Wanted: Dead or Alive
Surprise Witness
TV Flash files “Surprise Witness” as hour 75 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 3, episode 7, aired 1960-11-02, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E07: listed hour 75 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 7 of 26 in season 3. It aired 1960-11-02 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Showdown” (S03E06). Next is “To the Victor” (S03E08).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Josh captures a notorious killer but no one wants to testify against him, until a surprise witness come forward, his mother.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Surprise Witness sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S03E07 is listed hour 75 of 94 — hour 7 of 26 in season 3, season 3 episode 7.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S03E07 air?
Surprise Witness aired 1960-11-02 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…