The Wild Wild West premiered on CBS in 1965, just as network dominance of television Westerns was waning and the global James Bond phenomenon was in full force. Described as "James Bond on horseback," the series was like nothing else on TV before or since—a genre hybrid that followed the adventures of 1870s Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon, on special assignment from President Ulysses S. Grant.

The show featured clever gadgets and costumes, carefully choreographed action and fight sequences, and stories that melded elements of Western, science fiction, fantasy, espionage and detective genres. This book provides in-depth critical analysis of a unique, eclectic series considered one of the primary influences on steampunk subculture.