[cva66snipe]

That was sort of an ersatz film culled from the “Dusty’s Trail” series, which was pretty obviously patterned after “Gilligan.” Apparently, “Gilligan” was doing gangbusters in rerun syndication in the early-70s, so to capitalize on that, “Dusty’s Trail” was produced and sold as a non-network, made-for-syndication series. Really low budget. Only lasted a single season, but I remember one of our local stations airing it on Saturday afternoons, around 1973.

I didn't get to see that show. Our locals didn't carry it but did Gilligan's. Island. First time I saw it was by renting the movie.

[greene66]

Indeed. Back when many of us were limited to only three network channels, there was often a lot of made-for-syndication fare that didn’t make it to our local tv markets. I always remember how I kept hearing so much hubbub about “Space: 1999,” and it made me anxious to see it. There were comic books to it, and a set of gum-cards. But none of my local channels carried it, so I never got to view the series. Still haven’t, to this very day!

Anyway, as ridiculous as “Gilligan” is, I frankly think a lot of kids would be far better off viewing this kind of good-natured silliness than all those modern Disney/Nickelodeon type kid shows, which seem to convey a weird sort of look-at-me, fame-obsessed, self-absorption vibe.