The Wild Wild West
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free The Wild Wild West trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Wild Wild West put two government agents on a private train and sent them out against mad scientists, would-be emperors and some of the strangest gadgets ever seen in a television Western. It ran from 1965 to 1969, and its mix of frontier adventure and spy thriller has kept winning new fans in reruns. This quiz covers the whole story: James West and Artemus Gordon, the unforgettable Dr. Loveless and his schemes, the guest villains, the stunts and injuries behind the scenes, and the reason the show left the air. There are also questions on the two reunion movies and the big-budget 1999 film. It is written for fans who grew up with the series and for anyone hosting a classic TV trivia night. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you can play it straight through or print it as a quiz with an answer key.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Creator Michael Garrison conceived The Wild Wild West as which famous fictional spy on horseback?
James Bond
James Bond was the model: beautiful women, clever gadgets and megalomaniac villains, all moved to the 1870s frontier. Westerns were losing viewers to spy shows when the series was developed.
Q 02In The Wild Wild West, James West served on which future president's Civil War staff before guarding him?
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant is the president the agents answer to, and the series is set during his two terms, from 1869 to 1877. West had been a cavalry and intelligence officer on his wartime staff.
Q 03Which actor performed nearly all of his own stunts as agent James West on The Wild Wild West?
Robert Conrad
Robert Conrad volunteered for the jumps and falls because setting up stuntmen slowed filming and strained the budget. He also helped choreograph the two big fights most episodes featured.
Q 04Which agency sends James West and Artemus Gordon out on a private train in The Wild Wild West?
The Secret Service
The Secret Service gives the pair their missions throughout the series. In the 1999 film they only join it at the very end, as its first two agents.
Q 05The Wild Wild West was cancelled in its fourth season amid a Congressional outcry over which issue?
TV violence
TV violence came under fire after the assassinations of 1968, and the network dropped the show as a gesture of good intentions. Its last episodes had strict limits on fights and gunplay.
Q 06Which star played James West in the 1999 film Wild Wild West and also recorded its chart-topping theme song?
Will Smith
Will Smith turned the agent into a wisecracking Army captain, and his title song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The film itself disappointed at the box office against a $170 million budget.
Q 07Which actor, later famous as the henchman Jaws, played Dr. Loveless's towering bodyguard Voltaire on The Wild Wild West?
Richard Kiel
Richard Kiel played the mostly silent giant in only three episodes before Voltaire vanished without explanation. He returned later as a different character, a wealthy family's outcast son.
Q 08Which machine armed with nitroglycerin cannons is Dr. Loveless's ultimate weapon in the 1999 film Wild Wild West?
A giant spider
A giant spider was something producer Jon Peters had already requested for an unmade Superman film. In Wild Wild West it halts at the very edge of a canyon during the final showdown.
Q 09The star of The Wild Wild West fractured his skull in 1968 after falling from what during a stunt?
A chandelier
A chandelier swing went wrong when he failed to chalk his hands, dropping him 15 feet onto concrete. Filming for the season ended early, and the fall itself was left in the finished episode.
Q 10Which science-fiction hit of 1999 did the leading man of Wild Wild West turn down to make the Western instead?
The Matrix
The Matrix offered him the lead role of Neo, but he chose the Western, a decision he later said he regretted.
Q 11Which actor played more than 100 different characters across The Wild Wild West as gadget-maker Artemus Gordon?
Ross Martin
Ross Martin called the part a show-off's showcase and sketched his own ideas for each character's look. The work earned him an Emmy nomination in 1969.
Q 12The cartoon hero in The Wild Wild West's opening titles shoots a gunman with which pistol hidden up his sleeve?
A derringer
A derringer slides out of his sleeve after he drops his own gun and raises his hands. A toy sleeve gun went on sale in 1966, though without the show's name on it.
Q 13What is the name of the luxurious private train that carries James West and Artemus Gordon in The Wild Wild West?
The Wanderer
Q 21Which Bewitched star won The Wild Wild West its only Emmy, playing the murderous matchmaker Emma Valentine?
Agnes Moorehead
Agnes Moorehead won the 1967 supporting-actress Emmy for this single guest spot. Her villain holds James West captive in a matchmaking machine that works out his ideal woman.
Q 22Which entertainer joined Peter Lawford as a guest in The Wild Wild West episode about a bulletproof ghost rider?
Sammy Davis Jr.
Sammy Davis Jr. played Jeremiah opposite his fellow Rat Pack member Peter Lawford in this second-season story, which was filmed partly in Bronson Canyon.
Q 23Which star of the 1931 film Frankenstein played a maharajah who kidnaps James West on The Wild Wild West?
Boris Karloff
The Wanderer's lavish passenger-car interior was a studio set that reportedly cost $35,000 to build in 1965. The 1999 film kept the name for its own train.
Q 14Which actor and nightclub singer played the arch-villain Dr. Loveless in ten episodes of The Wild Wild West?
Michael Dunn
Michael Dunn sang in a real nightclub act with Phoebe Dorin, who played Loveless's companion on screen. Poor health held him to ten episodes when his contract called for four a season.
Q 15Which network filmed The Wild Wild West on a lot it shared with Gunsmoke and Gilligan's Island?
CBS
CBS filmed the series at its Studio Center lot in Studio City, once the home of Republic Studios and its Roy Rogers and Gene Autry Westerns.
Q 16The Wild Wild West, with its Victorian-era gadgets, is often cited as an early television example of which genre?
Steampunk
Steampunk sites cite the show's Verne-style technology in an 1870s setting as a pioneering influence. The 1999 film played up that side even more.
Q 17Which actor played a dual role as Artemus Gordon and the President in the 1999 film Wild Wild West?
Kevin Kline
Kevin Kline made his Gordon a vain inventor locked in a rivalry with West, where the television partners were close friends who trusted each other with their lives.
Q 18Which British actor played Dr. Loveless as a legless ex-Confederate inventor in the 1999 film Wild Wild West?
Kenneth Branagh
Kenneth Branagh played him in a steam-powered wheelchair, a change the television show's star attacked. Branagh later joked that he despised the accent he had used.
Q 19The original James West actor turned up in person to collect which awards won by the 1999 film Wild Wild West?
The Razzies
The Razzies named it Worst Picture among five wins, and he accepted three of the trophies himself to show his disapproval of the remake.
Q 20The actor who played James West on The Wild Wild West famously balanced what on his shoulder in 1970s commercials?
A battery
A battery sat on his shoulder in the Eveready ads while he challenged viewers to test its staying power. The tough-guy routine was parodied by Johnny Carson and Carol Burnett.
Boris Karloff's maharajah wants West to tutor his sons in the fine art of killing, and at one point the agent becomes the ball in a deadly game of polo.
Q 24Which future stand-up legend guest-starred in the Wild Wild West episode that introduced Count Manzeppi?
Richard Pryor
Richard Pryor played Villar, a member of the Eccentrics, a league of assassins based at a circus. Comedy Central later ranked him the greatest stand-up of all time.
Q 25Which state does Dr. Loveless of The Wild Wild West claim through his family's Spanish-era lands?
California
California, he insists, belongs to him through his mother's old ranchero family. His first scheme was to seize it from the governor and build a haven for society's outcasts.
Q 26Unlike its three later seasons, the first season of The Wild Wild West was filmed in what format?
Black and white
Black and white suited the moodier early stories, one of which earned an Emmy nomination for cinematography. When color arrived in 1966, the train set was rebuilt in lighter wood and the show turned campier.
Q 27The theme song of the 1999 film Wild Wild West samples the 1976 hit "I Wish" by which Motown star?
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder also appears in the song's music video, and he played a reprise of the chorus on piano when it was performed at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.
Q 28The star and director of 1999's Wild Wild West had just made which hit alien comedy together?
Men in Black
Men in Black had just wrapped when talks began in 1997, and the studio went on to promote the pair's Western far more heavily than its animated film The Iron Giant.
Q 29What is the first name of The Wild Wild West's arch-villain Dr. Loveless, changed to Arliss for the 1999 film?
Miguelito
Miguelito Quixote Loveless was created by writer John Kneubuhl after he read a magazine article about the actor who would go on to play him.
Q 30What is the name of Dr. Loveless's singing companion on The Wild Wild West, played by Phoebe Dorin?
Antoinette
Antoinette often sings duets with the doctor at a piano or a stringed instrument. Dorin recalled her costume snagging in underwater machinery on set, and her co-star diving down to free her.