Dusty's Trail

As others have noted, this is a cheap rip-off of Gilligan's Island. Now, ripping off Gilligan's Island isn't such a bad idea given the popularity of that show but you would think that the creators of Dusty would have used at least a little creativity. Maybe replace the bickering rich couple with a pair of bickering trapeze artists! Or replace the innocent Iowa farm girl with an innocent Bulgarian farm girl who doesn't speak English! But no, this is a paint-by-numbers re-run of Gilligan which is shot through with cheap opportunism & cheaper production values.

The one thing the show had going for it was that it aired at an odd time, just before the networks prime time began. So if you wanted a sitcom at 7:30 on (I think) Friday night Dusty was your only choice. It's indicative of how bad the show was that it failed almost immediately in spite of that. I saw every episode when it first ran & that's the main reason I did so.

I have an especial animus for this show because the theme song has been imprinted on my memory ever since the show aired:

"Dusty's the reason for their plight; Thanks to Dusty, nothing's right! Only the Wagonmaster's hand; Can keep them a-rollin' to the promised land!", etc.

Maybe electro-shock therapy can get rid of it.

I admit that I do like GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. Idiot show that it was, the cast (despite rumors of personality clashes) blended perfectly and the stories, while predictable, were funny. And I suspect that I have the support of most television viewers about this. When I watched the antics of Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, and the others I never expected it was the equivalent of Shakespeare, but I normally felt humored after 30 minutes.

GILLIGAN actually lasted three years on television in terms of new episodes (except for a couple of television movies in the late 1970s), Bob Denver moved on to a now forgotten comedy THE GOOD GUYS with Herb Edelman and Joyce Van Patton (and later Jim Backus, as Edelman's disapproving father-in-law). It lasted two years. Then Denver got offered this show. Regretfully he accepted it.

I have pointed out that there have been only three really good western sit-coms that have popped up on television: MAVERICK, BEST OF THE WEST, and F-TROOP. There were also two others of mediocrity only: PISTOLS 'N PETTICOATS and RANGO. But DUSTY'S TRAIL makes RANGO (whose sole asset was Tim Conway) look like it was written by William Congreve or George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde.

Basically DUSTY'S TRAIL replaced the situation of Gilligan, the Skipper, the Howells, Mary Ann, Ginger, and the Professor being on that deserted island, and put Gilligan and the Skipper, the Howells, and Ginger into a stagecoach going west. Now the central idea of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND was the isolation of the castaways on that island, and how they face weekly threats to their existence. It works, oddly enough (still does on a serious note - the reality show SURVIVOR is identical to it, in that the last one to "survive" has not been voted "dead" and off the island by the others). But this can't be transferred to a stagecoach going through the American West of the 1870s. How can it? You have threats (natural disasters, buffalo stampedes, Indian wars, bandits), but you have plenty of settlements to go to. The writers tried to make it similar by making "Dusty" (Denver) a woefully inept guide. It's not quite the same thing. Moreover, although Forrest Tucker was a good actor (and even a good comedian) he was not as properly fussy as Alan Hale Jr. was in GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.

I saw it twice, and mercifully have forgotten the content of the episodes. Because I like Tucker and Denver I am giving this a "4", but only for them.

From the producer of "Gilligan's Island" (considered in many quarters to be the dumbest T.V. show in history but fondly remembered), Sherwood Schwartz, came this almost plot-by-plot, character-by-character copy, "Dusty's Trail". With not one note of originality, each character was lifted from "Gilligan's Is- land" and placed in the old west. Bob Denver (Gilligan in the original series) played inept assistant wagon master Dusty, For- rest Tucker played Callahan (the Skipper character) the wagon master, and the rest of the characters: Mr. and Mrs. Brookhaven, the stuffy, wealthy Bostonians (Howells). Lulu, the saloon girl (Ginger). Betsy, the wholesome schoolteacher (Mary Ann). Andy, a regular guy type (Professor).

The plot involved Dusty ineptly causing a Conestoga wagon to become separated from the rest of the wagon train and having to bumble their way, lost toward California. Everything was directly ripped-off from Schwartz's successful "Gilligan's Island" which at least had the distinction of being a network series. "Dusty's Trail" was a first-run syndicated show so the budgets were almost non-existent, making the series not only unfunny but also cheap and embarrassing looking.

Television at its' worst!

Two career roles kept Bob Denver typecast for the rest of his life, that of the title role from Gilligan's Island and Maynard G. Krebs from Dobie Gillis. He could never get away from that for as long as he lived.

In Dusty's Trail which was Gilligan's Island out west Denver was once again in the title role and he's a scout for a wagon train where Forrest Tucker was the wagon master. He got two of the wagons lost and worse than that Tucker was with them. The first was your basic settler family William Cort and wife Lori Saunders and saloon girl Jeannine Riley who was a hitchhiker. The second wasn't even a wagon it was millionaire Ivor Francis and his high living wife Lynn Wood in a coach equipped like a Rolls Royce. When you got it, flaunt it and Francis and Wood apparently never travel anything less than first class.

These characters were totally ripped off from Gilligan's Island, you would have to have been in solitary confinement not to recognize them. The situations were Gilligan Island like. I will say that the locale of this show did allow for slightly more realistic guest star situations than the castaways had on Gilligan's Island.

But some of it was so dumb. That storm that blew the castaways off their course was something that could realistically happen. But it sure doesn't say much for Tucker as a wagon master to have Denver as a scout. And he got lost with him.

The coach was just plain ridiculous. These two Francis and Wood I don't care how many millions they had would have had that luxury vehicle breakdown real quick. Can't see it handling mountain passes. Just an incredibly dumb premise.

The show had its amusing moments, but the whole thing was ridiculous.

This was probably the perfect example of Hollywood's lack of imagination. Ironically, this show is basically Sherwood Schwartz and Bob Denver ripping-off the show that was so successful for them. In fact, the concept for this show was so lame that none of the networks would pick it up, so it was sold to different stations to be shown in first run syndication. Each character is basically a carbon copy of the classic cast of Gilligan's Island. You had the sweet Mary Ann type, the smart Professor type, the sexy bombshell and the snobbish older couple. At least the cast from Gilligan had a lot of chemistry that this cast doesn't. .The only difference was that it was set in the old west instead of a deserted island and instead of the occasional native causing the castaways trouble you get a wild assortment of desperadoes wreaking havoc on our lost wagon train. No wonder this show isn't in reruns anymore