Black Bart

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.

Director: Robert Butler, Script: Andrew Bergman(Story), Michael Elias, Frank Shaw. Cast: Lou Gossett Jr., Steve Landesberg, Millie Slavin

Black Bart was a proposed television series spin-off from the 1974 movie blazing saddles that didn't quite get off the ground. It probably isn't as bad a many people make it out to be. The problem is that people that have seen this are constantly comparing it to blazing saddles. If one takes this show in its own context, it really is not all that bad. It will not generate the laughs of its pilot move but it does have some funny moments.

Mel Brooks had no involvement and the whole cast is different from Blazing Saddles with different character names as well(except Bart). This is to be expected since this was a proposed television show and Blazing Saddles was a feature film. I thought that Lou Gossett would be miss-cast for the part of Bart but after seeing the show I thought he was actually pretty funny. Many people will recognize Steve Landesberg from Barny Miller. He played Gossett's sidekick(similar to Jim or waco the kid-played by Gene Wilder). Millie Slavin played the part of Belle which is similar to the Lili Von Shtupp character played by Madeline Kahn.

Although not a great show by any means, it is still a good addition to the Blazing Saddled DVD and certainly worth a watch. It would have been interesting to see how this show would have evolved had it made it to prime time television.

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.

A failed pilot from 1975 based on "Blazing Saddles" featuring Lou Gossett in the role of Black Bart, originally and much more memorably played by Cleavon Little in the movie. Vastly inferior to the film with the writers trying to replicate and failing dismally at echoing the Mel Brooks type of humor. Was recently shown as part of Trio's "Brilliant But Canceled" specials. A misnomer if there ever was one considering it was neither brilliant nor ever had the chance of getting canceled because it never made it on in the first place.

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.