Centennial

[Stan H]

Just received my CD set of this great old mini-series. Watched the first chapter last night.

Now, I will not claim this is "historically" accurate, but it is darn good entertainment.

Anyone else have this one?

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

I watched it when it was first on TV, but don't have the DVDs. As far as 'accuracy' goes, I personally debunked--the hard way--a couple of movie-standard myths. The first is the 'Pony Express Flying Mount.' To do one of those you better have a brand-new, very tight jock strap & a heavy-duty cup, neither of which existed in the 1860s. Try a flying mount in the movie sense & unless you're fantasically lucky you're gonna fall off the horse & lie on the ground holding your crotch & groaning for a long time.

The other is 'shooting forward from the saddle.' Blank cartridges, like used in the movies, work for that. Live ammo doesn't. There's a gap between the face of the cylinder & the forcing cone of the barrel. When you fire a revolver with live ammo fire comes out of that gap. If you fire it alongside a horse's neck like they did in the movies, that fire powderburns the horse. Horses don't like that. They tend to show their dislike by kicking their hind feet over their ears. After you get your face dug out of the dirt you come to realize that shooting a revolver alongside a horse's neck just ain't the thing to do. Both of these realizations, incidentally, are from personal experience.

[Tony Fazzini]

The Pony Express route went theough Nebraska & Wyoming--but never Colorado!

[Tony Fazzini]

"Centennial" was a great novel mini series-although I got turned off when WTBS showed it for weeks on end without any End!!!!!

Some parts a little too hard to beleive-such as Dennis Weaver who is such a die hard confederate Fanatic that he actually has a gravestone put over the grave of one of the outlaw killers who tried to kill him on the trail drive -cause the man is ex cSA! As Wikipedia points out- good guy "Paul Garrett" is also a descendent of the Mercys, the Zendts and the Shimmerhorns but was never pointed out in the series! Also evil Morgan Wendell is not only a descendant of Murderers and real estate Swindlers-he also tries to pull the old race card when Garrett marries a Mexican American! {Interestingly with the growth of Hispanic population that just might clinch Garrett's Election!} As in any soap opera miniseries and novel its based on--a vagely historical background is just pettered through out the script to make it beleivable-but just a little bit-for example the Indian hater Col Shimmerhorn is more a religious fanatic/manfest destiny vs the real Col Chivington was more self rightous Indian hater. And of course not only are the stock figures of involved-the native americans; the first pioneers; the local wealthy family who got their start in shady dealings....but it is also a mixture of Western incidents over several states all mixed into one...

*Fictional Centennial based in Weld CO COl;  {The real town of Centennial was founded in 2001 and located in Douglas CO COl!}

*Pasquel based on Jacques La Ramee who trapped in Wyoming!

*Brumbaugh based on Rufus Clark of Littleton Colorado

*The Sand Creek massacre occured in Kiowa CO Col;

*The range war based on The Johnson CO War of 1892 which took place in Wyoming!

It may have been Coincidence but in 1970's American Heritage had a collection of Wild West pictures-one from Colorado and one from Utah. One good picture showed a picture of a train coming into town when statehood is announced--it was nearly exacly duplicated in the series!

Still with its mixture of fact/fiction its at least better than the Mini series Texas--they actually showed the Alamo battle in only about half an hour!!!!!

One Anchrohism shows Paul garrett still in the cattle business-although realistically he would have much better off by selling his cattle to texas ranchers and breading bison-which are more adoptable to the plains (remember Charles Russell watercolor "Waiting for a Chinock" of a starved cattle in a blizzard!!!!}

[Margaret-Anne Moore]

Waiting for a Chinook is one of my very favorite Russell paintings--I heard it was inspired by the aftermath of some of the incidents I discussed in my blog about the blizzards  We all know, of course, that the Overland Trail did, in fact, venture into Colorado, and there are some who still think that at  least a portion of the Pony express may have done so as well, as improbable as it might seem.  I believe Julesburg was actually first a stage stop that involved Jules Remi and Jack Slade in some rather grim incidents.  When I first became interested in the Oregon Trail, in response to Gregory Franzwa's Maps of the Oregon Trail, I was surprised to discover that reportedly a small branch of the Oregon Trail dipped into what is now Colorado.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Waiting For A Chinook, AKA Last of the 5,000, is actually only abt 3" x 5".  Russell was still a cowboy at the time.  The absentee rancher sent Russell a letter asking what the condition of the herd was after the blizzard.  Russell drew that picture on a postcard & sent it back to his boss.

[Jim Holden]

You know I guess I could over-think and over-critique it, but I did buy the DVD's and am waiting for an appopriate weekend to start the series.  I remember I really enjoyed the early parts of the original series (was in my Mountain Man history phase at the time), but it did lose some steam for me when it got to "current times".  But heck, it's probably better than anything else on TV right now, and thoroughly enjoyable.

And it was a great book, which the series portrays pretty well.

[Tony Fazzini]

Its Great Entertainment+ a few historical facts to give ti local color--all of the OLD West packed into one little corner of  Colorado! {Sort of like "Gunsmoke" old west good vs evil packed into one little corner of Kansas! {Incidently Milburn "Dr Adams" Stone was the only cast member from kansas! Ken Curtis grew up in Colorado! So at least tow members of the cast grew up in the Western Plain states!

Incidently I just saw Ken Burns "DUST BOWL" on PBS........................wouldn'tbe suprized if a second drought dust bowl comes along.......

[Tony Fazzini]

PS two bad there wasn's a concluding episode instead of that Cliffhanger of Who gets elected....

Anyone want to speculate for an ending?

Wendell acts more like J.R. On "Dallas" especally after the revelations of his "buried" family secrets  don't hurt him...them make him more famous....Garrett keeps cattle..but its Wendell who "wins" by buying Garrett promissary notes....takes the cattle...and sells them off.. and goes into the bison business and gets quite wealthy while Garret becomes a hopeless drunk on his decaying Broken down ranch ..still deluded to the last that he'll become the Great Cattle baron of the Plains! And of Course Garret and Wendell children marry and unite all the good/evil characthers in the series for subsequent generations of "Centenial" which make "Dallas" seem like a kindergarden play!

Who says "Good" Will always win?