Wanted Dead or Alive is an American Western television series starring Steve McQueen as bounty hunter Josh Randall. It aired on CBS for three seasons from 1958–1961. The black-and-white program was a spin-off of a March 1958 episode of Trackdown, a 1957–1959 Western series starring Robert Culp. Both series were produced by Vincent Fennelly for Four Star Television in association with CBS.
The series made McQueen, known for the concept of "cool" in entertainment, a television star. He later became the first TV star to cross over into comparable status on the big screen.
Josh Randall is a Confederate veteran and bounty hunter with a soft heart. He often donates his earnings to the needy, and helps his prisoners if they have been wrongly accused.
Although Randall is a bounty hunter, he doesn't only chase and capture men on wanted posters. He also settles a family feud, frees unjustly jailed or sentenced men, helps an amnesia victim recover his memory, and finds missing husbands, sons, fathers, a fiancée, a suitor, a daughter who had been captured many years earlier by Indians, an Army deserter, a pet sheep, and even Santa Claus. This variety, as well as his pursuit of justice and not just money, contributed to the show's attraction and popularity.
Except for a few episodes at the beginning of the series, Randall rode an energetic horse named Ringo.
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