a new Western as a TV episodic series? discuss

[jefferiestubes8]

I just made a thread over in General Trek
Space Western & Star Trek and was thinking about regular westerns on television.

The closest thing we've had to that is few things:
In 1987, many of the original cast reunited for the TV movie, Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge
Movie number two, Gunsmoke: The Last Apache (1990)

a mini series:
"Lonesome Dove" (1989) (TV mini-series)
"Return to Lonesome Dove" (1993) (TV mini-series)
spawning its own 2 tv episodic series
"Lonesome Dove: The Series" (1994) (TV series)
"Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years" (1995) (TV series)
other TV movies
Gunsmoke: To the Last Man(1992), Gunsmoke: The Long Ride(1993), and Gunsmoke: One Man's Justice(1994).

"Peacemakers" (2003) (TV series)

Peacemakers is an American crime fiction television series about forensic science in the Old West. It was filmed in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. The show was cancelled after one season of nine episodes.

and then the HBO
"Deadwood" (2004) (TV series) with three 12-episode seasons

I would say we had many elements of a Western TV series with "Jericho" (2006) (TV series).

other than reruns on the premium cable channel
Encore Westerns the only Encore channel currently airing series programming (in this case, classic western series), formerly Westerns

Would a modern American Western drama television series set during the settlement of the American West [pre or post railroads] be possible on TV today?
TNT, AMC, TBS, CBS? 12-episodes?

[auntiehill]

Possible, yes. Too expensive for networks to bother with? Definitely.

FX's "Justified" is about as close to an old-fashioned Western as you're going to get right now.

[Mr. Adventure]

I don't think you'd see an unadulterated Western but maybe one with some kind of other genre element.

[Aragorn]

Westerns on network TV are a very hard sell and aren't cheap to make. Off the top of my head, these were the last of them:









NED BLESSING: THE STORY OF MY LIFE AND TIMES (credits at 6:29)


Couldn't find the intro for Lonesome Dove: The Series.

[Aragorn]

Forgot the add the obvious one:

[Trilliam]

No, no, no, no, no, oh, please G*d, no!!

I can't stand "Westerns"....not after a childhood where it seemed like every Western ever made, was watched in our house. I swear that the dust under the telly, was from the desert and not regular house dust! I even used to twitch when we went to places like Australiana Village (restored cottages & streetscapes from early colonial days) and "Old Sydney Town" (recreation of the early days of Sydney). Dust, log cabins, horses, stocks....

[Nowhere Man]

Unfortunately there is little interest in Westerns from what I can tell. I love Westerns though and would love to see a series. A Mini-series is the way to go. Spielberg's "Into the west" on TNT was cool, but not realy a Western like a shoot em' up.

[Harvey]

Well, there was Deadwood on HBO for three years, but judging by the ten episodes I've seen so far, it's not the kind of episodic western the OP wants to see.

[auntiehill]

^Which is a shame, because it was probably more realistic than any other Western---not to mention being one of the most brilliant television dramas I've ever seen.

[Harvey]

I've definitely enjoyed what I've seen so far. A shame its run was cut short.

[Hugo Rune]

Harvey wrote:

---

I've definitely enjoyed what I've seen so far. A shame its run was cut short.

Trust me, when you get to the end of Season 3 and you realise there is a wonderfully, bleak, desperate end to the show in sight... and then remember there's no Season 4 to watch...

... you might throw an item or two in temper.

On rewatch last year Deadwood climbed to my number 3 TV series of all time, incomplete or not. It's beautiful, dark, adventurous and funny TV. I miss it dearly.


Hugo - God rest the souls of that poor family... and pussy's half price for the next 15 minutes

[Gov Kodos]

While I don't think the genre dead, a series would really have to be different to catch my interest. Doing a series about the Buffolo Soldiers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Soldier would be a fantastic western.

[Vendikarr]

You won't start to see more westerns until they make a resurgence on the big screen. Get people into the seats to see a western, and then TV will invest.

[Dar70]

auntiehill wrote:

---

^Which is a shame, because it was probably more realistic than any other Western---not to mention being one of the most brilliant television dramas I've ever seen.

It was too dark and gritty. It went beyond any reasonable realism. It took many liberties itself. While earlier tv Westerns went one extreme, Deadwood went to the otehr extreme. I would like to see something in between.

[scnj]

Considering dark and gritty is currently the 'in' thing, something like Deadwood is likely the best you'll get right now.

Really wish they'd finished it though.