_lisi 11 years ago

I can't watch the episodes without Ross Martin. He was the heart of the show...the star with the most personality. Did you all know that Artemus Gordon was voted 'Best Dressed TV Character' when the show aired? Awesome.

[–] a_l_i_e_n 11 years ago

Artemus Gordon was voted 'Best Dressed TV Character' when the show aired.

I never heard that. I guess it was in part because of all the cool diguises he wore. Neat.

[–] deana_lisi 11 years ago

I think it was more the suits that Artie wore. I liked his better than Jim's. Jim's were too colorful and sometimes looked goofy!

Here's an example of one of Artie's beautiful suits. For those of you who don't know, Artie is the one standing on the right:

http://www.writeups.org/img/inset/Artemus_Gordon_original_h1.jpg

[–] a_l_i_e_n 11 years ago

I think it was more the suits that Artie wore. I liked his better than Jim's. Jim's were too colorful and sometimes looked goofy!

Jim's second season powder blue matador outfit was certainly a ridiculous thing for a spy to be wearing.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] deana_lisi 11 years ago

ROTFL that's the exact suit that I was thinking of! The color didn't match him at all, his skin was too tanned!

[–] a_l_i_e_n 11 years ago

ROTFL that's the exact suit that I was thinking of! The color didn't match him at all, his skin was too tanned!

Oh, yes! Nobody had a better tan than Robert Conrad.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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