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| Dusty's Trail | |
|---|---|
| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | Sherwood Schwartz |
| Starring | Bob Denver Forrest Tucker Ivor Francis Jeannine Riley Lori Saunders Lynn Wood William Cort |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 26 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Syndicated |
| Picture format | Color; NTSC |
| Audio format | Monaural sound |
| Original run | September 11, 1973 – March 12, 1974 |
Dusty's Trail is a 1973-1974 syndicated television series set in the 1800s about a small group of travelers separated from their wagon train who become lost. Dusty's Trail stars Bob Denver as Dusty, the assistant to the leader of a wagon train, and Forrest Tucker as Mr. Callahan, his irascible boss. Twenty-six episodes of the series were produced.
Summary
The series portrays passengers of a wagon and a stagecoach that have become separated from the main wagon train on its way to California in the 1800s. The people in this group are the drivers of the wagon (Mr. Callahan) and the stagecoach (Dusty), a wealthy Eastern banker and his wife (Mr. and Mrs. Brookhaven), a dance-hall woman (Lulu), an educated man (Andy), and a farmer's daughter (Betsy). The show follows the adventures of this group attempting to find the main wagon train.
The program was created for Denver by Sherwood Schwartz, who had previously created its progenitor, Gilligan's Island. According to U.S. television researchers Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, the reason for the program's failure was that it was too derivative of Gilligan's Island. Normally, retreading an old format shouldn't mean the early demise of a series, unless the show being emulated is a rerun icon like Gilligan's Island. Despite its exceptionally short run, it has found new life in weekly reruns on the America One network. In 1976, four episodes of the series were tied together and released as "The Wackiest Wagon Train In The West".
Unlike many other syndicated sitcoms of the 70's, the program was produced on film instead of video tape.
Denver professed on several occasions, including a May 1989 interview on KDKA radio, that Dusty's Trail was his favorite show to perform. The series also starred two Petticoat Junction alumni, Jeannine Riley (Lulu) and Lori Saunders (Betsy).
One episode of the series has the last TV appearance of Canadian-Indian actor Jay Silverheels (television's Tonto on The Lone Ranger, 1952-1960). Sherwood Schwartz had used the actor previously in the Grand Canyon Brady Bunch episodes.
Several episodes of the program have been released on DVD, and the program occasionally appears on family-themed cable channels.
External links
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