Wanted: Dead or Alive
Vanishing Act
TV Flash files “Vanishing Act” as hour 52 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 2, episode 16, aired 1959-12-26, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S02E16: listed hour 52 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 16 of 32 in season 2. It aired 1959-12-26 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Chain Gang” (S02E15). Next is “Mental Lapse” (S02E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Josh is on the trail of bank robber Bart McCready. He tracks him to a town and discovers that McCready is performing as an escape artist with the name of 'The Great Bartolo'.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Vanishing Act sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S02E16 is listed hour 52 of 94 — hour 16 of 32 in season 2, season 2 episode 16.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S02E16 air?
Vanishing Act aired 1959-12-26 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…