Ah...the Saloon show.
Let's see...Carrie Nation show, Jace and Lem show, Mean Murphy & Choctaw Charlie show, Buffalo Fred show, 25th Anniversary show, there was one where Bart hired a couple of hucksters to put on a show, and the one with the current characters, not necessarily in that order. All have had variations on the theme. Bart and Miss Tilly were birthed in the Mean Murphy/Choctaw Charlie show and strung along in some of the others. And then the various Christmas shows which have generally the same characters but different "bits." There may be another one or two that I missed.
The black pot was a spittoon and was a bit in the Carrie Nation show.
The original Miss Tilly is married to Jae McFerron, who still works at the City. She is a stay at home mom for the most part and they have three boys.
Junior, I believe the PC police got to Carrie. I don't think we'll ever see any thing close to the old Carrie Nation show again.
I've not seen the current version of the regular season show, which is why I can't name the characters I guess, so I can't comment on it. But I would have to say that the best one (as far as the audience responding favorably, laughing and the like) was the Mean Murphy/Choctaw Charlie show.
There was a concept tried for a short time one year in which the doors of the Saloon were left open all day. Guests could supposedly come and go as they wanted. It was a failure because the PTB insisted on having a turnover of the audience every twenty or thirty minutes, so they did a twenty minute show and then shooed everyone out. What's the point of leaving the doors open then? I think the idea of leaving the doors open is fundamentally sound, but there has to be continuous entertainment. It would require a couple of strong emcees (so that one wouldn't have to be on stage all day) to keep things rolling. Skits and bits (for comedy and character development), specialty songs (solos and/or group numbers), dance numbers (Can Can), one-liner crossovers, maybe a juggler or magician, etc. Street entertainers, i.e., the Hatfield and McCoys, Deputy and Marshal, could come in for a "happening" or two. If it was cast correctly, cast members could come up with their own ideas for their own specialty acts, and with enough different "acts" to pick from on a rotating basis, there would be plenty of time for breaks while someone else was entertaining. That all would make it resemble a real old-time saloon more closely.
