The show successfully combined two highly popular genres at the time-the super able and confident secret agent, armed with amazing (and anachronistic) gadgets (inspired, of course, by the James Bond films) , and the western. Agent James West (played by Robert Conrad) was the athletic, handsome fighting man, capable of great feats of derring-do. Agent Artemus Gordon (played by Ross Martin) was the gadget inventor and master of disguises. Together they made an invincible team. Conrad wasn't much of an actor, limited to mostly action scenes and (in the first two season) romancing some of the best known and most beautiful women on 1960s television. Ross Martin's acting, OTOH, was great. In his many disguises, he was able to portray a great variety of eccentric characters with widely ranging accents. Typical storylines in the first two seasons revolved around a brilliant, but evil megalomaniac plotting some fantastic crime ranging from not so simple theft all the way up to world destruction and/or conquest. The latter plots were most often the creation of the series' best and most memorable villain, Dr. Miguelito Loveless, played brilliantly by Michael Dunn. The episodes often had a strong science fiction and even fantasy flavor to them that was quite enjoyable.
Unfortunately, the series largely moved away from the fantastic plots in the third season, becoming more of a conventional western. This made it very dull, IMO. The fourth season suffered from the absence of Martin for over a third of the episodes, as he recovered from a broken leg and a heart attack. Charles Aidman and William Schallert were pretty good substitutes, but they didn't have the chemistry that Martin brought to the show. IMO, the nadir of the substitutes was reached with the episode with Alan Hale Jr. The episode descended into ultimate silliness with a wink to the audience at the end, as the theme from Gilligan's Island was played.
The last two seasons also made changes to the James West character. First of all, West's propensity for romancing the female guest star was abandoned, leaving him doing little more than shaking hands with them. I don't know why this was done. Second, West had a flatter, less interesting hairstyle in the last two seasons.
All, in all, I remember the series best for the first two seasons, which best exemplified the escapism element.
Unfortunately, the series largely moved away from the fantastic plots in the third season, becoming more of a conventional western. This made it very dull, IMO. The fourth season suffered from the absence of Martin for over a third of the episodes, as he recovered from a broken leg and a heart attack. Charles Aidman and William Schallert were pretty good substitutes, but they didn't have the chemistry that Martin brought to the show. IMO, the nadir of the substitutes was reached with the episode with Alan Hale Jr. The episode descended into ultimate silliness with a wink to the audience at the end, as the theme from Gilligan's Island was played.
The last two seasons also made changes to the James West character. First of all, West's propensity for romancing the female guest star was abandoned, leaving him doing little more than shaking hands with them. I don't know why this was done. Second, West had a flatter, less interesting hairstyle in the last two seasons.
All, in all, I remember the series best for the first two seasons, which best exemplified the escapism element.