The fourth season of "The Wild Wild West" found the series returning to form with more fantastic stories than the third season but the show fell victim to increasing criticism about the level of violence in TV shows. Coupled with decreasing ratings for the series the show was cancelled by CBS. To make matters more difficult it was a wildly uneven season due partially to the absence of Ross Martin who suffered a heart attack midway through the production schedule. The producers solution was admirable and smart--a series of guest stars from the well known Victor Buno (who played a villain in previously on the series), Alan Hale, Jr. ("Gilligan's Island"), Jack Carter, Pat Paulsen ("Laugh In"), William Schallert, Henry Wilcoxon and the best guest star stepping into Ross Martin's shoes the wonderfully underrated character actor Charles Aidman (who appeared in such shows "The Twilight Zone"--both the original and as narrator for the last season of the 1985 revival of the show--, "Dallas" and the film "Twilight's Last Gleaming") who appeared in fourth consecutive episodes as Jeremy Pike.

The fourth season started off strong and featured a parade of well known guest stars including Ted Knight ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), Harvey Korman ("The Carol Burnett Show"), singer Jackie DeShannon, Jim Backus ( who appears in the same episode as his former "Gilligan's Island" co-star Alan Hale. The episode has a very clever tongue-in-cheek reference to the other series). Other guest stars included Kevin McCarthy ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers") boxer Floyd Patterson. ***

The multi-talented Michael Dunn returned in his final episode as Dr. Loveless and, although memorable as always, the episode was a bit lackluster compared to his previous appearances in the series. ***

The set as with the previous ones are packaged in thin packs with two discs per thin pack. The final season had 24 episodes and we get all 24 in their original uncut versions. ---

Image & Sound:

As always, Paramount-CBS does a magnificent job with a sharp transfer with the rich, saturated colors the show was known for. Detail and image sharpness are both very good although there are a couple of soft spots that appear now and again. The audio sounds terrific with a nice mono transfer free of hiss and the audio artifacts that you generally expect from something that has had No Noise applied to its soundtrack. The music is, as always, bold and memorable. ---

The music leads me to the major drawback of the set--no extras. While we get all 24 uncut episodes, the show could stand to have a few minor extras produced for it. For example, a featurette on actor Ross Martin who had a storied career in television, film and on stage would have been nice. Although star Robert Conrad would go on to star in other TV shows (including "Baa Baa Black Sheep" another show with a repetitive title), Martin confined his work to guest work with a brief reoccurring role in "Hawaii Five-O" during its 1978/9 season. He was a talented, versatile actor who was sorely missed after his death in 1981. He did appear in the two "The Wild Wild West" TV movies produced by CBS and plans were in place to revive the series but were scuttled when Martin passed away. ***

Another featurette that would have been worthwhile would have been on Robert Conrad's storied career. Conrad who was born Konrad Robert Falkowski often did his own stunts working with the stunt coordinator and, in fact, was seriously injured during one stunt. He was an honorary member of the Stuntmen's Association. Let's not overlook the talented overlooked actor the late Michael Dunn as well. ***

Another featurette that would have been good (CBS when you do the Blu-ray for this series I hope you're paying attention to these notes) for this set would have been one on the incidental music which often incorporated a unusual instruments including middle-eastern ones (clearly the 60's music scene was influential in the scoring). ***

A couple of commentary tracks from the surviving cast members (Conrad is evidently ill at the time of this writing so sent your good wishes and prayers his way) including Harvey Korman and Kevin McCarthy would have been nice as well. ---

Final Words: