Black Bart

Apparently, "Black Bart" was shown once on TV and, fortunately, that was it....no TV series followed this pilot. I can see why, as there are two glaring problems. First, even in the same time period as "All in the Family", the prolific use of various racial slurs sets this one apart from any other show of the era. Even compared to "All in the Family", this is very excessive. And, had they okayed the series, its value in syndication would have been nil. Second, and more importantly, the show is NOT funny and the spirit of it seems very different and more sit-com like than the movie.

Overall, while Lou Gossett and the rest try hard, this show was doomed from the outset. I just cannot see how any show like "Blazing Saddles" could have aired then, as it certainly was not family friendly and was written rather poorly to boot.

Genuine tears, not from laughter. Whoever wrote this hopefully lost their job. I wonder if Lou Gossett and Steve Landesberg(who later became Dietrich on Barney Miller) are awful. I would have loved to have had a Mel Brooks commentary to this on the DVD. It would surely be funnier than the dialog. Even the sets don't seem right. I don't think they could have got this on TV if they had put a horse's head in bed with a TV executive. I've seen few failed pilots but if many of them are like this, Hollywood is - well considering some of what DOES make it on TV maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Hopefully the people who make DVD's will never make a mistake like this again.

Western spoof concerning the adventures of a black sheriff and his fast-drawing sidekick fighting corruption and bigotry in the old west. Based on the feature film "Blazing Saddles" (1974).

Whether or not this would have been a successful sitcom is anyone's guess. If nothing else, it has Gerrit Graham, so if that would have continued Graham could have been a great star. Why no one from the movie appears in the pilot is unclear. Obviously some of them had other things to do, but it feels like they made zero effort to reunite the cast.

From this one episode it is hard to make judgments, but it strikes me as difficult to continue on like this. For "Blazing Saddles" there is a clear story arc. Here, we do not see it. The most I get from it is that maybe it will be an old west "Andy Griffith Show" with race jokes thrown in. And that would get old.

I laughed at this show, mainly because I have seen many people with the same attitudes that this show harpooned. it was not as good as the movie, and would have been much better if they had stayed more with the characters of the movie, but in its own right it was not that bad. most pilots are made more to showcase the idea of the show than the show itself.

An example is Charmed. it had two pilots, the one that was made to show the studio execs and the one that aired. they were basically the same, but one was well done, and had the actors that became the well loved sisters and their companions, while the other was shot, not with the best cameras and sets, but what they could use within their budgets. the same could be said of this pilot. it would have had to be redone if it had ever gotten on air. It might have made it if Mel Brooks had had a hand in it.

The Blazing Saddles phenomenon spun off this spin-off pilot episode which probably never made it to television in the first place. Lou Gosset revives the character of Black Bart from the Blazing Saddles film. The cast of characters has changed into a small town but none of the original players are there. Steve Landesburg played the Gene Wilder role under another name. The pilot is rarely uneventful and not very funny even though there was a laugh track there. It was film on the back lot for westerns. True, the show could have been better if there was more than Black Bart in the picture. The other cast members aren't known to me. Gosset would win an Oscar and Landesburg went on to Barney Miller. Still, I can see where they tried to capture Blazing Saddles success for television but the original cast of characters and the film itself was the allure not just the story.