I watched the entire first season of American Lawmen and thought that most of the episodes were well-produced, cast and reasonably accurate in their details. As such, I looked forward to the second season of the series.
The story of lawman Tom Smith was one of the first episodes of the second season. While I am a history buff and Western film historian , I had no knowledge of lawman Tom Smith and was interested in learning about Smith's background and accomplishments.
The story was well told, but unnecessarily flawed by poor technical research. Here are a few of the flaws which I witnessed:
1. Saddles, bridles and tack--silver trim, saddle horns, saddle trees, breast collars are modern, not 1870s style.
2. Several hats (including Smith's) were cheap wool felt variety with wire edged brims--manufactured in late 20th century, not 1870s
3. Clothing & boots--cheap, standard costume shop issue, not 1870s.
4. Poor horsemanship--The actors on horseback are not experienced Western horsemanship. They dismount clumsily and hold a single rein in each hand--a dead giveaway to all Western film fans.
5. Town setting--most frontier towns had much wider streets to accommodate wagon traffic--not the narrow film studio streets portrayed in TV westerns like "Deadwood", "Gunsmoke" and "Bonanza".
6. Guns & Holsters--While the pistols and rifles may not have been used widely in 1870s, the holsters and cartridge belts were modern and not accurate to the period.
SUMMARY. There is no excuse for these kind of inaccuracies. All such errors could have been avoided if the producers had cast Old West re-enactors ("Tombstone") who provided their own historically accurate costumes, saddles, horses and guns or employed a Western historian for one week with knowledge of that era.
Let's hope other episodes don't make the same mistakes.