The Wild Wild West > Episode Analysis > The Four Elements
Mar 9, 2017 1:22:50 GMT
Prime etc. likes this
Post by alpha128 on Mar 9, 2017 1:22:50 GMT
I originally posted this on that other site.
Episode Analysis: The Four Elements of The Wild Wild West
Back in the 1990's, cable network TNT was running The Wild Wild West weekdays. Watching the show five days a week, I quickly noticed a pattern.
The same four elements appeared in virtually every episode:
1.) Fistfight: Jim gets into frequent fistfights with the bad guys.
2.) Disguise: Artemus dons at least one disguise in most episodes. In the fourth season, Jeremy Pike and Frank Harper carry on this tradition.
3.) Beautiful Woman: Almost every episode features at least one beautiful woman. Sometimes she's a damsel to rescue, other times she's a villain. Occasionally, she's just a supporting player.
4.) Gas!: Countless episodes feature some kind of gas. Examples include diversionary smoke, knock-out gas, and poison gas. Sometimes, as in Season Two's "The Night of the Eccentrics", there's no explanation for it, it's just there!
For those looking for an analogy with the four Greek elements:
Fistfight = Earth (The bad guys are left on the ground.)
Gas = Air
Beautiful Woman = Fire (Beautiful to look at, but you may get burned.)
Disguise = Water (Water can take on multiple forms: liquid, solid, gaseous.)
While watching the DVDs, I've maintained a checklist of the four elements as they appear in each episode. Let me tell you, it's made the DVDs even more fun!
I've encountered only one episode that has none of the four elements - Season Two's "The Night of the Man-Eating House". You could argue that the mini-grenade explosion counts as gas, but I make a distinction between "smoke that represents an explosion" and "gas".
I should point out however that in Season Four's "The Night of the Winged Terror (Part II)", I do count the "smoke that represents an explosion" as "gas". That's because the "little poof" is a deception carried out by Frank Harper as part of the story, not just a special effect performed by the production team.
So without further ado, here are the four elements as they appear in each episode.
Season 1:
Season 2:
Season 3:
Season 4:
Episode Analysis: The Four Elements of The Wild Wild West
Back in the 1990's, cable network TNT was running The Wild Wild West weekdays. Watching the show five days a week, I quickly noticed a pattern.
The same four elements appeared in virtually every episode:
1.) Fistfight: Jim gets into frequent fistfights with the bad guys.
2.) Disguise: Artemus dons at least one disguise in most episodes. In the fourth season, Jeremy Pike and Frank Harper carry on this tradition.
3.) Beautiful Woman: Almost every episode features at least one beautiful woman. Sometimes she's a damsel to rescue, other times she's a villain. Occasionally, she's just a supporting player.
4.) Gas!: Countless episodes feature some kind of gas. Examples include diversionary smoke, knock-out gas, and poison gas. Sometimes, as in Season Two's "The Night of the Eccentrics", there's no explanation for it, it's just there!
For those looking for an analogy with the four Greek elements:
Fistfight = Earth (The bad guys are left on the ground.)
Gas = Air
Beautiful Woman = Fire (Beautiful to look at, but you may get burned.)
Disguise = Water (Water can take on multiple forms: liquid, solid, gaseous.)
While watching the DVDs, I've maintained a checklist of the four elements as they appear in each episode. Let me tell you, it's made the DVDs even more fun!
I've encountered only one episode that has none of the four elements - Season Two's "The Night of the Man-Eating House". You could argue that the mini-grenade explosion counts as gas, but I make a distinction between "smoke that represents an explosion" and "gas".
I should point out however that in Season Four's "The Night of the Winged Terror (Part II)", I do count the "smoke that represents an explosion" as "gas". That's because the "little poof" is a deception carried out by Frank Harper as part of the story, not just a special effect performed by the production team.
So without further ado, here are the four elements as they appear in each episode.
Season 1:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Air | Fist- | Dis- | Beau-|
Title | Date | fight | guise | ty | Gas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TNOT Inferno | 9/17/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Deadly Bed | 9/24/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNT Wizard Shook the Earth | 10/1/65 | No | No | Yes | No
TNO Sudden Death | 10/8/65 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Casual Killer | 10/15/65 | No | Yes | Yes | No
TNO a Thousand Eyes | 10/22/65 | No | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Glowing Corpse | 10/29/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Dancing Death | 11/5/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Double-Edged Knife | 11/12/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNT Terror Stalked the Town | 11/19/65 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
TNOT Red-Eyed Madman | 11/26/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Human Trigger | 12/3/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Torture Chamber | 12/10/65 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Howling Light | 12/17/65 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
TNOT Fatal Trap | 12/24/65 | No | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Steel Assassin | 1/7/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNT Dragon Screamed | 1/14/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Flaming Ghost | 1/21/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Grand Emir | 1/28/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Whirring Death | 2/18/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Puppeteer | 2/25/66 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
TNOT Bars of Hell | 3/4/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Two-Legged Buffalo | 3/11/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Druid's Blood | 3/25/66 | No | No | Yes | No
TNOT Freebooters | 4/1/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Burning Diamond | 4/8/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Murderous Spring | 4/15/66 | No | No | Yes | No
TNOT Sudden Plague | 4/22/66 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 2:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Air | Fist- | Dis- | Beau-|
Title | Date | fight | guise | ty | Gas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TNOT Eccentrics | 9/16/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Golden Cobra | 9/23/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Raven | 9/30/66 | Yes | No | Yes | No
TNOT Big Blast | 10/7/66 | Yes | No | Yes | No
TNOT Returning Dead | 10/14/66 | Yes | No | Yes | No
TNOT Flying Pie Plate | 10/21/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Poisonous Posey | 10/28/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Bottomless Pit | 11/4/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Watery Death | 11/11/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Green Terror | 11/18/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Ready-Made Corpse | 11/25/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Man-Eating House | 12/2/66 | No | No | No | No
TNOT Skulls | 12/16/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Infernal Machine | 12/23/66 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Lord of Limbo | 12/30/66 | Yes | No | Yes | No
TNOT Tottering Tontine | 1/6/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Feathered Fury | 1/13/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Gypsy Peril | 1/20/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Tartar | 2/3/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Vicious Valentine | 2/10/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Brain | 2/17/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Deadly Bubble | 2/24/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Surreal McCoy | 3/3/67 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes
TNOT Colonel's Ghost | 3/10/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Deadly Blossom | 3/17/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Cadre | 3/24/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Wolf | 3/31/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Bogus Bandits | 4/7/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 3:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Air | Fist- | Dis- | Beau-|
Title | Date | fight | guise | ty | Gas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TNOT Bubbling Death | 9/8/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Firebrand | 9/15/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Assassin | 9/22/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TN Dr. Loveless Died | 9/29/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Jack O'Diamonds | 10/6/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Samurai | 10/13/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Hangman | 10/20/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNO Montezuma's Hordes | 10/27/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Circus of Death | 11/3/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Falcon | 11/10/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Cut-throats | 11/17/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Legion of Death | 11/24/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Turncoat | 12/1/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Iron Fist | 12/8/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Running Death | 12/15/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Arrow | 12/29/67 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Headless Woman | 1/5/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Vipers | 1/12/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Underground Terror | 1/19/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Death Masks | 1/26/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Undead | 2/2/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Amnesiac | 2/9/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Simian Terror | 2/16/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Death-Maker | 2/23/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 4:
----------------------------------------------------------------------Acknowledgements to The Wild Wild West, the Series by Susan E. Kesler for episode information.
| Air | Fist- | Dis- | Beau-|
Title | Date | fight | guise | ty | Gas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
TNOT Big Blackmail | 9/27/68 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes
TNOT Doomsday Formula | 10/4/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Juggernaut | 10/11/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Sedgewick Curse | 10/18/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Gruesome Games | 10/25/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Kraken | 11/1/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Fugitives | 11/8/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Egyptian Queen | 11/15/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Fire and Brimstone | 11/22/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Camera | 11/29/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Avaricious Actuary | 12/6/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNO Miguelito's Revenge | 12/13/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Pelican | 12/27/68 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Spanish Curse | 1/3/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Winged Terror (Part I) | 1/17/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Winged Terror (Part II) | 1/24/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Sabatini Death | 2/7/69 | Yes | No | Yes | No
TNOT Janus | 2/14/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Pistoleros | 2/21/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Diva | 3/7/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
TNOT Bleak Island | 3/14/69 | Yes | No | Yes | Yes
TNOT Cossacks | 3/21/69 | No | Yes | Yes | No
TNOT Tycoons | 3/28/69 | Yes | No | Yes | No
TNOT Plague | 4/4/69 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes
----------------------------------------------------------------------