Wanted: Dead or Alive
Man on Horseback
TV Flash files “Man on Horseback” as hour 50 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 2, episode 14, aired 1959-12-05, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E14: listed hour 50 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 14 of 32 in season 2. It aired 1959-12-05 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “No Trail Back” (S02E13). Next is “Chain Gang” (S02E15).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Charley Red Cloud is blamed for the murder of Will Bascomb. Bascomb's brother, Merv places a high bounty on Red Cloud. Josh agrees to go after him, even though he has to enter hostile Apache territory.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Man on Horseback sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S02E14 is listed hour 50 of 94 — hour 14 of 32 in season 2, season 2 episode 14.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S02E14 air?
Man on Horseback aired 1959-12-05 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…