History Series / TheWildWildWest

* KarmaHoudini: Rosa Montebello in "The Night of the Diva," who treats Artie like dirt and is generally so unpleasant that the episode's ''actual'' villain [[spoiler: - an {{Expy}} of ThePhantomOfTheOpera intent on kidnapping her to go with two other opera singers (s)he's abducted - ]] turns out to be far more sympathetic. She never gets her comeuppance.

* CompleteMonster: Loveless. [[spoiler: Evidence: he and his ladyfriend Antoinette in "The Night of the Murderous Spring," happily singing to each other in a hospital while in the next room the entire staff, having been drugged by Loveless, ''are busy slaughtering each other''. And he did it ''JUST TO MAKE A POINT TO JIM AND ARTIE.'']]

* BrainInAJar: The villains in "The Night of the Druid's Blood" have several of them.

A light-hearted 1960's TV series which combined two then-popular genres: TheWestern and the SpyDrama, following the anachronistic adventures of two Secret Service agents roaming the western United States during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. James West (Robert Conrad) was a borderline [[TheAce Ace]], the ladykilling man of action, while his partner Artemus Gordon (Ross Martin) was a GadgeteerGenius and MasterOfDisguise. (Based on his work in this series, Martin the actor easily qualifies as a ''RealLife'' example of the latter.) The duo battled a wild assortment of [[MadScientist mad scientists]] and criminal masterminds, their most persistent foe being the evil-genius dwarf Dr. Miguelito Loveless (Michael Dunn). Depending on how exacting a person's definition of "SteamPunk" is, this series could be said to be the highest-profile example of the genre ever to appear on American live-action TV.

* HoYay

* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe ("The Night of the Flying Pie Plate")

* IncredibleShrinkingMan ("The Night of the Raven")

* TheMole: Sir Nigel Scott in ""The Night of the Bleak Island".
** Also [[spoiler: Silas Grigsby]] in The Night of the Bubbling Death".

* LatexPerfection ("The Night of the Braine")

* ManchurianAgent: ("The Night of the Howling Light")

* SuperDickery: ("The Night of the Turncoat" and "The Night of the Skulls")
* SuperSpeed ("The Night of the Burning Diamond")

* TenLittleMurderVictims ("The Night of the Tottering Tontine", "The Night of the Bleak Island")

* TimeStandsStill ("The Night of the Burning Diamond")

* ExecutiveMeddling: The show was canceled due to content, not because of declining ratings. (At the end of TheSixties, {{CBS}} executives got nervous about fictional violence after all the RealLife violence of that decade.) Also, Ross Martin was sadly never allowed to ''fully'' unleash his Master Of Disguise skills, thanks to [[ViewersAreMorons worries about "confused" viewers]].

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Ross Martin's health problems forced him to sit out a few episodes, which led to the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute played by Charles Aidman. It also affected at least one episode Martin ''did'' appear in; when he broke his leg while filming the climax of "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary"[[hottip:*:which necessitated a stand-in to complete the scene - who unfortunately looked ''nothing'' like him]] the opening of the next episode to be filmed, "The Night of the Juggernaut," was rewritten so that Artie broke his leg when the machine attacked our heroes. (Incidentally, "The Night of the Juggernaut" aired ''before'' "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary.")

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Try and not feel creeped out about your house after a viewing of "The Night of [[HauntedHouse the Man-eating House]]".

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Ross Martin's health problems forced him to sit out a few episodes, which led to the SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute played by Charles Aidman. It also affected at least one episode Martin ''did'' appear in; when he broke his leg while filming the climax of "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary"[[hottip*:which necessitated a stand-in to complete the scene - who unfortunately looked ''nothing'' like him]] the opening of the next episode to be filmed, "The Night of the Juggernaut," was rewritten so that Artie broke his leg when the machine attacked our heroes. (Incidentally, "The Night of the Juggernaut" aired ''before'' "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary.")

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Ross Martin's health problems forced him to sit out a few episodes, which led to...

* RomanticRunnerUp: Artemus Gordon, despite saving the day or having an equal part in saving the day as Jim, rarely gets the girl. Many episodes, especially in the first season, end with him looking on forlornly as Jim kisses the DamselInDistress GirlOfTheWeek.
** This was only really true in the first season (although even then there were exceptions - both Jim and Artie get lucky in "The Night of the Torture Chamber" and "The Night of the Glowing Corpse," and "The Night of Sudden Death" is a rare example where ''Jim'' is the RomanticRunnerUp as Artie literally walks away with '''two''' ladies!). From season two onwards neither agent was lacking in female companionship.

* ItDoesExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Some episodes have somewhat misleading titles (like "The Night of the Druid's Blood") but a lot don't, most notably "The Night of the Grand Emir" [[spoiler: (which does indeed take place all in one night)]].

* StuntDouble: Not for Conrad so much as his opponents - see "The Night of Sudden Death" and "The Night The Dragon Screamed" for particularly obvious examples.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Done a couple of times with Artie promoting a modern invention, only to be shot down by Jim.

* IdiosyncraticWipes: The last shot of every act was freeze-framed into either a textured picture (season 1), a tinted still (early season 2) or a drawing (from mid-season 2) that took its place among the series's title design. This led to some painfully obvious posed shots (such as act 1 of "The Night of the Torture Chamber") and a tendency to advertise the upcoming freezeframes by a rapid zoom in (see any episode directed by Irving J. Moore).

** SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute[=/=]ReplacementScrappy: Jeremy Pike for Artemus Gordon- [[YourMilageMayVary for some.]]

* [[JamesBondage James West Bondage]]

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Ross Martin's health problems forced him to sit out a few episodes, which led to...
** SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute[=/=]ReplacementScrappy: Jeremy Pike for Artemus Gordon- [[YourMilageMayVary for some.]]

** And the show ended up being lucky to survive its first season. After the show was picked up by the network, and placed on the fall schedule, one of the biggest television corporate bloodlettings happened, taking out nearly all of the network executives who helped develop the show. The new regime, wanting to put the past regime behind them, changed the new schedule as best as they could in the short time available to them, dropping a number of shows that were developed for the new season. ''TheWildWildWest'' survived this purge, but barely, as the new executives didn't get the show, and were concerned about the show's cost, which was expensive for a show of that era. Had the show not become a hit from the get-go, it's likely it would have been canned faster than you can say Artemus Gordon.

* GiantSpider ("The Night of the Raven")
** Well, technically it's a normal-sized spider since Jim's been shrunk by Loveless. [[TheFilmOfTheSeries The movie]] ''does'', on the other hand, have a GiantSpider.