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Chronology of Stories of the Century


Did the creators of Stories of the Century desire to have the various episodes happen in chronological order?

If so, they failed miserably, if all of the famous characters Matt Clark meets lived at the same times as their real historical counterparts.

In the first episode he captures Belle Starr, which should date it to 1883.

In the second episode he meets Billy the Kid (c.1559-1881).

In the third episode he meets Frank (1843-1915) and Jesse (1847-82) James.

In the 4th episode he meets Geronimo (1828?-1909) and helps Lt. Gatewood persuade him to surrender, which was in 1886.

In the 5th episode he is unable to prevent the Lawrence Kansas massacre by Quantrill, which was on August 21, 1863.

In the Sixth episode the lynching of Cattle Kate on July 20, 1889 is depicted.

And so so and so on, The 9th episode seems to be dated to the Dalton Gang raid on Coffeyville in 1892, and the 10th episode to the Gunfight at the OK Corral on October 26, 1881. The 13th episode deals with Joaquin Murietta (1829-1853), the 14th with Tiburcio Vasquez (1835-1875), and the 15th with Crazy Horse (c. 1840-1877).

Other first season episode involve Henry Plummer (1842-1864)), Butch Cassidy (1866-1908), and Tom Horn (1860-1903).

The first episode of the second season deals with Burt Alvord, who was an outlaw in 1900-1904, the second with the Apache Kid who was an outlaw from 1889-1894, the third with Tom Bell (1825-1856), and so on.

Matt Clark's career seems to be spread over sixty years of history, and he seems to jump around in time, going years or decades forward or backwards between episodes.

So I don't see much evidence that the makers of Stories of the Century had much desire to have the episodes happen in chronological order. If that was their desire, they were not very successful.

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