Black Bart

[james_davis_nicoll]

Because Harvey Korman just died, I rented Blazing Saddles. One of the extras was the pilot episode of Black Bart, which I had never seen before.

It wasn't good in a not-good way peculiar to the mid-1970s. It was interesting how they tried to stick as close to the characters from the film while at the same time removing anything even vaguely edgy or amusing from the characters. It was as devoid of actual humour content as you might wish, although it was still funnier than Black Fly, and the laugh track just highlighted how inept the writing was.

I note that the alcoholic Kid is now the alcoholic "Reb" Jordan, although they didn't make much of him having fought for the south, which since Black Bart is established as a former slave you'd think would come up in conversation now and then. Reb is played by Steve Landesberg, whose early pre-Dietrich choices of roles were not always the best (He was also in When Things Were Rotten).

Comments

[trinfaneb.livejournal.com]

Never heard of it before. Must have come on past my bedtime :)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

One way in which the TV show is different from the movie is that when the one-eyed, wooden-legged local madame propositions Bart, he turns her down not because of the eye or leg but because the local bigots are already tossing him down the local well for owning a white horse and he doesn't want to find out what they'd do if he slept with a white woman. The sheriff in the movie doesn't give in to the local bigots.

I wonder when the first interacial couple on US TV was?

Oh, and in accordance with something a friend mentioned about The Rockford Files, this is another 1970s where being a hooker isn't a bad thing. It's just a job and the people involved are no better or worse than anyone else.

[curt-holman.livejournal.com]

I liked 'When Things Were Rotten.' I was 10 years old.

[(Anonymous)]

I grew up with Korman on the Carol Burnett Show. I'm afraid to go back and watch that stuff on YouTube, because I remember it as insanely, roll-on-the-floor funny, and I fear my thirty-plus-years-later self might not be so very amused.

That said, Korman /was/ funny. He was a damn good comic actor. It's never been clear to me why his career wobbled after the CB show ended, and then pretty much disappeared after about 1980.


Doug M.

[connactic.livejournal.com]

I did not see the pilot, but since the show was a Mel Brooks joint, could the character's name actually have been "Rebbe" Jordan? This could have led to a running gag where people assumed that he fought for the south, rather than just being the kosherest gun west of the Pecos.