Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/02/09/robert-conrad-star-of-the-w.html
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His best villain was Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless.
Conrad - He was famous his own stunts.
They were taken off the air despite great ratings due to the political climate over violence on teevee at the time.
And he wore the tightest pants in television. Famously wearing blue underwear so the audience wouldn’t see when he split them while doing stunts.
His costar Ross Martin quipped He does his own stunts and I do my own acting. Which reportedly cracked Conrad up.
It was fabulous to watch with the dad.
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He was responsible for a short-lived search and rescue tv show in the early 1990s that led to a spike in membership on SAR teams. So there’s something really positive he’s responsible for.
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I had no idea he was still alive. I loved this show as a kid, and it has the dubious honor of inspiring a movie that represents my first true experience of a modern reboot just completely disappointing me!
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Who could forget the intro?
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What, no love for “Baa Baa Black Sheep”?! All those Corsairs, Zero, and Kates!
I ate that show up as a young kid. RIP Mr. Conrad.
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Wild Wild West and Baa Baa Black Sheep were two of my favorite TV series growing up.
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As a kid, I loved the show. When I finally came out, I figured out why. Conrad was a major hottie.
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One of my favorite Robert Conrad roles, the heavily heavily fictionalized version of Greg “Pappy” Boyington in Baa Baa Black Sheep (aka Black Sheep Squadron)
I see Outcast beat me to it by an hour!
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The Zeros were mocked up T-6 Texan trainers,but the Corsairs were real.
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Sorry to see Conrad go. Another sad death this week was the actor Orson Bean, whom I will always remember as Bilbo in the Rankin-Bass animated adaptation of The Hobbit. Bean was 91, still acting, and only died because he got hit by a car while jaywalking across an intersection.
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A couple of years ago I bought the whole Wild Wild West series on DVD. One of my favorite shows as a kid. (If you buy the boxed set, buy a whole bunch of DVD cases to put them in. The discs are great and well made. The box they come in, less so.) There is a cheaper set available for about $40.
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Same here, loved the crazy gadgets and old-time sci-fi of WWW, and loved Black Sheep. The latter, sadly, lasted only, what, a season and a half? Watching the zeroes and the ‘w’ wing shape of the Corsairs flying in that show is etched in my boyhood memories.
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same, same. oof, he was so handsome. the original Cap’n Tightpants.
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It was a part of my boyhood memories as well.
But my real appreciation of Black Sheep when I had a job working in Civil Aviation at a small airport many years ago. I learned how rare those “warbirds” were, and met old timers who flew fighters and bombers in WWII (no Corsair pilots though).
In related news, I just saw the show on basic cable under the “H&I Heros and Icons” Channel.
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Wild Wild West was absolutely formative for me. Conrad’s Jim West was our James Bond, and in some ways another Jim Kirk, with an Enterprise on rails off to new adventures each week. So imaginative, and with great villains, (someone has rightly pointed out the lovably diabolical Dr Loveless.)
It’s hard to imagine another actor as West, so completely did Robert Conrad inhabit and own the role. His chemistry with Ross Martin (himself an excellent and underrated actor) made the show rock.
Conrad’s hotness has also been noted, and while I identify as straight, let me just say grrrrrrr, whoa, and mmmHMM! #datasstho
I really enjoyed him. I’m-a watch some West now.
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I loved The Wild Wild West as a little kid. The concept of steam-punk hadn’t been invented yet, but there it was, fully formed on my parent’s 19" color tv every Saturday afternoon 
And I’ll always remember watching Baa Baa Black Sheep with my dad, a retired Navy pilot who spent most of his combat career flying Corsairs. He rarely commented about the authenticity of the show. But I do remember one episode where Pappy performs a dead-stick landing, and my dad chimed in to say that particular maneuver in a Corsair was absolutely as dangerous as the show implied.
Thank you Mr. Conrad for enriching my childhood, and giving me an unhealthy fascination with smoke bombs and derringers. RIP
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Who can forget the drama of “The Battle of the Network Stars” when Robert Conrad and Gabe Kaplan settled a score in a running event?
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