WILDSIDE (1985) – After The Wild Wild West, The Barbary Coast and Bearcats but before The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. came this short-lived series about a secret crime-fighting group in the 1880s American West.
The group undertakes special missions for the governor and is based in Wildside, CA where they operate under the name “the Wildside Chamber of Commerce.” That’s not just a code name for their elite unit, though. Each member is a former outlaw who went straight before it was too late and all run legitimate businesses in Wildside. When they go on missions their cover story is that they are going off on a hunting party for a few days.
THE CAST:
HOWARD ROLLINS portrayed Bannister Sparks, who had been a demolitions man as an outlaw and retained that expertise as a crime-fighting operative.
Sparks ran a mercantile emporium which, in the kind of cutesy anachronistic humor that Brisco County, Jr. would later thrive on, was like a proto-shopping center of the future.
Bannister was the brains and de facto leader of the team.
WILLIAM SMITH played Brodie Hollister, gunfighter extraordinaire. Hollister breeds and trains horses.
William Smith hadn’t been in a role like this since his days playing a Texas Ranger Special Agent on the old western series Laredo.
On that old series his teammates were Peter Brown, Neville Brand and Philip Carey. Continue reading
Balladeer's Blog 