Wanted: Dead or Alive
Breakout
TV Flash files “Breakout” as hour 40 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 2, episode 4, aired 1959-09-26, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E04: listed hour 40 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 4 of 32 in season 2. It aired 1959-09-26 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Matchmaker” (S02E03). Next is “Estralita” (S02E05).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Prison officials allow Josh to go undercover and help Tom Dunn, an imprisoned criminal, to breakout out in order to find out where he has hidden the fifty thousand dollars from a bank robbery.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Breakout sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S02E04 is listed hour 40 of 94 — hour 4 of 32 in season 2, season 2 episode 4.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S02E04 air?
Breakout aired 1959-09-26 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…