Wanted: Dead or Alive
The Last Retreat
TV Flash files “The Last Retreat” as hour 84 of 94 in the TV Flash guide — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 3, episode 16, aired 1961-01-11, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E16: listed hour 84 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, hour 16 of 26 in season 3. It aired 1961-01-11 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Baa-Baa” (S03E15). Next is “Bounty on Josh” (S03E17).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Sarah Lawton's identification led to killer Clem Robinson's conviction. Now Clem has escaped from prison, and Josh is hired for protection by Mrs. Lawton because her lawyer husband is a coward.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Last Retreat sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S03E16 is listed hour 84 of 94 — hour 16 of 26 in season 3, season 3 episode 16.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S03E16 air?
The Last Retreat aired 1961-01-11 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…