Not that realistic in the fact that..

And this situation was exacerbated with the advent of color...at least in relation to the look. And I can believe the smell was rather noticeable!

I commented on the Wagon Train forum that the color episodes seem to be "cleaner". Everything is so bright and colorful. To me, the B&W episodes just have a dirtier look. And bathing was (for the most part) pretty low on the priority list for folks living on the prairie or traveling on a wagon train, where water could be more valuable than gold.

For example, the makeup. In the color episodes the makeup is much more noticeable. The women's faces are heavily painted and it really stands out. In the B&W episodes the greasepaint they used to mimic a 5 o'clock shadow looked more authentic. In the color episodes it looks like greasepaint.

On a historical note, it was only during the 1860's that Pasteur said doctors should wash their hands before delivering babies (or any other medical procedure), and he was ostracized by many well-respected members of the scientific community for saying it.

Terrance Hill as Trinity...the look of that character is probably a lot closer to the way a lot of folks actually were in that era.

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Would you prefer a scene like this one from Bonanza (1959)?

Yeah, when I catch one of the two on TV I can almost instantly tell which is which, or at least which one is not Gunsmoke. MeTV or TV Land runs a couple others that are "too clean" like Bonanza. The Bonanza stuff that isn't a painting on a cardboard backdrop somehow still looks like a painting. I remember somebody slapping someone on the back on a Gunsmoke, and a cloud came off of them.

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It's a TV show, not a documentary. People watch for entertainment; not to see horse sh*t on the street.

Not that I revel in bathroom humor, but it can be entertaining in the right situation.

On one episode of the Carol Burnett Show, she was talking to the audience while standing on a stage decorated in western fashion, with a horse behind her.

During the scene the horse raised his tail to let nature take its course. An older fellow in jeans, flannel shirt and cowboy hat hurried out with a 10 gallon bucket and put it under the horse's backside to catch what was falling.

When the horse finished his business the guy turned, smiled and tipped his hat to Carol Burnett.

The audience went ballistic, people were falling in the aisles nearly stroking out they were laughing so hard. I don't think I ever saw my mother and father laughing like that.

In that instance the audience was absolutely entertained.

And I'll betcha that somewhere out there....there's an outtake reel of all the times they were trying to be deadly serious on the Gunsmoke set only to have a horse ruin the dramatic scene by breaking wind or raising his tail. I would imagine there were a few laughs when that kinda thing happened.

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