Pop quiz: Name the TV series about a group of stranded people consisting of a captain, a millionaire and his wife, a showgirl, an intellectual, a farm girl, and a buffoon who consistently foils their plans to return home. If you answered Gilligan’s Island, you’re wrong but also right. What failed to be mentioned is that the series takes place in the old West, but otherwise, the series is, for all intents and purposes, Gilligan’s Island. So sit right back, and you’ll hear a tale about Dusty’s Trail, the Western-themed reimagining of the S.S. Minnow‘s castaways and their comic adventures.
‘Dusty’s Trail’ Shares More Than a Concept With ‘Gilligan’s Island’
One would assume that the creator of Gilligan’s Island would be up in arms over another series copying the concept, and you would probably be right in most cases, but not this one. Dusty’s Trail was created by the same visionary who introduced the world to the inept Gilligan and his long-suffering fellow castaways: Sherwood Schwartz. Only instead of a “three-hour tour,” with an oddly large amount of packed clothing and other personal items stowed aboard for such a sojourn (a topic for another time), Dusty’s Trail focuses on a group of seven whose wagon and stagecoach are separated from their wagon train while en route to California. As they try in vain, week after week, to find and rejoin the wagon train, they encounter scoundrels and bears, among other things, not all that far removed from the robbers, headhunters, a gorilla, and even Kurt Russell that the Minnow castaways encountered.
The ties to Gilligan’s Island go even deeper than sharing the producer and the concept, with each of the Minnow castaways mirrored almost exactly in Dusty’s Trail. Forrest Tucker‘s Mr. Callahan, the wagonmaster, is the Skipper. Ivor Francis and Lynn Wood are Dusty’s Trail‘s Howell’s: Carson, a wealthy banker, and Daphne Brookhaven. The Professor is a civil engineer named Andy Boone, played by William Cort. Lulu McQueen (Jeannine Riley), a showgirl, and Betsy McGuire (Lori Saunders), a school teacher, are the show’s step-ins for Ginger Grant and Mary Ann Summers, respectively. Schwartz even brought Bob Denver, aka Gilligan, aboard as Dusty, the bumbling shotgun lookout, trading in his bucket hat for a cowboy hat. And if that wasn’t enough, the Skipper… sorry, Mr. Callahan referred to Dusty as “little pal,” as opposed to the Skipper’s nickname for Gilligan, “little buddy.”
‘Dusty’s Trail’ Gets the Hangman’s Noose After 26 Episodes
The series premiered in September 1973 in syndication, six years after Gilligan’s Island and immediately following the cancellation of Schwartz’s other iconic series, The Brady Bunch. Dusty’s Trail had a lot of promise; Gilligan’s Island proved popular, and Bob Denver brought that same charm and ineptitude he had with Gilligan (Denver actually considered Dusty’s Trail to be his best work). Forrest Tucker was a seasoned television and film actor, who had recently shown off his comedic chops as Sgt. Morgan O’Rourke in the 1965-1967 sitcom F Troop. Riley and Saunders were both previously in Petticoat Junction, playing two of the three Bradley sisters (though, not at the same time — Riley played Billie Jo for the first two seasons, Saunders played Bobbie Jo in the last five), so their roles in Dusty’s Trail were not all that far removed. And while the theme song wasn’t “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island” strong, it did manage to sum up the premise fairly well, with lines like, “Dusty’s the reason for their plight, thanks to Dusty, nothing’s right.”
Related
We Now Know When We’ll Say Goodbye to ‘The Conners’
Prepare to say goodbye to the Conners.
Dusty’s Trail didn’t fare all that badly, at least as far as first-run syndicated series are concerned, but it would be cancelled after 26 episodes. No official reason was ever given, although Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, television researchers, did believe that it was so obvious it was a rewrite of Gilligan’s Island that it brought nothing new, and cited it as a “derivative flop.” An attempt to keep the series alive, by combining four episodes of Dusty’s Trail (“Tomahawk Territory,” “Horse of Another Color,” “There Is Nothing Like a Dame,” and “The Not So Magnificent Seven”) into a feature film called The Wackiest Wagon Train in the West (per the previously cited “Single Season Sitcoms, 1948-1979: A Complete Guide”), didn’t succeed, and they had hit the end of the Trail. Schwartz would go on to keep Gilligan’s Island alive through a series of made-for-TV movies and Saturday morning cartoons, and Denver’s career played out in the Gilligan’s Island projects and cameos in other TV shows. Who knows, if Schwartz had tried something, anything, different with the series, Dusty’s Trail may have been up there with his biggest properties, instead of being largely forgotten.
Dusty’s Trail is available to stream on Prime Video in the U.S.
WATCH ON PRIME VIDE
- Release Date
- September 11, 1973
