I have always associated the old Wild West with the northern States of the US. California, Nevada, Arizona, Dakotas etc. In series 13.3, Blood on the Saddle, the flags decorating the Wild West Day were Confederate. Is this a blunder by the set designers or have I missed something?
shareGood day from the US, pc-daisy.
In my opinion, when thinking of the "Wild West", I am thinking of the south western US (ie: Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, California, etc.), though the north west (the Dakotas, Wyoming, Colorado, etc.) definitely had it's share of cowboys.
The Confederate battle flag is normally associated with the south eastern states of the rebel confederacy (with a few exceptions, such as Texas, a south western state) of the American Civil War (1861-1865). I'm not exactly sure what the writers'/set designers' intentions were with those flags.
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Me, neither. I thought they looked out of place. Thanks for taking the time. I visited the US about a hundred years ago, well actually I went to visit a friend and to see Elvis in concert so that gives you an idea of how long ago it was! We went to Nevada etc and the absolute beauty of the terrain was a shock. Mainly because when we saw Westerns as a kid, I thought that beautiful scenery was backdrops and they were made in studios.
shareI live in Texas, and I definitely do not associate the Confederate flag with the Wild West, even if the time periods overlap somewhat. Completely inappropriate IMHO.
shareWell it looked so odd to me, that I thought I would start a new topic on here. Just ignorance of the Set Designers.
shareOr imputing the carelessness to the characters in the show? Just a quick shorthand to say it's old time America. It didn't fit.
I think of the Old West frontier as anything west of the Mississippi River, but probably depends upon the date, as Western expansion occurred.
No it certainly didn't fit. Maybe the wrong Set Design was an indication of how stupid the characters were supposed to be? Probably that is too subtle and it was just a plain old stuff-up! I hope the Producer's PA reads these posts!
shareMaybe it is similar to how some Americans might think of something as Georgian or Victorian when it is from the Regency? Assuming it's close enough ... But not to anyone who actually knows something about it? :)
shareI quite frequently see Confederate flags in England, they seem to br quite popular here. And california, Nevada, and Aarizona are not northern states. they are in the south, though not the south east. Texas, which is a southern state, had loads of cowboys, and i believe still has.
shareCalifornia, Nevada and Arizona are in the West. Not the North or the South...certainly not "confederate country." That episode is goofy.
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I have always associated the old Wild West with the northern States of the US. California, Nevada, Arizona, Dakotas etc. In series 13.3, Blood on the Saddle, the flags decorating the Wild West Day were Confederate. Is this a blunder by the set designers or have I missed something?
They possibly used the flag because many famous old west figures served in the Confederate Army. Frank and Jesse James and the Younger brothers were some of William Quantrill's raiders and Cole Younger went on to join the regular Confederate army. Doc Holliday's father was a major in the Confederate army.
Doc Holliday had a family connection to an older relative of Margaret Mitchell. Mitchell supposedly based the character Philippe Robillard in Gone With the Wind on Holliday.
I doubt the show creators knew all that.
shareAs others have noted California, Nevada and Arizona are considered Western, rather than Southern states. California in particular has a northern section geographically. However, over the years, there have been many US "Westerns," whether TV or movies, that included Confederate characters, because many went west after the war. One series, "The Rebel" ('59-'61), had the title character, a former confederate soldier, roaming the West having various adventures, in similar fashion to the "Kung Fu" protagonist.
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