Wanted: Dead or Alive
Barney's Bounty
TV Flash files “Barney's Bounty” as a desk essential hour — Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958–1961) on CBS, season 3, episode 26, aired 1961-03-29, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E26: listed hour 94 of 94 in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide, last listed hour of season 3. It aired 1961-03-29 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Dead Reckoning” (S03E25). No later hour is listed in this guide.
Essential hour: “Barney's Bounty”. Barney's Bounty closes 1961: last named payday, the Mare's Leg packed away after three seasons of quiet, crowded-field stardom.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Josh tries to reconcile an old friend and his son while they pursue a pair of escaped prisoners who make off with Barney's horses.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Barney's Bounty sit in the Wanted: Dead or Alive guide?
S03E26 is listed hour 94 of 94 — last listed hour of season 3, season 3 episode 26.
When did Wanted: Dead or Alive S03E26 air?
Barney's Bounty aired 1961-03-29 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…