Saga of Sonora

"There's gold down in Sonora..." went the theme of this wonderful hour of sheer lunacy and great mad charm. "Maxwell Smart", often in a circle in the corner of the screen, "drinking heavily", narrates this fantasy concerning Vince Edwards who is propelled back into a 19th century that certainly never was where he meets all manner of popular actors and comedians of the time playing absurd Western roles. Zero Mostel in drag in a stagecoach with its back blown off; lines such as "It was suicide. He backed into my gun six times"; and Jill St. John as the bad guy's cohort of whom our narrator says "Bad girls aren't built that way." The song "Belly Up to the Bar" did not seem to fit but everything else worked together right to the nonsensical "Good-bye"s at the end. Surely such lines as "He's so stupid he saw a "Bridge Out" sign so he took out his upper plate and drove straight into the river" deserve to be remembered. No,I do not have total recall: I made an audio tape of "The Saga of Sonora" when it was first rerun. Oh would that we had possessed a DVD recorder or VCR in those days! "The animals of the forest need our help. Take a wild pig to lunch." (That was the last line of the show and gives some idea of how off-the-wall it really was.

Fifteen years or so ago It became easy to see that early 70s lost classic "Evil Roy Slade" so ever since i have been holding out hope that this ("Saga of Sonora") too would resurface. Alas not to be. I remember enjoying this a lot and being struck by Vince Edwards who was either deliberately, excessively stoic or just embarrassed or bored. But he shouldn't have been - my family and i laughed a lot throughout the zany proceedings. Unless my memory is totally askew, Edwards sings a verse of "A Cowboy's Work is Never Done" while driving a horse and wagon. Hope it emerges again someday. As of summer 2020, I still cant find it.

Dear Skoyles-

Bless you and the Internet for this memory which I started to look up today. The Vince Edwards sites I visited had no mention of this. he was the perfect bland straight man for the zany group that surrounded him. I started watching this one Sunday afternoon at the tender age of 24? (what was I doing at my parent's home- probably Sunday dinner). I have never mentioned it to anyone, but remember it better that some blockbuster movies of the same era. It hurts to think that 4 years later, Zero Mostel died in the city and hospital I was at. Does anyone else remember it. It certainly looked like a bit of fluff put on by the NetWorks-but somebody spent time putting this together. The good-byes at the end were unique, and posthumous, as I recall. Another tragedy, of the pre-VCR era.