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Artie and Jim
(aka Ross Martin and Robert Conrad)

Ross Martin and Robert Conrad

Do this. Take the two most dissimilar television genre in the 1960's - the Western and the Spy Thriller - and combine them. Then put the show on the worst day and time slot - Friday evening. Finally pick plots that range from the heroes using 19th century technology to relying on gadgets that never did and never will exist.

Son-of-a-gun, if it didn't work. The product was one of the most popular shows on television, The Wild Wild West starring Robert Conrad as Secret Service Agent James T. West, who specialized in handling the bad guys and getting the babes, and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon, who was the master of disguise and undercover work - and who we also see was not deficient with the ladies.

Why the show worked is still a subject for scholars and historians. But for a few facts about the show - which lasted four respectable seasons, click here.