User blog:Bingbang32/Happy Trails (1980's TV series)

Happy Trails was for several years the premier program on the Paramount Network in the 1980's and early 1990's. Barry & Enright Productions created Happy Trails as a western program for young children, shown live on weekdays, which allowed the Paramount Network to use the western town set on WB's studio backlot.

Premise of the show:
Marshal Nick, leader of the X Troop, was the hero of the program, in which he personified the forces of good while wearing a cowboy hat and riding a heavily modified Ford F-150 modified to look like a horse-drawn carriage. The villains, allegedly crooks and evil Indians, also drove modified pick-up trucks. Happy Trails was the first television program to ever show horses fight each other. The scene, done live in the show's twentieth episode, was masterminded by the network's master special effects artist, Neus Hammock. Creative Engineering of Florida built two animatronic horses that "smacked" each other to represent the horses fighting, and earned the show an Emmy nomination.

Nick worked out of a "Sheriff's Office" that was actually a closet in one of the houses on the western town set. His chief assistant was creatively known as Captain Steve. A slew of other people appeared on the show, although many of them simply walked in front of the camera without knowing it was on.

Characters:
Due to the rambling nature of the program - an episode written on Monday would generally be performed on Thursday with props finished on Wednesday night - the plot generally wavered between "incoherent" and "schizoid." Marshal Nick - who was played by a total of twenty different actors over the series' run, including two identical twins and former Beatles member Ringo Starr - faced down a battery of villains with a high rate of robberies of banks and girl kidnappings.

The only permanent villain, Sir Evil, died a total of two-hundred-twenty-four times over the series. These deaths were neither retconned nor explained. He simply reappeared every time he was needed.

Various other recurring characters included:

Captain Steve, Marshal Nick's chief aide. Despite his explicitly generic status, Captain Steve was the only major character aside from Sir Evil never played by more than one character.

Lady Francis, who had a daughter named Madame LeBelle who can transform into a anthro poodle. LeBelle's poodle form was played by a total of fifteen different actresses over the run of the show, including five male actors and a former bus driver. Interestingly, the fursuit used for her "werepoodle" form didn't actually fit her male portrayers quite right.

The Man, an individual of highly indeterminate status. Played by an American using an incredibly bad Vietnamense accent, The Man was generally seen riding around in a small peddle-powered cart with Captain Steve, thus allowing him to use the carpool lanes on highways.

Viewership:
Happy Trails was popular with pre-teens and tweens who realized that, when accompanied by a ice cold glass of New Coke (or Pepsi) (or Mountain Dew) (or Kool-Aid), it made for excellent viewing. The program was also well-marketed by the Paramount Network's spokesperson Maurice Stevens, who went door to door in the half hour before the broadcast to tell everybody it was coming on.

End:
Happy Trails was the network's longest-lived program, running for twelve years as the Paramount Network picked up programs from various producers. Production money funds abruptly ran out one day during the live transmission of Happy Trails episode #1,508 ("Western Picnic with Friends"), and viewers of the program were treated to a awkward moment when WB set workers started repossessing props while the gang was eating delicious McDonald's cheeseburgers. Half an hour later, the sponsors dropped their sponsorship and the show was cancelled for good.