qormi Okay, it's a tossup between Wanted Dead or Alive and The Rifleman. Both shows were no-nonsense westerns and featured very intense actors in the lead. Steve McQueen was just as good in this series as he was in all his subsequent big screen movies. He was a very gifted actor; a prodigy. McQueen had so may subtle, nonverbal nuances and when he delivered his lines, it was completely believable. Like Chuck Connors' Lucas McCain from The Rifleman, McQueen's Josh Randall was a strong, authentic character, although where McCain was an outgoing rancher, Randall was moody and aloof, as would befit a bounty hunter's character. Both men were quick to deal with the bad guys and showed little mercy. Both shows were consistently well-made, with high production values. Unlike many westerns of the genre, Wanted Dead or Alive and The Rifleman have stood the test of time. Too bad there's nothing like these shows on television now.

bkoganbing Wanted, Dead or Alive was a star vehicle in the truest sense of the term. It was a western calculated to exhibit the talent and charisma of its star, Steve McQueen. It lasted for three seasons before McQueen decided to devote full time to the big screen.McQueen was after some of the most dangerous fellows in the old west, plenty who could shoot a lot better than he. His character Josh Randall needed an equalizer.In John Wayne's classic western El Dorado, you remember that Duke discovers that James Caan can't hit the broad side of a mountain with a regular six shooter. Before going to El Dorado to aid Robert Mitchum, they stop off and see a gunsmith who fixes Caan up with a Josh Randall special. After that Caan's of considerable help to Wayne and Mitchum.Of course the sawed off shotgun was also an evil weapon in the wrong hands. Take note of the Dan Duryea western, The Bounty Killer, a very Freudian piece where Duryea becomes hated and feared as a bounty hunter until an innocent bystander gets shot with it.But with McQueen you knew the weapon was on the side of law and order. As for his Josh Randall character, you can see a bit of him in all the people Steve McQueen brought to the screen like Virgil Hilts, Nevada Smith, all the way to his last two films, Tom Horn and Pappa Thorsen.Wanted, Dead or Alive was most folks first exposure to a screen legend. I wish that westerns like that were made today.

Ralph Take my review with some grains of salt as I haven't watched the whole series yet (got the entire run from a collector and watching the first season now), and other than vague recollections from youthful viewings (not a good sign that I don't remember more), I'm sorry but I don't see much interest to keep watching "Wanted Dead Or Alive". To clarify my background since most other reviewers here have done theirs, I watch WDOA in the 70's and 80's in the odd repeat on syndicated TV channels, and I only remembered it had Steve McQueen and a cool gun, a sawed off Winchester. With that said, I also watched shows such as Have Gun Will Travel, Bonanza, and The Rifleman, two of which were 30 minute western dramas aired during the same years as WDOA. Unlike WDOA, I remembered a lot of details of those other shows, the reason being, character development. I don't blame McQueen, he was a starting actor, and his persona is clearly evident thankfully or else this would be totally forgettable. But other than the cool intro and ending credits that's all I remember from my youth of this show. 30 minute (really 23 minute when you take out the commercials) are tough to do, they require a really fast intro and usually need some heavy moral dilemma to make a memorable impact as good drama. HGWT and Rifleman did this very well, WDOA does have a little of this but the level of morality and injustice doesn't come close to those other two shows. Maybe its that or maybe its that Josh is a bounty hunter who isn't seen making a whole lot of money like Pallidan does, so the show looses realism. I don't know, I can't put my finger on it, but if the show's selling point is the gun, it looses that point to the other two shows as well, since in the few episodes I've watched recently, I'm really loosing interest, Josh uses the gun as a club more than a gun. Rifleman showed what a man could do with a rifle quick so the point of sawing it off seems really stupid, I'd just use a pistol and also a rifle. Palladin has a wicked creep when he's ready to draw, I do NOT want to mess with him in a draw! Anyway, if your looking for the best of the 30 minute westerns, I'd check out those other two shows first. I'm still a big McQueen fan, when his material is good.

clinteastwood3202 Wanted: Dead or Alive has always been my favourite TV western. I first watched it as a seven year old in the mid '60s, even then it was in reruns.Right from the start the show had the coolest lead-in ever with the camera focused squarely on Josh Randall's 'hogleg' as he slowly walks up to a wanted poster and rips it away from the board. There was something 'mighty' intriguing about the lone bounty hunter who brought in many more bad guys alive than dead. And then there was that sawed-off Winchester '86 and those large 45-70 caliber cartridges. I never did figure out how Josh could load so fast. It couldn't have taken more than three rounds in its magazine, but Josh could easily get off four or five rounds in rapid succession. What about Josh's horse? He/she seemed to prefer to walk sideways but could back up as well as Trigger. Great memories, no doubt. I've viewed countless westerns over the years and I am firmly convinced that absolutely no one but Steve McQueen could have played TV's purest bounty hunter. Todays version is colourized and I think that's fantastic. Even my kids will sit and watch from time to time.