Wanted: Dead or Alive
Passing of Shawnee Bill
TV Flash files “Passing of Shawnee Bill” as hour 5 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 1, episode 5, aired 1958-10-04, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E05: listed hour 5 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 5 of 36 in season 1. It aired 1958-10-04 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Dead End” (S01E04). Next is “The Giveaway Gun” (S01E06).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
After losing one thousand dollars in a poker game to a stranger named Dan Poe, who claims to know where the wanted 'Shawnee Bill' can be found, sends the money away and introduces himself as Shawnee Bill, in order to get his award, Josh escorts the man over 170 miles to Colorado.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Passing of Shawnee Bill sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S01E05 is listed hour 5 of 94 — hour 5 of 36 in season 1, season 1 episode 5.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S01E05 air?
Passing of Shawnee Bill aired 1958-10-04 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with McQueen and the Mare's Leg. The bounty-hunter brief and the underplaying are visible immediately.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Wanted: Dead or Alive made Steve McQueen a star with a sawed-off Mare's Leg and quiet bounty-hunter cool. Stylish antihero western in a crowded field. A 2026 viewer watches the proto-cool that movies later sold as McQueen myth — the cut-down Winchester as branding, intensity as the whole performance.
The gun is already the logo. Steve McQueen walks into CBS, 1958, as bounty hunter Josh Randall with a cut-down Winchester carbine — the Mare's Leg — and a volume knob turned so far down the rest of the western field sounds like shouting. Wanted: Dead or Alive is stylish antihero television in a crowded hat market, Four Star Television's three-season star factory, ninety-four half-hours of quiet intensity sold as a brand. The sawed-off is merch and myth in the same prop. Underplaying is the whole performance.…
Filed against
- Steve McQueen as Josh Randall
Steve McQueen made Wanted: Dead or Alive a star vehicle as Josh Randall — sawed-off Mare's Leg, quiet bounty-hunter cool, stylish antihero western in a crowded 1950s field. Intensity as the brand. TV Flash files him as proto-cool the…