Wanted: Dead or Alive
The Kovack Affair
TV Flash files “The Kovack Affair” as hour 30 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 1, episode 30, aired 1959-03-28, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E30: listed hour 30 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 30 of 36 in season 1. It aired 1959-03-28 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Double Fee” (S01E29). Next is “Bounty for a Bride” (S01E31).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Josh's old friend, Jesse Holloway is in love with the town's hotel owner, Meghan Francis, who is being threatened by a monstrous businessman named Kovak who wants to take the hotel over at any cost. Jesse sends for Josh to try and keep Kovak away, if possible without any use of violence.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Kovack Affair sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S01E30 is listed hour 30 of 94 — hour 30 of 36 in season 1, season 1 episode 30.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S01E30 air?
The Kovack Affair aired 1959-03-28 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…