Wanted: Dead or Alive
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Wanted: Dead or Alive was an American Western television show that ran for three seasons from 1958 to 1961, starred unconventional-looking leading man Steve McQueen, and was a spin-off of Trackdown (1957), a western TV series featuring Robert Culp. McQueen played bounty hunter Josh Randall. Randall carried a shortened Winchester 1892 Model carbine, called the "Mare's Leg," in a holster patterned after "gunslinger" holsters then popular in movies and television.
Randall was a bounty hunter with a soft heart. He often donated his earnings to the needy, and would help his prisoners if they had been wrongly accused.
Writers included Samuel A. Peeples and Charles Beaumont. Filmed in black and white, this half-hour adult western featured taut performances, especially by comparative newcomer McQueen, who made quite an impression on critics, viewers, and film producers with his intense portrayal of the grim bounty hunter. McQueen's movie career began heating up and he purposely made himself difficult to work with on the TV series, to the point that the studio was eventually happy to cancel it and let him out of his contract. Produced by Four Star Television, the first season is available on DVD.
[edit] Trivia
There were actually two different "Mare's Leg" carbines, with radically different operating levers. This posed a continuity problem in a number of episodes, where in one scene Randall would have the rifle with the large ring lever, and the next he would have the rifle with the smaller, more triangular-shaped lever.
Many episodes feature someone sneaking up behind Randall and knocking him out.
It should be noted that he carried a Model 92 Winchester which is chambered for short cartridge like the ones used in the handguns of the day, such as the .44-40, .38-40, .32-20 and .25-20 cartridges. The cartridges he carried in his gun belt are long cartridges which fit the Model 94 Winchester like the .30-30, .38-55, .32-40, and .25-35 cartridges, and would not fit in the Model 92.
In at least one episode, Randall neglects to recover his rifle after it has been taken from him.
One of the "Mare's Leg" carbines is in a private collection in Anaheim, California.
