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Post by lass on Apr 5, 2011 5:00:06 GMT -8
So how did all of you get "addicted" to the Wild Wild West???
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Post by California gal on Apr 5, 2011 6:21:51 GMT -8
I'm old enough that I watched it during it's original run during the 60s and loved it. Of course, never thought I'd ever see it again. When it ran on TNT (in the 70s or 80s?) I either missed it or my cable wasn't carrying TNT, I'm not sure. But when the DVDs came out, I originally rented them from Netflix to watch. I knew Pet from another show (Lost World) and she told me about a board for The Wild Wild West--not this one. I joined, bought the DVDs, and the rest, as the classic line goes, is history! It's such an easy show to love!
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Post by lass on Apr 5, 2011 6:39:55 GMT -8
Starting to think I'm the "young" one around here . . . .
What other shows do all of you love???
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Post by California gal on Apr 5, 2011 7:49:14 GMT -8
I'm probably the oldest one here, but I think we have a pretty wide age range.
Old shows that I like(d): Almost any of the westerns from the 50s and 60s like Wagon Train, Cheyenne, Lawman, Rawhide, Trackdown. etc. Also liked I Spy with Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. Current shows I watch are few and far between: Hawaii 5-O, NCIS, Ghost Hunters and Bones. And occasionally Masterpiece Theater/Mystery if something interesting pops up. I watch DVDs of English mysteries like Midsomer and New Tricks.
I watched Star Trek when it originally aired and recently watched the entire series on DVD, but never became a Trekkie and haven't watched any of the spinoffs.
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Post by Double Take on Apr 5, 2011 13:19:29 GMT -8
I think I started watching WWW in the seventies. I was too young to have seen any of the episodes when they aired origianally, nor would my parents have watched them (actually, they might not even have owned a TV at the time - they would just have moved to the US). I do remember watching the first reunion movie when it came out and being so upset with it that I refused to watch (and still haven't) the second movie.
I think it was probably the horses that got me hooked. I do remember that I liked Artie best when I first watched it, but I am a full blown Jim's Jewel now.
Kind of like Star Trek, I don't ever remember not watching WWW. It was always there (except when it wasn't). I taped the episodes during the late 80's or early 90's, then my friend bought me the 3rd season for my birthday, and I was adicted.
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Post by lass on Apr 5, 2011 14:50:49 GMT -8
I remember watching it in the 70's when it was rerun on Saturday afternoons. (Sorry to say this cuz it might make some of you feel old) I wasn't old enough to watch it when it originally aired . . . . I was only 3 months when the show 1st aired in 1965. Guess that makes me as old as the show then
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Paradox Eyes
Cadet
"Hmmmm......Which guns and gadgets today??
Posts: 1,123
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Post by Paradox Eyes on Apr 5, 2011 16:30:53 GMT -8
I saw it first time around back in the 60’s and it was the most perfect show as far as I was concerned. It had horses! It was a Western! It was Sci-Fi! It had the two best heroes you could want!! I was just old enough to have the biggest head over heels crush on James West. That character became my all time, number one ever favorite film character. I adored him back then and I still do today. And that has never changed in 40 plus years!
I can remember when VCR’s were first put on the market. They were some outrageous toy of the rich at around $5000. I can remember reading about them and swearing to myself that someday, somehow, I would own copies of the Wild Wild West, even if I had to pay that kind of money to tape them off the TV. Of course I never did get around to it and I didn’t see the entire show again until it came out on DVD. My husband and I sat watching them and I turned to him with a big grin and said, “You know what? This show makes me today just like I did the first time I ever watched it!” (Hubby is very understanding about my love of the show)
Yes, there are many of us who are much older than you but you won’t find people with younger hearts and spirits anywhere! I have a wall dedicated to pictures from the Wild Wild West and under them is a plaque that reads “YOUNG AT HEART. SLIGHTLY OLDER IN OTHER PLACES”. I think it says it all. ;D
Back then I also watched Star Trek. I was a trekker for a long time! I loved most of the Westerns especially some the short lived ones like Lancer and Cimarron Strip. Mission Impossible was a must watch as was Mannix and Hawaii 5-0. Anything Sci-Fi was always on my viewing list. In the late 80’s and early 90’s I fell in love Star Trek NG too and although I enjoyed some of the other Trek spin-offs, the original and NG were my favorites. In the more recent decade, I LOVED Firefly, again short lived. There a was show called Dead Like Me, ’03-’04 which I thought was brilliant! I bought those DVD’s and could watch it over and over. I also watched the Brisco County first time last year.
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Post by lass on Apr 5, 2011 18:24:57 GMT -8
I just kinda feel like I'm "late" to this party. Granted I feel blessed for when I was born. In the era of reruns, & the childhood where you could be gone all day long in the summer & your parents weren't worried about where you were or if you were safe. That there were heroes in my life like James Kirk & James West, & families like the Brady's & the Partridges. I attended my 1st Star Trek convention when I was 11 & STILL have alot of my 70's ST collection. That my musical heroes are still performing & now we have this amazing internet where you can indulge all your passions & meet people from all over the world that have the same interests as you. Plus the era of DVDs where your childhood "friends" are there whenever you need them. How COOL is all of this???
Sorry . . . just me rambling ~ Lass
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Post by California gal on Apr 5, 2011 18:43:21 GMT -8
The VCR and DVD player are wonderful inventions. We often mention that the producers of shows back then had no idea that people would one day be able to watch their productions over and over and pick out the flaws. But the flaws often make the shows more charming!
I bought my first VCR in 1978--and had to take out a small loan to do so! Never regretted it. The first show I taped and watched over and over was the original Battlestar Galactica, but there were others. I'm sure that if I had realized Wild Wild West was on TNT (and if we got that channel at the time, which I simply don't remember) I would have taped it.
I probably watch at least one, and often 2 or 3 episodes of WWW each day. I have favorites I watch over and over (Pistoleros, Death Masks, Lord of Limbo, Surreal McCoy, Murderous Spring) and some others but I've watched all of them numerous times. It's where I get my main inspiration for writing about the guys.
By the way, Lass, I don't think you've ever mentioned whether you are an Artie's Angel or a Jim's Jewel--or both. I'm a Jewel but I love Artie. The show wouldn't be complete without him (which was proved in season 4).
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Post by lass on Apr 5, 2011 19:24:08 GMT -8
I'm not sure WHO I like best . . . . . Love the charm & confidence & attitude of JW . . . . but also love the charm & humor & style of AG. Guess that makes me undecided. But I do LOVE JW in his blue suit/black chaps or the cowboy/brown chaps look.
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rielle
Book Worm
yeah, THAT smile.
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Post by rielle on Apr 5, 2011 20:27:35 GMT -8
So how did all of you get "addicted" to the Wild Wild West??? Well, I'll be 60 in July so I am definitely old enough to have watched Wild, Wild West when it first aired and I did. and what I recall is that I first liked Artie much better than Jim. But the funny thing about that preference, which I kept to for a while when the show was being re run on TNT much later, was the episode that really stuck in my mind was the only 2 hour ep... 'Winged Terror', and there was no Artie present. He was 'in Washington'.
However, whoever I loved first I loved the whole show and the mixture of themes and the pre-steampunk-steampunk inventions and crazy villains. I loved Michael Dunn as Loveless pretty much as much as I did our agents. And I still love all of that now.
With time, I guess my tastes changed a bit or I did and I was definitely captivated by Robert C as Jim, that grin and the way he tilts his head and the way he fights... like a dancer... or is that he dances like a fighter, LOL? And then there are his eyes... no, not goin' into the color... I know what color I think they are and what color they are in my stories... LOL
Thing is, with yet more time, I've come to appreciate Artie all over again, and I know the series would have been terrible without Ross and even more terrible without him and Robert and Michael. It just couldn't have been what it became... a wonderful Western-sci fi- Victorian fantasy ... So we're really lucky that Michael Garrison and Co. brought them all together, and lucky the eps finally made it to DVD, too!
And that alone has to be a small miracle, imho because when I first found WWW fandom there was next to no hope of DVDs coming out... ever... There had been a handful of VHS versions of some first season episodes and that was IT. I only wish now they would release the two reunions separately... cause as much as I might want to be a completist, a whole nother four season set is beyond my capacity.
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Post by Artiespet on Apr 6, 2011 9:14:02 GMT -8
My answer has to vary lol. According to my Grandma (and the first and only ep I remember watching first run) when I was 4 I was walking through the room I saw Artie come out on the balcony in the saloon in Surreal McCoy disguised as Lightnin and I stopped dead in my tracks watched the whole scene (through the gun fight in the street) then I looked at her and said "I'm gonna marry him someday" and then went out to play. Sadly the closest I got was my late hubby who bore a strong resemblence to Artie's Lightnin lol. I got hooked on the show by my late hubby. He found it on TNT and started taping them for me. I still have one of the tapes and it actually isn't worn out! But I have to be close to wearing out my DVD's
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Post by snish on Apr 7, 2011 4:25:34 GMT -8
Lass, I'm not much older than you. I was only 2 when the show debuted. So I missed the orginal run, although I have a vague memory of hearing the theme music after I had gone to bed. It came around in daily syndication when I was 13. I knew my brothers had liked it, so I had to watch. I was hooked in a week. I fell madly, passionately in love with Artie! And I've never gotten over him. Then 20 years went by, and I found out that it was on TNT. I didn't get TNT, but I contrived to tape it at my parents' house. I had such fun watching it again! There was already an Internet fandom for it in the 90s and I got involved with that. When the DVDs came out, it renewed my interest again, and here I am.
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Post by MissRedhead on Apr 7, 2011 17:20:57 GMT -8
I was a freshman in college the fall of 2000 and at 6am I was waiting for my dad to drive me back to my dorm so I was flipping through the channels and just stopped on the Western Secret Service show... from there it was love at first sight
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Dieter
Desk Jockey
Permanent Admin's Bad Boy
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Post by Dieter on Apr 7, 2011 18:00:27 GMT -8
Yeah I used to watch WWW every morning at 6am on TNT before going to work at Farmers Insurance. That was the best wat to start my work day, I always thought! ;D CalGal it was on TNT for about 6-7 years starting in 1994, first on weekends and then Mon-Fri at 12 noon. Then Mon-Fri at 6am. I would think you had TNT from 94 to 2002 or 3. Before that I already taped every episode on our channel 9 every night at 11:30 pm, later moved to midnight before I Spy at 1am. That was a great way to go to bed to! That lasted a good 3 to 4 years late night from about 1985 to 1989, though they already showed it for years at 6pm Mon-Fri before that. Also had a friend tape them for me off KDOC where for a long time they showed WWW Mon-Fri at 5pm and Black Sheep Squadron right after at 6 pm. 2 RC shows back to back for a long time. WWW lasted far longer since it had way more episodes. They even started showing it twice a day at 1pm and 5 pm for a long time, different season episodes at each of the hours. Then 2 years ago or so they started showing it at 7pm every night again for quite a while and I recorded all those with my dvd recorder. Always kept coming back on TV here in L.A. for most of my life, so that's how I discovered it when I was about 6 and was my all-time favorite show ever since!!
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Post by w3mom on Apr 7, 2011 18:25:55 GMT -8
I'm also not old enough to have seen them when they were first on (born in 1968) - I remember my mom was a big fan of WWW (and ISpy and Mission: Impossible). I got hooked in the late 1990's when my husband and I encountered them in reruns in Houston - at midnight. Thank goodness for the VCR! Now we have them all on DVD.
I don't actually have a working TV - it only plays videos and DVDs. So I have introduced my children to all my old favorites - WWW, Emergency! (which I do remember watching), I Spy (got into that later in life, too), Hogan's Heroes, Battlestar Galactica (the original) and of course, Star Trek-TOS. So now they are all fans of these shows too and don't know much about present day TV. Although I wasn't even born when most of these were on the first time, reruns were a great thing, and DVDs are even better!
But WWW was a special case for me - after 4 seasons on DVD, I couldn't believe that there were no more stories. I mean look at what happened to Star Trek! So I found the three novels - which I liked. Then I found the WWW websites and fanfiction.net and all the great stories here.
By the way, anymore stories coming? I'm a reader, not a writer...
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Post by Aunt Maud on Apr 8, 2011 6:45:42 GMT -8
What wonderful testimonies... Don't have time to tell much today (work, work and more work!) But one day I shall tell my WWW falling in love with...."Once upon a time, there was a little French girl who was not too happy with her lot and during the Summer vacation at her Polish Grandma's, there was this show from America, they had horses and...."
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Post by California gal on Apr 8, 2011 7:25:05 GMT -8
And? And? Don't leave us hanging, Auntie! ;D
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Post by Artiespet on Apr 8, 2011 8:06:30 GMT -8
And? And? Don't leave us hanging, Auntie! ;D Yeah what she said! Make with the story Ma'am ;D
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Post by Elsordo on Apr 17, 2011 14:35:08 GMT -8
Coolest show ever. the secret agents, the larger than life bad guys, the beautiful ladies, the train, the stunt work and the sometimes scifi factor. I thought James West was the baddest of bad.
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Post by Elsordo on Apr 17, 2011 14:39:26 GMT -8
I saw it first time around back in the 60’s and it was the most perfect show as far as I was concerned. It had horses! It was a Western! It was Sci-Fi! It had the two best heroes you could want!! I was just old enough to have the biggest head over heels crush on James West. That character became my all time, number one ever favorite film character. I adored him back then and I still do today. And that has never changed in 40 plus years! I can remember when VCR’s were first put on the market. They were some outrageous toy of the rich at around $5000. I can remember reading about them and swearing to myself that someday, somehow, I would own copies of the Wild Wild West, even if I had to pay that kind of money to tape them off the TV. Of course I never did get around to it and I didn’t see the entire show again until it came out on DVD. My husband and I sat watching them and I turned to him with a big grin and said, “You know what? This show makes me today just like I did the first time I ever watched it!” (Hubby is very understanding about my love of the show) Yes, there are many of us who are much older than you but you won’t find people with younger hearts and spirits anywhere! I have a wall dedicated to pictures from the Wild Wild West and under them is a plaque that reads “YOUNG AT HEART. SLIGHTLY OLDER IN OTHER PLACES”. I think it says it all. ;D Back then I also watched Star Trek. I was a trekker for a long time! I loved most of the Westerns especially some the short lived ones like Lancer and Cimarron Strip. Mission Impossible was a must watch as was Mannix and Hawaii 5-0. Anything Sci-Fi was always on my viewing list. In the late 80’s and early 90’s I fell in love Star Trek NG too and although I enjoyed some of the other Trek spin-offs, the original and NG were my favorites. In the more recent decade, I LOVED Firefly, again short lived. There a was show called Dead Like Me, ’03-’04 which I thought was brilliant! I bought those DVD’s and could watch it over and over. I also watched the Brisco County first time last year. I did the same thing Paradox...the 1st thing I ever recorded with a VCR in the early 80's was Wild Wild West. the channel that showed it was showing the B&W episodes when I started. I know I had over the years collected the series 4 times complete on tape. I was hooked on the sweetness of watching it and trying to get the best copies of each episode... I love the DVDs. the ultimate! in the early 70's I can remember trying to get our old tube type Zenith TV to bring it in with out the snowstorm. I tried everything to get the rabbit ears to clear it up a little so I could watch the Wild Wild West. ....drove me crazy. still though, I watched it every Sat. afternoon.
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Post by MissRedhead on Apr 19, 2011 16:22:31 GMT -8
After that first weekend I was soooo ticked that I only saw the first half of the episode and I (at the time) would never find out what happened that I immediately bought VHS tapes and started setting my VCR in my dorm room to record WWW so every day when I got done with my classes, before I started in on hw I treated myself to the day's episode
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Silver
Book Worm
I love the smell of canon fire in the morning!
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Post by Silver on Apr 20, 2011 9:09:45 GMT -8
I'm probably the oldest one here, but I think we have a pretty wide age range. With me back, probably not! I grew up watching the original as well. Other shows from the past I love include Mission: Impossible, The Night Stalker, Stingray, Man From Uncle, ... Oh, all sorts of things. When I do watch broadcast tv instead of DVD's these days, It's most likely to be some of the pretty good crime shows like the CSI's or Criminal Minds.
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Post by Artiespet on Apr 20, 2011 9:42:05 GMT -8
I'm probably the oldest one here, but I think we have a pretty wide age range. With me back, probably not! I grew up watching the original as well. Other shows from the past I love include Mission: Impossible, The Night Stalker, Stingray, Man From Uncle, ... Oh, all sorts of things. When I do watch broadcast tv instead of DVD's these days, It's most likely to be some of the pretty good crime shows like the CSI's or Criminal Minds. SILVER!! You're back!! I hate to tell you but we have a few who are older than you including me (but only by a few months lol)
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Silver
Book Worm
I love the smell of canon fire in the morning!
Posts: 625
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Post by Silver on Apr 20, 2011 12:44:58 GMT -8
With me back, probably not! I grew up watching the original as well. Other shows from the past I love include Mission: Impossible, The Night Stalker, Stingray, Man From Uncle, ... Oh, all sorts of things. When I do watch broadcast tv instead of DVD's these days, It's most likely to be some of the pretty good crime shows like the CSI's or Criminal Minds. SILVER!! You're back!! I hate to tell you but we have a few who are older than you including me (but only by a few months lol) You HATE to tell me? With my boss having just celebrated her 30-something or other birthday, it's positively wonderful to hear about those older than yours truly.
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Post by Artiespet on Apr 20, 2011 13:40:41 GMT -8
LOL yeah but the ones who are older might not think that way....
so Roger tell us how DOES it feel? hehehehe
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Post by MissRedhead on Apr 20, 2011 16:09:19 GMT -8
you're evil Pet...
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Post by Artiespet on Apr 21, 2011 9:48:07 GMT -8
you're evil Pet... Who moi??? What on earth would make you think that? ;D
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Post by lilyfortune on Apr 24, 2011 19:26:39 GMT -8
Hi all, I too am old enough to have watched the show in it's original run and I was fascinated from the get-go. At the age of nine I developed a terrible crush on Artemus Gordon/Ross Martin and that's never changed (they say there's nothing like your first love ) so that makes me one of Artie's Angels but I do have a definite appreciation for JW. The boys are the ideal partners, I can't imagine one without the other, that's why the episodes without Artie never worked for me and those ep I never re-watch. Paradox is right, it's the perfect show, sci-fi & western together and the coolest two guys ever starring in it, there was such great chemistry between them. If anyone ever asks me what my favorite show is I don't hesitate to say WWW; if they ask what are you watching now that's your favorite the answer is the same! When I was in high school I would claim the TV on Saturday afternoons to watch the reruns and if there was something else showing in it's place like a baseball game it would ruin my entire weekend. Later I watched it on TNT until they stopped showing it and never saw it again until I got the DVDs a couple of years ago but thank the gods for DVDs! We can see the boys anytime we want!! ;D There was a time I was into Star Trek as a teen but I guess I outgrew it I did casually watch the Star Trek spin-offs too and I enjoyed Night Stalker a lot. Paradox, I thought Dead Like Me was cool too! I can't see why it didn't last. I also enjoy Law & Order Criminal Intent----only the Goren and Eames episodes (VD'O is great as Bobby Goren!) But I can't think of any show I've loved all through the years the way I've loved WWW, I just get a good feeling when I watch, I don't really know how to explain it..... Oh yeah, on Masterpiece Mysteries Wallender is great, Kenneth Branagh is wonderful in it, so good I've forgiven him for his part in that horrible thing that called itself the WWW movie (yuck!) And I just recently met someone online who introduced me to another show starring Ross Martin, "Mr. Lucky", definitely a must-see for all of you RM fans from his pre-WWW days (1959-60). I'm getting hooked on it too!
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Post by California gal on Apr 25, 2011 9:14:57 GMT -8
lilyfortune, there's a Yahoo group for Mr. Lucky. Are you aware of it? Perhaps someone here has more info.
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