Tags
Black Bart, Blazing Saddles, Comedy, Humor, Mel Brooks, Racism, Television, Western
Who could possibly forget Blazing Saddles? Certainly not anyone who watched back in the 70s. But who could forget the television pilot inspired by the same story, Black Bart. Apparently everyone, or at least everyone who doesn’t have a copy of the Blazing Saddles video. (It’s included as an extra.) The pilot features Louis Gossett, Jr. and a few other almost-familiar faces. It’s probably just as well that the series never took off, because this is hardly brilliant comedy. I expect everyone was a little better off without it. Apparently, this did air once, but I have no idea how some of these gags made it past the censors. …or if they did.
Still, it’s interesting to see this mighta-been series.
northierthanthou 
I don’t remember this TV show at all – definitely going to check out the video – thanks for including it.
I watched about 10 minutes, and reflected on how Louis Gossett (didn’t he used to be ‘Jr’?) looked when young. And then I reflected on the fact that Mel Brooks’ version of corn was funny, but this dialogue wasn’t. Still, I did get a couple of laughs from some of the action! – thanks, Daniel.
Wow. That was bad. And surprisingly risque — could you do that on TV in the 70s? Fun to see Steve Landesberg though.
It’s shocking to actually hear “the n-word” spoken on a television program, and I couldn’t help thinking, when Bart deflected the pass from Belle, that you don’t really see many interracial couples on TV, even today…