Wanted: Dead or Alive
Drop to Drink
TV Flash files “Drop to Drink” as hour 17 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 1, episode 17, aired 1958-12-27, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E17: listed hour 17 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 17 of 36 in season 1. It aired 1958-12-27 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Eight Cent Reward” (S01E16). Next is “Rope Law” (S01E18).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Frank Parrish and his partner are after a diamond ring worth $20,000. They way-lay the pony express carrier carrying the package that has the ring. When the rider doesn't return to the town of Tipton, Josh Randall is hired to find the courier and the ring.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Drop to Drink sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S01E17 is listed hour 17 of 94 — hour 17 of 36 in season 1, season 1 episode 17.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S01E17 air?
Drop to Drink aired 1958-12-27 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…