Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

codykilgore Sure after the first few minutes of your first episodes the viewer will think Gilligan's Island meets F Troop meets wagon train and he/she would be correct. But this series has does have its charm and thanks to public domain, it can seen and purchased quite cheaply.Dusty's Trail is about group of hapless settlers from different walks of life who are somehow separated from the rest of their wagon train and have to head to California on their own. The Wagon Master is a lot like the Skipper (he even calls his assistant "Little Pal" and Dusty is of course much like Gilligan and he have a rich couple, a dance hall girl (it's show biz, I guess) and s sweet girl and smart young man.The show will never make the all time great list, but compared to a lot of shows today, it's nice to watch a clean gentle comedy that is adults and children will enjoy. My rating 7/10 for Bob Denver fans 9/10

H Lime-2 As others have noted, this is a cheap rip-off of Gilligan's Island. Now, ripping off Gilligan's Island isn't such a bad idea given the popularity of that show but you would think that the creators of Dusty would have used at least a little creativity. Maybe replace the bickering rich couple with a pair of bickering trapeze artists! Or replace the innocent Iowa farm girl with an innocent Bulgarian farm girl who doesn't speak English! But no, this is a paint-by-numbers re-run of Gilligan which is shot through with cheap opportunism & cheaper production values.The one thing the show had going for it was that it aired at an odd time, just before the networks prime time began. So if you wanted a sitcom at 7:30 on (I think) Friday night Dusty was your only choice. It's indicative of how bad the show was that it failed almost immediately in spite of that. I saw every episode when it first ran & that's the main reason I did so.I have an especial animus for this show because the theme song has been imprinted on my memory ever since the show aired:"Dusty's the reason for their plight; Thanks to Dusty, nothing's right! Only the Wagonmaster's hand; Can keep them a-rollin' to the promised land!", etc.Maybe electro-shock therapy can get rid of it.

theowinthrop I admit that I do like GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. Idiot show that it was, the cast (despite rumors of personality clashes) blended perfectly and the stories, while predictable, were funny. And I suspect that I have the support of most television viewers about this. When I watched the antics of Bob Denver, Alan Hale Jr., Jim Backus, and the others I never expected it was the equivalent of Shakespeare, but I normally felt humored after 30 minutes.GILLIGAN actually lasted three years on television in terms of new episodes (except for a couple of television movies in the late 1970s), Bob Denver moved on to a now forgotten comedy THE GOOD GUYS with Herb Edelman and Joyce Van Patton (and later Jim Backus, as Edelman's disapproving father-in-law). It lasted two years. Then Denver got offered this show. Regretfully he accepted it.I have pointed out that there have been only three really good western sit-coms that have popped up on television: MAVERICK, BEST OF THE WEST, and F-TROOP. There were also two others of mediocrity only: PISTOLS 'N PETTICOATS and RANGO. But DUSTY'S TRAIL makes RANGO (whose sole asset was Tim Conway) look like it was written by William Congreve or George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde. Basically DUSTY'S TRAIL replaced the situation of Gilligan, the Skipper, the Howells, Mary Ann, Ginger, and the Professor being on that deserted island, and put Gilligan and the Skipper, the Howells, and Ginger into a stagecoach going west. Now the central idea of GILLIGAN'S ISLAND was the isolation of the castaways on that island, and how they face weekly threats to their existence. It works, oddly enough (still does on a serious note - the reality show SURVIVOR is identical to it, in that the last one to "survive" has not been voted "dead" and off the island by the others). But this can't be transferred to a stagecoach going through the American West of the 1870s. How can it? You have threats (natural disasters, buffalo stampedes, Indian wars, bandits), but you have plenty of settlements to go to. The writers tried to make it similar by making "Dusty" (Denver) a woefully inept guide. It's not quite the same thing. Moreover, although Forrest Tucker was a good actor (and even a good comedian) he was not as properly fussy as Alan Hale Jr. was in GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. I saw it twice, and mercifully have forgotten the content of the episodes. Because I like Tucker and Denver I am giving this a "4", but only for them.

lpjortner Dusty f/k/a Gilligan gets his wagon lost to the chagrin of Forrest Tucker (formerly of 'F' Troop and playing a rough version of G.I.'s 'Skipper'.) I thought this series had just as much originality as "The Knacks" second album and (come to think of it) was probably seen by about the same number of people as heard The Knack's second album. The humor was about on par with Gilligan's Island; however, for some intangible reason much less likable or watchable, even to a then young viewer like me. Nobody's going to ever dust off Dusty and call it a classic--that's for certain. A perfect example of going to the well too often. Even Bob Denver and Forrest Tucker's Saturday Morning shows, both together and apart, were better fare than this series.