Wanted: Dead or Alive
Die by the Gun
TV Flash files “Die by the Gun” as hour 14 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 1, episode 14, aired 1958-12-06, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E14: listed hour 14 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 14 of 36 in season 1. It aired 1958-12-06 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Sheriff of Red Rock” (S01E13). Next is “Rawhide Breed” (S01E15).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Josh is returning a prisoner to jail aboard a stagecoach, when he, the prisoner, and the coach driver are waylaid and menaced by two escaped killers who are heading for the Mexican border.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Die by the Gun sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S01E14 is listed hour 14 of 94 — hour 14 of 36 in season 1, season 1 episode 14.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S01E14 air?
Die by the Gun aired 1958-12-06 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…