Ultimate Geek Fu

by Bruce Bethke

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Let's All Dump on Wild Wild West Week continues today with—

I dunno. What do you want to know? I thought I was all talked out on the subject after these two interviews (this one and this other one) years ago, but apparently questions remain.

I mean, I mostly look at the thing as a great opportunity, blown to Hell. I liked the original series. I think it could have been a terrific movie, and indeed, had they made Wilson & Maddock's original script, it might have been. I have a few old B&W episodes of the original series on VHS, and they do bear re-watching. Some are very good TV-sized dramas. Others are silly—I'm thinking now of one in which West and Gordon must stop a mad geologist (one does not normally think of geology as a promising field for Mad Science), played by Burgess Meredith, before he became forever branded as The Penguin—and yes, Burgess Meredith was the definitive Penguin, not Danny DeVito, just as Julie Newmar was the definitive Catwoman—

Sorry, I'm drifting off-track. But the point is, like Roy Rogers and Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood and so many others before them, Robert Conrad and Ross Martin played West and Gordon straight. Somehow, between The Wild Wild West and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., it became impossible to play a western hero straight. To quote Steve McQueen's final line from The Sand Pebbles: "What the hell happened?!"

Let the arguments begin.

(Backup question: speaking of great TV shows being made into crappy movies, let's have a show of hands, and please be honest. Who here is planning to go see The A Team this weekend? Personally, I pity the fool who has to try to step into the shoes of the great Mr. T, who played the definitive B. A. Baracus....)

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ULTIMAGE GEEK FU runs every Wednesday. Have a question that's just bugging the heck out of you about Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate, Battlestar Gallactica, Farscape, Firefly, Fringe, Heroes, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, The X-Files, X-Men, The Man From Atlantis, or pretty much any other SF-flavored media property? Send it to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com with the subject line, "Geek Fu," and we'll stuff it in the queue.