History Trivia / TheWildWildWest

** Creator/{{CBS}} did ''not'' want the show's creator Michael Garrison to be overseeing the show because of how much the pilot had cost, which led to Garrison having a legal battle with the Eye throughout season one while the show went through ''seven'' producers - some of whom never even got to do one episode - before Garrison got control back. Eventually, Garrison did get in a producer to his liking (besides Fred Freiberger, under whose reign Loveless was created - in fact, the first episode to be shown after the pilot was a Freiberger-produced one) in the form of Bruce Lansbury... but CBS still got a Garrison-less show in the end, [[AuthorExistenceFailure though not in the manner anyone would have preferred]].

* AuthorExistenceFailure: The show's creator and producer/executive producer, Michael Garrison, died in an accident at his home during filming of the second season episode "The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse." Bruce Lansbury (younger brother of [[Creator/AngelaLansbury Angela]]), who was already on board as producer with Garrison above him, took over the reins from then on (although the series remained "A Michael Garrison Production[[note]]in association with the Creator/{{CBS}} Television Network[[/note]]" to the end).

** CBS planned to do more than just two post-series movies with yearly revivals of the show, but unfortunately, Ross Martin's earlier heart attack was a sign of declining cardiac health and he suffered another one in 1981 after the previous film, this one being fatal, after pushing his luck during a tennis match with the knowledge his heart could give out, which it did. This caused CBS to scupper the idea, and Robert Conrad had noted that while he liked doing the films he didn't like how many restrictions that CBS placed on everyone and that they didn't reach the level of quality seen in the original show.
** In 2010 CBS announced plans for a {{revival}} series, to be helmed by Ronald Moore (''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'') and Naren Shankar (''Series/{{CSI}}''), but it never made it out of DevelopmentHell.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: According to Robert Conrad, he and Ross Martin had this dynamic in real life and it greatly contributed to their on-screen chemistry.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Artemus Gordon's nickname is spelled "Arte" in various places, including the material accompanying the official [=DVDs=]. However, in "The Night of the Juggernaut" the character himself spells it "Artie."

* TheCastShowoff: Robert Conrad really (and often literally) threw himself into the fight scenes, so much so that he was prone to splitting his pants (something not always fixed in the editing room - see "[[Recap/TheWildWildWestS4E19TheNightOfThePistoleros The Night of the Pistoleros]]"). Ross Martin actually called his own role "a showoff's showcase."

* NoStuntDouble: Famously, Robert Conrad.

** An odd case in "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary." Ross Martin was injured while filming a fight sequence and a substitute was therefore used to play Artie in the immediately preceding dialogue scene. The new actor's face and voice are very prominently displayed in said scene (in fact, he's the image for the act-ending [[IdiosyncraticWipes freeze-frame/dissolve to drawing]]), making it obvious that he is ''not'' Ross Martin. Understandable confusion results for some in the viewing audience. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdbRn9cl0dk See 3:26 to 3:31 (in the lower right hand corner) of this compilation of the drawings for seasons three and four.]]

* {{Blooper}}: Robert Conrad fell from a chandelier and was nearly killed while filming "The Night of the Fugitives;" stuntman Red West was rather badly injured after going headfirst into a not-so-breakaway piano during "The Night of the Running Death;" Ross Martin stumbled over a prop gun and broke his leg in a fight sequence from "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary." At least some of the film from the first two accidents was retained in the final cut of their respective episodes.

** John Kneubuhl, one of the series' regular writers (in its first two seasons), wanted to write an episode specifically for Liberace to guest star in. Michael Garrison loved the idea - as did Liberace himself - but as Kneubuhl told Susan Kesler in her book about the series, "[[ExecutiveMeddling CBS killed the idea right then and there]]" (for reasons due to Garrison's homosexuality).

* ActorAllusion: At the end of "The Night of the Sabatini Death," Ned Brown, one of Artie's pinch hitters in the fourth season, mentions to Jim that on his vacation he's planning to fufill his dream: to spend time alone on a desert island. The actor was [[Series/GilligansIsland Alan Hale Jr.]]

* AwardCategoryFraud: Agnes Moorehead took home an Emmy as Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series for "The Night of the Vicious Valentine," although she was a guest star. Then again, the Emmys didn't have a category for guest performers until the mid-1980s.

** "[[Recap/TheWildWildWestS4E1TheNightOfTheBigBlackmail The Night of the Big Blackmail]]" was originally called "The Night of the Deadly Blades." Since the episode does indeed feature deadly blades (at the end of act 1 Grant tells our heroes that seven Secret Service agents have entered the (implied but never actually stated) German embassy for various reasons but none have come out; in act 3 Jim and Artie are nearly ground to a pulp by rolling blades) but does ''not'' involve any blackmail, the change seems an odd one to say the least.

* {{Defictionalization}}: The creators of the series were apparently probed by the CIA, both because some of the gadgets in the show struck so close to actual gadgets used in espionage and because the boys at Langley ''really'' liked some of the other gadgets that ''weren't'' being used in RealLife at the time.

** "[[Recap/TheWildWildWestS4E1TheNightOfTheBigBlackmail The Night of the Big Blackmail" was originally called "The Night of the Deadly Blades." Since the episode does indeed feature deadly blades (at the end of act 1 Grant tells our heroes that seven Secret Service agents have entered the (implied but never actually stated) German embassy for various reasons but none have come out; in act 3 Jim and Artie are nearly ground to a pulp by rolling blades) but does ''not'' involve any blackmail, the change seems an odd one to say the least.

** "The Night of the Big Blackmail" was originally called "The Night of the Deadly Blades." Since the episode does indeed feature deadly blades (at the end of act 1 Grant tells our heroes that seven Secret Service agents have entered the (implied but never actually stated) German embassy for various reasons but none have come out; in act 3 Jim and Artie are nearly ground to a pulp by rolling blades) but does ''not'' involve any blackmail, the change seems an odd one to say the least.

** Artemus Gordon's role in the show was originally intended to be TheEveryman; it was felt that a Franchise/JamesBond-type character in a continuing TV series wouldn't be relatable enough without some kind of audience surrogate. The surrogate could also be used to provide West with his supply of gadgets, killing two birds with one stone. However, as the series developed, so did Artie's character, and this particular trait went by the wayside.

* TheCastShowoff: Robert Conrad really (and often literally) threw himself into the fight scenes, so much so that he was prone to splitting his pants (something not always fixed in the editing room - see "The Night of the Pistoleros"). Ross Martin actually called his own role "a showoff's showcase."

** In 2010 CBS announced plans for a {{revival}} series, to be helmed by Ronald Moore (''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/Battlestar Galactica2003'') and Naren Shankar (''Series/{{CSI}}''), but it never made it out of DevelopmentHell.

** In 2010 CBS announced plans for a {{revival}} series, to be helmed by Ronald Moore (''Franchise/StarTrek'', ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'') and Naren Shankar (''Series/{{CSI}}''), but it never made it out of DevelopmentHell.

* CBS planned to do more than just two post-series movies with yearly revivals of the show, but unfortunately, Ross Martin's earlier heart attack was a sign of declining cardiac health and he suffered another one in 1981 after the previous film, this one being fatal, after pushing his luck during a tennis match with the knowledge his heart could give out, which it did. This caused CBS to scupper the idea, and Robert Conrad had noted that while he liked doing the films he didn't like how many restrictions that CBS placed on everyone and that they didn't reach the level of quality seen in the original show.

* CBS planned to do more than just two post-series movies with yearly revivals of the show, but unfortunately, Ross Martin's earlier heart attack was a sign of declining cardiac health and he suffered another one in 1981 after the previous film, this one being fatal, after pushing his luck during a tennis match with the knowledge his heart could give out, which it did. This caused CBS to scupper the idea, and Robert Conrad had noted that while he liked doing the films he didn't like how many restrictions that CBS placed on everyone and that they didn't reach the level of the original show.

* CBS planned to do more than just two post-series movies with yearly revivals of the show, but unfortunately, Ross Martin's earlier heart attack was a sign of declining cardiac health and he suffered another one in 1981 after the previous film, this one being fatal. This caused CBS to scupper the idea, and Robert Conrad had noted that while he liked doing the films he didn't like how many restrictions that CBS placed on everyone and that they didn't reach the level of the original show.

* TheEveryman: This was originally intended to be Artemus Gordon's role in the show; it was felt that a Franchise/JamesBond-type character in a continuing TV series wouldn't be relatable enough without some kind of audience surrogate. The surrogate could also be used to provide West with his supply of gadgets, killing two birds with one stone. However, as the series developed, so did Artie's character, and this particular trait went by the wayside.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: John Kneubuhl, one of the series' regular writers (in its first two seasons), wanted to write an episode specifically for Liberace to guest star in. Michael Garrison loved the idea - as did Liberace himself - but as Kneubuhl told Susan Kesler in her book about the series, "[[ExecutiveMeddling CBS killed the idea right then and there]]" (for reasons due to Garrison's homosexuality).

* HeyItsThatGuy:
** A large number of recognizable faces turn up in guest roles during the course of the series, often as the VillainOfTheWeek or the GirlOfTheWeek. Among those that appear are Michael Dunn, Richard Kiel, Victor Buono, Suzanne Pleshette, Robert Loggia, Jeff Corey, Creator/LeslieNielsen, Katherine Ross, Elisha Cook Jr., Martin Landau, Burgess Meredith, Creator/YvonneCraig, Richard Jaeckel... and that's just the first season.
** Messrs. Loggia, Corey and Jaeckel turn up in later seasons as well.
** Also, Jackie Coogan (''Series/TheAddamsFamily'''s Uncle Fester) is a cowardly sheriff and a hypnotised Mayor ("The Night of the Cut-Throats" and "The Night of the Winged Terror, Part 1" respectively).
** Yes, that's a young Creator/RichardPryor as one of Count Manzeppi's henchmen in "The Night of the Eccentrics."

** There's an in-universe example with Sammy Davis Jr.'s character in "The Night of the Returning Dead," who ostensibly speaks with a Barbados accent on his first appearance - except that, well... see Creator/RicardoMontalban above.

** All over the place, particularly Filipina actress Pilar Seurat as a very un-Chinese-looking Chinese princess in "The Night The Dragon Screamed," Paul Wallace doing an [[FakeBrit English accent]] that isn't even good enough to be called excruciating in "The Night of the Eccentrics" and Ricardo Montalban as a Confederate Army colonel in "The Night of the Lord of Limbo." (And this being Ricardo Montalban, [[NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent he doesn't even bother with an accent]].)
** There's an in-universe example with Sammy Davis Jr.'s character in "The Night of the Returning Dead," who ostensibly speaks with a Barbados accent on his first appearance - except that, well... see Ricardo Montalban above.

** Ross Martin was sadly never allowed to ''fully'' unleash his MasterOfDisguise skills, thanks to [[ViewersAreMorons worries about "confused" viewers]].

** A large number of recogizable faces turn up in guest roles during the course of the series, often as the VillainOfTheWeek or the GirlOfTheWeek. Among those that appear are Michael Dunn, Richard Kiel, Victor Buono, Suzanne Pleshette, Robert Loggia, Jeff Corey, Creator/LeslieNielsen, Katherine Ross, Elisha Cook Jr., Martin Landau, Burgess Meredith, Yvonne Craig, Richard Jaeckel... and that's just the first season.

* PlayingAgainstType: Creator/DonRickles as evil magician Asmodeus in "The Night of the Druid's Blood." No blustering or brash hurling of insults here.