Dusty's Trail

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.

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!

OK maybe this was not the Hight if Original TV back in the early 70's but I can remember this being on at a strange time like 7:30 on Saturday nights. I use to watch it and for a 9 year old this wasn't all that bad. But yet I did know that this was a Rip off of Gilligan's Island with the Writers just lifting Storys from Gilligan's Island and Putting them into the Old West.

I found this again while walking around a Discount store a few days ago and I picked up The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West just because I had Fond Memories of the show. Now I know why It didn't last but still Its better then some of the Garbage on TV now.

Maybe I am just looking for a show you can sit down and watch with your Kids and don't have to Worry about them asking you any Questions about Sex and why are those Two Guys Sleeping Togeather. This show came from a Better time; at lest in my View.

Take a chance and watch it with the Kids its not that Bad actually and its kind of Fun watching Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker Ham it up for the Screen. Try it you might like it.

This show was Gilligan's Island set in the old West. Instead of being shipwrecked on a deserted island, they are a group separated from a wagon train and lost in the wilderness.

Every character in Gilligan's Island has a direct counterpart in Dusty's Trail. Of course, the title character is played in both series by Bob Denver. The Skipper is replaced by the wagon master, Forrest Tucker. There is a rich married couple, farm girl, and smart guy in each group. And this series substitutes a saloon hall girl for an actress to round out the group of seven.

Just as the castaways in Gilligan's Island spent every episode trying to get off the island, in Dusty's Trail, they try to find their way out of the wilderness, and failing every time. Just the same, the episodes are amusing, although they seem a little watered-down for us Gilligan's Island fanatics. We only watch this series to see Bob Denver in his usual antics.

I love this show, and rank the "Almost Complete Series" box set I found with 17 episodes of the 26 made to be one of the DVD scores of 2006. I grew up in a household led by two intellectuals who forbade their children from watching television lacking substance, and amongst the most often switched off with an admonishment of "SPORTS, PBS OR NOTHING!" comment was Gilligan's Island. Naturally then when leaving the nest one of the first things I did was to get cable TV and catch up on all the decades of crap television I had been denied, and Gilligan's Island earned a special place in the daily schedule. I managed to tape it every day for about three years until my stupid girlfriend said enough was enough, never missed an episode and still managed to get my Master's degree just fine.

But somehow I never encountered Dusty's Trail until bringing home a dollar store DVD of it and was instantly hooked before the first episode was even over. Yes it's Gilligan all over again, with the twist being that it's set in the West with cowboys & injuns instead of island natives and holdout Japanese WW2 soldiers. And yes the creators pillaged their own series right down to the characterizations, but they had the foresight to cast two very interesting supporting player regulars in the ultra-cute Laurie Saunders (who would have given Mary Anne a run for the money on the sexiness scale even if cloaked in twice as much clothing) and one of my all-time favorite actors, the always cadaverous Ivor Francis who's bemused expressions of morbid disbelief made so many television shows so much more interesting than they would have been without his presence. Dusty's Trail might be Ivor Francis' finest hour, and the moment when I became hooked on the show was a scene where he sort of gazes off into the distance and begins relating an idea for a hair-brained scheme to keep Dusty and the Wagonmaster (odd name) from having to marry two redneck DELIVERANCE women shotgun-style.

It's too bad the series was not picked up by a network because it has some genuinely funny moments -- look for the episode where they park their wagon on top of a volcano that is about to erupt for a particularly potent belly-laughing fit -- and had a sort of odd "Hee-Haw on Acid" approach to it's production design, especially the costuming for the wealthy Brookhavens. Like Gilligan's Island, most of the shows were filmed entirely on soundstages: that's inside, and these are Western episodes set out in the middle of nowhere. There are a few forays onto location sets but for the most part the shows have this surreal, phony look to them that reminds me more than anything else of the more cartoonishly arty Spaghetti Westerns like the Sartana movies of Anthony Ascott, which were all the rage at the time the series would have aired. Art imitating life imitating art, if you will.

But I mean look, if you want seriously acted rational television you are wasting your time with stuff like Dusty's Trail, which makes F-Troop look deeply thoughtful by comparison. But it is an interesting cultural artifact, sort of half hip to the times and half wrapped up in the same kind of stupid innocence that made Gilligan so much fun. The depiction of Native Americans is also about as politically sensitive as the Three Stooges, or Gilligan's Island for that matter, and it is strange seeing people smoke on screen the way that they do in this show -- something you never saw on Gilligan's Island even if cigarette ad revenues were an important source of network income.

I like how stupid the show is, and how it doesn't require any kind of active thinking on the part of the viewer to enjoy it. There is nothing to figure out, silly laughs, pretty women and guys dressed up in gorilla suits. After five years of The War on Terror it's kind of relaxing to once again have the 11 year old idiot inside of me catered to with one hair-brained scheme after the other. It may not be original but it's still very funny for those in the right frame of mind, and when you come up with a good idea sometimes it pays to go back and milk it for a second run. I'm glad they made the show and will not rest until I have found the other nine episodes as well as the feature-length film version: The TV on DVD fad does have a few useful purposes after all.