Seven Things to Know About Dr. Miguelito Loveless from "The Wild Wild West"

1. Michael Dunn appeared as the diabolical genius Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless in ten episodes of The Wild Wild West. His first appearance was in the third episode, "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth," which was shown in October 1965. That same year, Michael Dunn appeared in Ship of Fools and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His last appearance as Dr. Loveless was in "The Night of Miguelito's Revenge," which aired during the show's fourth and final season in 1968.

2. Dr. Loveless's original scheme (in "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth") was to take back land (well, the state of California) which had been stolen from his mother. He planned to use the land to "build a kingdom where children can grow, be strong and happy...a world without pain." As the series progressed, though, Loveless became a megalomaniacal genius who wanted revenge on society as a whole.

Phoebe Dorin and Michael Dunn.

3. Dr. Loveless was assisted by the lovely Antoinette (Phoebe Dorin) in six episodes and the giant Voltaire (Richard Kiel) in three episodes. Michael Dunn and Phoebe Dorin had performed a nightclub act together prior to The Wild Wild West. When series creator Michael Garrison saw their act, he thought Michael Dunn would be a fabulous villain and signed both performers to be guest stars. Dunn and Dorin frequently performed musical duets on The Wild Wild West.

4. Dr. Loveless's beverage of choice was Cognac La Grande Marque, as revealed in the season four episode "The Night of Miguelito's Revenge." That should come as no surprise since Napoleon--another height-challenged "villain"--was also a connoisseur of brandy.

Loveless as Robin Hood.

5. When Dr. Loveless meets James T. West for the first time, he comments to one of his colleagues (Leslie Parrish): "Ah, Greta, you've done what I was unable to do. You've brought Mr. West--but with one serious oversight. You've brought him alive."

6. The highly-intelligent Dr. Loveless created many clever gadgets, but his most devious invention was a drug planted in Jim West's shaving cream. It apparently caused Jim to go bonkers and fatally shoot Artemus in cold blood. Fortunately, the incident turned out to be a hallucination caused by the drug!

Paul Williams as Junior.

7. Michael Dunn died in 1973 at age 38. Thus, in the 1979 made-for-TV reunion movie The Wild Wild West Revisited, it's revealed that Dr. Loveless had died. The new villain is his son Miguelito Loveless, Jr., played by Paul Williams. Kenneth Branagh played Dr. Arliss Loveless in the 1999 theatrical film Wild Wild West, but the less said about that, the better. By the way, when The Wild Wild West reruns first debuted on TNT, they began with a marathon of all ten Dr. Loveless episodes; Robert Conrad served as host.

This post is part of the Classic TV Villain Blogathon hosted by the Classic TV Blog Association. Be sure to click here to view the schedule featuring other fabulous classic TV villains!

Seven Things to Know About Ross Martin

Martin and Robert Conrad.

1. Ross Martin is best remembered, of course, for playing Secret Service agent Artemus Gordon in the Western TV series The Wild Wild West (1965-69). During the show's fourth season, he broke his leg on the set while filming the episode "The Night of the Avaricious Actuary." While he recovered, Charles Aidman and William Schallert portrayed partners to Robert Conrad's James T. West.

2. Later during the show's fourth and final season, Ross Martin suffered a heart attack. Despite his limited appearances that season, he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Dramatic Series.

Martin as Artemus in disguise.

3. Since Artemus Gordon was a master of disguises, Ross Martin donned make-up to portray dozens of different "characters" in the series. In the book, A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde: Interviews with 62 Filmmakers, make-up artist Kenneth Chase recalls that Martin frequently spent two hours in the make-up chair for one disguise (and hated waiting for his scenes to be filmed).

Martin in Experiment in Terror.

4. The Wild, Wild West wasn't the first time that Ross Martin played a character who employed disguises. He portrayed a killer who impersonates a woman in Blake Edwards' Experiment in Terror (1962).

5. In Edwards' TV series Mr. Lucky (1959-60), he starred as Andamo, the charismatic "business associate" to the title gambler played by John Vivyan. Indeed, Ross was a Blake Edwards' favorite; he also appeared in The Great Race as Baron Rolfe Von Stuppe. One of Martin's fellow actors in that film was Peter Falk; they later played adversaries in "Suitable for Framing," the best episode in the the first season of Columbo.

Martin as Charlie Chan.

6. Interestingly, Martin starred as the title character in the made-for-TV movie The Return of Charlie Chan (aka Happiness Is a Warm Clue). The pilot for a TV series, it was an ill-fated project from the start. Made in 1973, it was shelved due to complaints about a Caucasian actor playing Earl Derr Biggers' detective. (For the record, Charlie Chan was a Hawaiian detective and was played most famously by Swedish actor Warner Oland). Martin's Chan movie was eventually broadcast in 1978.

7. Ross Martin suffered a fatal heart attack after a game of tennis in 1981. He was 61. He and Robert Conrad had recently starred in two Wild Wild West "reunion movies": The Wild Wild West Revisited (1979) and More Wild Wild West (1980). According to some sources, there was discussion about reviving the TV series, but that ended with Martin's untimely death.

Get Ready for a Palm Springs Weekend!

Stefanie Powers and Troy Donahue.

As soon as Troy Donahue starts warbling "Live Young" over the opening credits, it's clear that you'll either find Palm Springs Weekend to be nostalgic fun or a dated disaster. I fall into the former camp; I hold a special affection for the fluffy teen pics of the 1960s, from classics like Beach Blanket Bingo to lesser-known imitations like A Swingin' Summer. Unlike many of those youth films, Palm Springs Weekend isn't a musical, though it does boast the only known duet between Ty (Bronco) Hardin and Jerry Van Dyke. Plus, it offers something that its competitors can't--a wealth of promising young performers who were all under contract to Warner Bros. at the time.

Ty Hardin and Connie Stevens.

Written by Earl Hamner, Jr. (who would later create The Waltons), Palm Springs Weekend opens with the spring vacation invasion of the famed California resort city. College basketball star Jim Munroe (Donahue) and his teammates believe they have elluded their coach en route from L.A. to Palm Springs. Alas, their crafty coach (Jack Weston) is onboard the bus, too, and his presence puts a crimp in their plans. That doesn't stop Jim from meeting Gail (Connie Stevens), who also claims to be a college student seeking fun in the sun.

Robert Conrad as the rich bad boy.

But romance isn't in the cards for Jim and Gail. She becomes wooed by both a rich bad boy (Robert Conrad) and a nice Hollywood stunt man named Stretch (Hardin). Meanwhile, Jim hooks up with Palm Springs local Bunny (Stefanie Powers), whose father is the grumpy chief of police. As if there was any doubt that love is the air, Coach Campbell becomes smitten with the motel owner (Carole Cook) and Jim's pal Biff (Van Dyke) finds love with Gail's roommate Amanda (Zeme North). Just to make sure things don't get too icky with all the romance, there's a young brat named Boom Boom (Billy Mumy), who wreaks havoc by turning the swimming pool into a giant bubble bath.

Yes, Palm Springs Weekend is frequently silly, but the peppy young cast keeps it entertaining and never lets the proceedings turn into a spoof. There's even a modest amount of depth to some of the characters. Conrad's troublemaker turns out to be a lonely lad dealing with an absentee father. Connie Stevens' Gail is actually a high school student named Jane, whose identity crisis almost leads to a bad situation. Still, Palm Springs Weekend has no illusions of being taken seriously, not even to the point of Gidget or Where the Boys Are (both of which dealt fleetingly with more mature themes).

Jerry Van Dyke and Zeme North, whose
career fizzled in the late 1960s.

Interestingly, about half the Palm Springs Weekend cast was appearing in Warner Bros. TV series concurrently and the other half were set to launch long-running TV careers. Ty Hardin was starring in the Western Bronco, a spinoff of Cheyenne that was created when Clint Walker had a contract dispute with Warners. Robert Conrad and Connie Stevens both appeared in the exotic detective series Hawaiian Eye (Conrad later starred in Wild, Wild West). Troy appeared in the Miami-set private eye series Surfside 6. Stefanie Powers would become The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. before the decade ended and Billy Mumy would gain fame as Will Robinson in Lost in Space. Jerry Van Dyke appeared in many sitcoms, the most unususal being My Mother the Car, in which his deceased mother was reincarnated as a 1928 antique auto voiced by Ann Sothern. Decades later, he'd have greater success as a supporting player on the sitcom Coach.

The bottom line is that if you like these performers and enjoy the "1960s teen pic" genre, Palm Springs Weekend is a celluloid gretaway for you.

Warner Bros. Classic TV Detectives Were the "Ginchiest" - Part 2

Inspired by the success of 77 Sunset Strip, Warner Bros. launched three other TV detective series over the next two years. They all featured the same formula: attractive performers, exotic locales, straightforward mysteries, and a healthy dose of humor. Characters often crossed over from one series to another, a nifty way to promote the less successful shows on the more popular ones.

The biggest hit of the new series was Hawaiian Eye (1959-63), which starred Anthony Eisely and Robert Conrad (whose character was supposed to be half-Hawaiian) as private investigators in Honolulu. They worked out of the posh Hawaiian Village Hotel. They were often aided--even when they didn't want it--by Cricket (Connie Stevens), a nightclub singer/photographer, and ukulele-playing cabbie Kim (Poncie Ponce). One of the running gags of the show was that Kim had relatives all over the island. That often proved handy when looking for a missing person or gathering evidence to solve a murder.

Later in the first season, the agency hired another investgator played by Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man). When Eiseley left after three years, Troy Donahue joined the cast as the social director of the hotel for the fourth and final season.

Although it never captured the public fancy to the extent of 77 Sunset Strip, Hawaiian Eye was a solid hit and laid the groundwork for future private eye shows set in the islands (e.g., Hawaii Five-O, Magnum, P.I.).

Duggan, Howell, Williams, and Long.

Bourbon Street Beat (1959-60) starred Andrew Duggan and Richard Long as private detectives in New Orleans. They operated the agency Randolph and Calhoun Special Services on the second floor of The Old Absinthe House restaurant in the French Quarter. Kenny Madison (Van Williams), a young law student, assisted them on some cases and Melody Lee Mercer (Arlene Howell) keep the office running. When the series was cancelled after one season, Richard Long's character, Rex Randolph, joined 77 Sunset Strip. Van Williams returned as Kenny Madison the following year in a new series called Surfside 6. Ironically, his new show even stayed in the same slot of Monday, 0830-9:30.


Sierra, Donahue, Patterson, McBain,
and Williams.

Set in Miami, Surfside 6 (the title is a telephone exchange) cast Van Williams with Lee Patterson and Troy Donahue as a trio of young private detectives who worked out of a houseboat that doubled as their digs. They also received their share of unwanted help from ditzy socialite Daphne Dutton (Diane McBain), whose yacht was anchored next door, and Cha Cha O'Brien (Margarite Sierra), who sang in the Boom Boom Room in the ritzy Fountainebleau Hotel. Surfside 6  lasted for two seasons.
While these TV series were still on the air, Warner Bros. capitalized on the popularity of its young stable of stars by casting them in theatrical films--even at the risk of overexpose. Troy Donahue, Connie Stevens, and Diane McBain all appeared in Parrish (1961). Stevens and Donahue paired up again for Susan Slade (1961), with Grant Williams making a brief appearance as well. Donahue and Conrad played adversaries in Palm Springs Weekend. And Diane McBaine got a starring role (and was very good) as Claudelle Inglish (1961), an  Erskine Caldwell Southern tale about a girl with a bad reputation.

Diane McBain.

While none of the Warner Bros. detective series could be described as great television, they were all diverting and provided great experience for a number of likable young actors who continued to appear on the big screen and small screen. Richard Long surfaced opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the TV series The Big Valley. Robert Conrad landed his most famous role in Wild, Wild West. Connie Stevens had a #3 hit song with "Sixteen Reasons" and parlayed that into a long-lasting career as an entertainer. Troy Donahue's film career gradually declined, though he later appeared in a supporting role in The Godfather Part II. Finally, Van Williams starred in The Green Hornet TV with Bruce Lee. The show only lasted a season and Williams retired from acting shortly afterwards. However, he used his business savvy to amass a tidy fortune.