a new Western as a TV episodic series? discuss

[jefferiestubes8]

Gunslinger in development

Well it looks like another show is in the works.
Hell on Wheels and now

Zabel is also currently developing the Western series Gunslinger with ABC.

August 15 2011,
http://www.deadline.com/2011/08/detroit-1-8-7-duo-re-teams-for-new-abc-drama-project

confirming the order of a script for "Gunslinger" from ABC Studios and executive producer David Zabel, who last delivered "Detroit 1-8-7" for the network.

David Zabel is also a Trek veteran writing a VOY episode:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0951390/
Star Trek: Voyager (TV series)
Pathfinder (1999) (story / teleplay)
#610 Pathfinder

Westerns are a rare sight in broadcast development, though NBC considered one last year from writer Josh Brand and helmer Peter Horton but ultimately passed. The genre has gotten some heat on cable going back to HBO's critically acclaimed "Deadwood"and an upcoming AMC effort, "Hell on Wheels."

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118041076?refcatid=14&printerfriendly=true

same name
Gunslinger (2012)
Action | Thriller | Western
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1510753/
Director: Mennan Yapo
Writer: Jeff Strebinger

so probably the TV show would have a title change for 2012-2013 TV season if a pilot gets made in 2012.

I'm just happy to have another show in development...for a broadcast network!

 

[Captaindemotion]

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....

I know, how awful that channels might want to make and other people might want to watch the sort of show you don't like. Obviously, they should only ever make shows you want to see. God forbid you should have to just watch something else.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Obviously, they should only ever make shows you want to see. God forbid you should have to just watch something else.

Yes we all have our dislikes. I do not like Civil War related films nor Medieval period movies.
The genres of sword and sandals as well as sword and chainmail do not interest me.
I do like the ideas in Westerns and use of horses in the mid-to-late 1800s in the American West. Steam railroads add an element of technology to that period.
Since I'm under 40 I do like a modern take on things and not a black and white sweeping epic Western. I can totally appreciate Once Upon A Time in the West though.

The TV as a storytelling medium though allows for more fleshed out characters and longer story and character arcs over a series. Serialized storytelling has come of age in 30 years (since Hill St. Blues started it (not coming under the soap opera heading of the 1960s Peyton Place) with The Wonder Years, The West Wing, ER, NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, Alias, Heroes, Jericho, etc.
With a serialized story we get a lot better story for essentially a very long movie.
With modern storytelling and the ability to show violence on cable tv and broadcast TV with TV14 V ratings you can get a pretty good story involving fights, hangings, and gunplay in a Western.
A new Western would not duplicate an episode of Gunsmoke.
HBO's Deadwood, and to some extent FX's Justified and CBS' Jericho are modern-day westerns on television.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Gunslinger? Sounds promising.

 

[Yevetha]

There was a series produced by Spielberg that sort of looked like a western.

Any idea what i am talking about?

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The miniseries, Into the West? I tried watching it - incredibly boring!

But the Western genre can encompass any number of story types. Hell on Wheels sounds like an interesting and unusual take on the genre. A show revolving around a "gunslinger" doesn't seem quite as fresh but there are no details on it yet. I'd like to see variations on the genre we haven't seen before - not so many gunslingers, cowboys and wagon trains.

 

[Greg Cox]

So a western is only about Cowboys and Indians and everything else is a period piece? And the only people interested in stories in that period are only drawn to that racial conflict? I think your definitions are too narrow.

Agreed. Many of the classic screen westerns don't involve Indians at all: Shane, The Magnificent Seven, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Cowboys, True Grit, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, etc.

Westerns can also be about "cowboy vs. cowboy," or "lawman versus outlaw," etc.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Hell, the story of the Earps and Clantons at the O.K. corral may be one of the best known - and most often filmed - western stories and that has nothing to do with Indians.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

TNT's doing a Western - Gateway.

Sounds fairly traditional:

Set in the town of the same name in Colorado in the 1880s, Gateway tells the story of three brothers who step in to save their town when their sheriff father is murdered, pitting them against a corrupt cattle baron determined to make the town his own.

A sanitized Deadwood? TNT is staking out a middle ground between broadcast and the saucier/more risk taking cable outlets.

Could be fun with the right casting. They need to get the likes of Robert Knepper and Adam Baldwin into this show, I don't particularly care in what roles.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

]A sanitized Deadwood? TNT is staking out a middle ground between broadcast and the saucier/more risk taking cable outlets.

Yes sounds like a regular TV Western. We'll see how it develops but I hope it is shot in Western Canada instead of Southern California just for the visuals.
cattle baron? Well sounds like cowboys and horses to me.
I sure am glad Danny Cannon is directing the pilot he is pretty talented.
If it goes to series I think the gunplay will be more exciting here on TNT with probably a TV-14 rating than on a broadcast network.
At least on TNT it has a chance of lasting 13 episodes.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It's set in Colorado. Why not shoot it in Colorado? They've got plenty of nice visuals there.

Maybe New Mexico gives better tax credits. Well, it's right next door.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Woo hoo genre is on the rise on tv:
A&E has a 10 episode order for a show:
http://m.tvline.com/2011/08/breaking-ae-picks-up-longmire-starring-robert-taylor-and-katee-sackhoff/


And others:

Peter Berg, one of the creators of "Friday Night Lights," and Liz Heldens, a writer and co-executive producer on the show, sold the concept for a Western told from a female perspective. Heldens will write and executive produce, while Berg and Sarah Aubrey -- who also worked on “Friday Night Lights” -- will executive produce.

Universal Media Studios and Berg's Film 44 are producing the project.

The sale continues a growing trend toward Westerns at the networks. AMC is filming "Hell On Wheels," about the Union Pacific Railroad; A&E has "Longmire," about a Wyoming sheriff; TNT has "Gateway"; while David Zabel’s "Gunslinger" and James Mangold’s "Ralph Lamb" are coming from ABC and CBS, respectively.

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/tvbizwire/2011/08/western-genre-continues-to-gai.php

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I guess Justified started a trend. But I'm not that big on modern/20th C "Westerns" like Longmire and Ralph Lamb. Gateway and Gunslinger need some element to distinguish them from the run-of-the-mill story, like the way Hell on Wheels has the railroad.

There are a bunch of actors I'd love to see in any of the real historical Westerns - Adam Baldwin, Robert Knepper, William Fichtner, Josh Holloway, etc. Ben Browder as a corrupt cattle baron would be a hoot!

 

[Harvey]

The problem with big historical Westerns, of course, is that they're expensive. Deadwood was too much for HBO, and I'd be willing to bet that Hell on Wheels is mightily expensive to produce.

I agree, though. The contemporary Westerns like Justified (or, reaching back, Walker, Texas Ranger) don't interest me much at all.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I've been meaning to check out Justified on DVD and just saw the premiere episode - WOW!

If anyone wants to make more Westerns like that, be my guest.

 

[timothy]

justified is a fantastic show and one of my fav's. I am glad you are enjoying season one. classic favorites have gun will travel and the wild wild west.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

Hangtown - from ron moore

Ron moore just sold Hangtown to ABC!
http://m.deadline.com/2011/08/abc-buys-western-from-ron-moore/

Yes that ron moore.

 

[Harvey]

Re: Hangtown - from ron moore

Ron Moore wrote for Star Trek for ten years. Writing for a Western makes a lot of sense when you think about it -- a lot of the same conventions are there in both.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Re: Hangtown - from ron moore

Ron Moore wrote for Star Trek for ten years. Writing for a Western makes a lot of sense when you think about it -- a lot of the same conventions are there in both.

I don't know if it was him, but I remember one of the DS9 writers comparing it to a Western. Sisko was the mayor, Odo the sherriff, Quark the barkeep and of course you had no shortage of varmints and outlaws!

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: Hangtown - from ron moore

Ron Moore wrote for Star Trek for ten years. Writing for a Western makes a lot of sense when you think about it -- a lot of the same conventions are there in both.

Well, it is the final frontier . . .