I also grew up watching “Wild, Wild West” - an entertaining and imaginative show. I felt so sad when Ross Martin passed away suddenly with a heart attack. It wasn’t quite the same afterwards.
I had to see “Black Sheep Squadron/Baa Baa Black Sheep” when it was first announced, because Robert Conrad was in it. The first season had some powerful episodes. The supporting cast were really good, including intro’s to Dan Blocker’s (Bonanza’s Hoss Cartwright) son Dirk, younger John Larroquette and Magnum PI’s Larry Manetti. Red West also joined the cast. Yes, that “Memphis Mafia” and Elvis songwriter who (with his brother Sonny) wrote the infamous tell-all about Elvis weeks before he died. Red West was actually good in the show as the hardened plane mechanic.
I didn’t know much at all about what had happened during WW2 in the Pacific theater when I started to watch the series. I remember reading up on all of that, and also reading Pappy Boyington’s autobiography and about the Flying Tigers. I came out with a real appreciation of how difficult it had been to push back the Japanese, island by island. That one thing that came out of the series is my knowledge increased, and I am still grateful for that.
My dad was an Army surgical technician in Hawaii during WW2 - they got the Pacific theater wounded. The wounded were stabilized as best could be done & transported by ship to Hawaii. As a result, I find very interesting the fights with the Japanese over the islands. One of the more ‘interesting’ stories: Dad heard about one patient (the talk of the hospital when he came in) who had been run through the chest with a Japanese sword. He went to the ward to see for himself - the guy was doing well ... miraculously, the sword missed all vital organs and in fact, he had the sword under his pillow!