# TheWild,Wild,West: Jim Gordon / Artemus Gordon: Were they a Closeted Gay Couple? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [February 27, 2021, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916 "2021-02-27T21:48:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![lum\_s\_husband](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lum_s_husband/32/3698_2.png) [@lum\_s\_husband](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lum_s_husband)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/61 "2021-03-03T02:15:43Z")
Try casting a white Blade and find out. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/62 "2021-03-03T02:33:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I see more color-blind casting in UK productions The Oscar Wilde plays were televised with a mixed cast. I didn’t like it – for me, it doesn’t work having members of the same family different, in a play where biological descent is important – but I thought that probably for an English audience it was less of an issue: my contacts with English society suggest that people of Caribbean or Pakistani background (including mixed families) are now fairly ‘ordinary’ in London, as their food is. Not to suggest that the producers weren’t very pleased with themselves, just that the local audience perhaps didn’t have to stretch as far as I did. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/63 "2021-03-03T02:47:09Z")
As early as 1993 (that’s–my God, almost 30 years ago now!), Kenneth Branagh cast Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves as brothers in _Much Ado About Nothing_. It’s not such a new thing. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/64 "2021-03-04T22:30:48Z")
Total trivia derail: Robert Conrad’s son, playing tennis with a young Paul Thomas Anderson, got into a dispute that resulted in the latter throwing his racquet at the former. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/65 "2021-03-04T22:39:55Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Total trivia derail: Robert Conrad’s son, playing tennis with a young Paul Thomas Anderson, got into a dispute that resulted in the latter throwing his racquet at the former. Did the younger Conrad dare PTA to knock the tennis ball off his shoulder? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HA6mksFu2vc/hqdefault.jpg "Robert Conrad Dares You to Knock Off His Eveready Battery - 1978") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA6mksFu2vc) ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/66 "2021-03-04T22:58:03Z")
No, but Bill Murray did in a pretty good SNL ad where he does just that, as an emasculated Robert Conrad storms off, threatening to go get his dad. Sucks it can’t be found on i-net. Murray just laughs at him, slaps him around a little. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/67 "2021-03-05T02:37:14Z")
> [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](#): > > by 2021 standards, it makes me think that they might have been committed domestic partners. Whenever I chance on discussions like this, this scene forces its way into my mind (a great scene in a bad move, but everyone who’s made it through the PhD gauntlet will wince in sympathy). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/gB2jVKZVeE4/hqdefault.jpg ""Getting Straight" - oral, anyone? [original aspect ratio]") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB2jVKZVeE4&t=179) ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/68 "2021-03-05T10:57:46Z")
“The Wild, Wild, West” was a western parody of the James Bond films: fantastic villains, strange technology, secret lairs…and the main character was oversexed. … Sorry that I can’t find the quote, but one reviewer wrote that the a big part of “The Odd Couple” was how the part was played as simply two men having to live together - without any indication of there being a gay relationship. But it probably helped that the two characters were usually at odds with each other. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916/69 "2021-03-08T17:41:46Z")
I’ll just point out that Artemus [sic] had not only a feminine name, but that of a female goddess. (I won’t say from which mythology, because I’m trying to stay highbrow.) So, the implication might have been there. Alas, Artemis was a virgin goddess, so Artemus’s love was destined to go unrequited or, at least, unsatiated. Whether that was because Jim was so deeply closeted that he couldn’t unbutton his purple jacket and flowery waistcoat even in private, or because he was just into bad guys, like the less-suggestively named Dr. Loveless … well, we can only speculate. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thewild-wild-west-jim-gordon-artemus-gordon-were-they-a-closeted-gay-couple/933916.md?page=3)