Excellent TV episode puts Buffalo Bill Cody in perspective

By Old Hoppy Feb 1, 2010 in Television Westerns, Videos

I just finished watching an episode of "The American Experience" which puts Buffalo Bill Cody in good perspective, highlighting the complexity of the man as genuine American "hero" mixed with heavy doses of showman. The episode I'm talking about is "The American Experience: Buffalo Bill's Wild West." (The title is a pun of sorts, playing off of William F. Cody's creation of his "Wild West" show that toured the world in the 1880s and of the role he played in "inventing" much of what we know of as the Old West of popular culture.)

I never had the chance to see this episode of "The American Experience" when it was broadcast on PBS, unfortunately. But if it's not showing in your area in the near future (it probably won't be, since it is an older episode), you can still watch it. Either go to the pbs.org website, find the "Shop PBS" link and buy the DVD, or go to Hulu and search for it. (I confess, money being tight right now after a nasty plumbing incident I had to repair in my old house this morning, I took the Hulu option.)

From my reading and study about William F. Cody, I was particularly struck by a couple of things in the broadcast and revealed by the historians and writers interviewed on camera.

1. Cody was a master of "B.S." and self-promotion. Obviously, he was a quick study at the hands of such other "Westerners" and spinners of tall tales as Wild Bill Hickock and Ned Buntline. And don't forget he was an acquaintance later in life with P.T. Barnum. All things considered, Cody was by the end of his life a national and international "star" based on his lifelong ability to cash in on all these talents and influences.

2. Cody was also a genuine "hero" in many instances, and had the abilities as a horseman, scout, and shooter to back up the core experiences behind the legends. The broadcast narrators/scholars mentioned in one place that an avowed "enemy" of Cody's (they failed to name the person) who apparently despised him readily admitted that the greatest shooting and horsemanship he'd ever seen was when Cody once shot 16 buffaloes from horseback with 16 bullets -- riding a horse that was terrified of buffalo.

I heartily recommend "American Experience: Buffalo Bill's Wild West" as a terrific and captivating study of this extraordinary man.