Tag: Lonesome Dove

A Story of the Land and the People: Centennial Miniseries

Centennial This week, Alex Karras, a defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions passed away. Many will remember him for his excellent play on the field or his nights in the Monday Night Football booth. Or maybe they will remember him as Mongo in Blazing Saddles (1974) or as George Papadapolison the TV series Webster (1983-1987). But to me he will always be Hans Brumbaugh, the immigrant who started out as a gold miner and ended up as a Colorado farmer in the miniseries Centennial.

I have already written about one of my favorite TV miniseries, Lonesome Dove, but another one of my all-time favorites is the 1978 12-part Centennial, which originally ran on TV in two and three hour segments over a four-month period. The show dramatized the settling of the West over centuries by focusing on one town in Colorado. Like many of the 1970s miniseries, the show was a who’s who of TV stars and others, including: Chief Dan George, Robert Conrad, Richard Chamberlain, Lynn Redgrave, Sharon Gless, Timothy Dalton, Barbara Carrera, Robert Vaughn, Brian Keith, Raymond Burr, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, Donald Pleasence, Dennis Weaver and Alex Karras. Another two of the stars, Andy Griffith and Chad Everett, also recently passed away. Rotten Tomatoes reports that at the time, Centennial was the most-expensive, the longest, and most complicated miniseries up to that time, with four directors and more than 100 speaking parts.

When the miniseries first ran, I rushed out and bought the very long book by James Michener, who wrote many other novels adapted for film or TV like South Pacific (1958) and Hawaii (1966). Like many of Michener’s other books, Centennial tells the story of an area in Colorado beginning with the land and following animals and generations of people through centuries. In the TV version, the land formation information is condensed down to a few minutes in the opening clip below and we begin following the people on the land. But even the mentions of the animals and the land foreshadow how they will affect the humans on the land in later episodes. The story really begins when the narration drops off and Robert Conrad appears as a trapper around the 6:30 mark.

While the miniseries and novel are not about real people, many of the characters are based upon real people and many of the events reflect real events. One of the things that makes the series work so well is that Michener and the producers convey real history while also telling compelling stories about people using fiction’s freedoms. Among other things, Michener’s practice of doing extensive research results in a tale that incorporates many people often underrepresented in Westerns. The series’s portrayal of strong pioneer women and the struggles they faced, as well as its portrayal of the tragedies heaped upon the Native Americans will likely go beyond what you might expect from a 1970s TV miniseries.

It is hard to tell a compelling story when a large time period and generations are covered, but the miniseries keeps the focus on several characters from youth to old age. Some of the episodes, such as one about a cattle drive, seems to digress to a new group of characters, but eventually you see the connections. If there is a weakness in the series, it is when it finally jumps ahead to modern times in the final episode and tries to tie all of the history together through a local election. While the final episode does not quite live up to what it should be for such an outstanding miniseries and it does not give the payoff you should get from a 26-1/2-hour series, it does not diminish the enjoyment of the rest of the show. I like what the writers tried to do with the final episode, even if it does not live up to the rest of the series, and the final show goes out on a high note with a touching performance by Merle Haggard. (Spoiler Warning: This segment shows the ending of the series, but it does not really ruin much.)

Conclusion: If you like tales of the American West and do not mind history mixed with fiction if it tells a good story with interesting characters, then check out Centennial, an excellent Western and human saga in the form of a mini-series. The series is available on DVD.

What do you think of Centennial? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 4: Conclusion

    Lonesome DoveThis final installment of the Chimesfreedom analysis of the Lonesome Dove franchise concludes with our overall recommendations. Additionally, we rank the performances of the six actors who played the main character in the series.

    In the previous posts, Chimesfreedom rated on a scale of 1-10 the various miniseries, listed here in chronological order: Dead Man’s Walk (7), Comanche Moon (5), Lonesome Dove (10), Return to Lonesome Dove (8), and Streets of Laredo (6). We also discussed the two seasons of the syndicated television series, starting with the first season, Lonesome Dove: The Series (4), and ending with Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (6), a hidden gem. See the previous posts for more details (links below).

    Where should you start?

    If you have already seen the original Lonesome Dove, you have a number of options. If you wish only to learn about events directly connected to the original, you might watch Comanche Moon and Return to Lonesome Dove, skipping the independent stories of Dead Man’s Walk and Streets of Laredo. You could start with Dead Man’s Walk and follow the characters chronologically. Or, if you are only interested in Larry McMurtry’s vision, you might watch all of them except Return to Lonesome Dove and the television series, which are the ones that do not follow his books.

    For most people, though, you probably want to start with the superior original Lonesome Dove. If you like it, you may pursue the other series. And if you do not like Lonesome Dove, you probably will not like any of the other series and should go on to something else. Then, if you do like Lonesome Dove, what next? The next best series and the one that continues the great story the best, is Return to Lonesome Dove. So I recommend following the sequels before delving into the prequels.

    Bonus Ranking of the Woodrow Calls

    After watching all of the series together, one realizes that the entire franchise is about Woodrow F. Call. In each of the five miniseries and briefly in the television series, Woodrow is played by a different actor, leading to another question: How do you rank the six different Woodrows?

    Chimesfreedom ranks them: (1) Tommy Lee Jones in Lonesome Dove; (2) John Voight in Return to Lonesome Dove; (3) Johnny Lee Miller in Dead Man’s Walk;(4) James Garner in Streets of Laredo; (5) Karl Urban in Comanche Moon; and (6) Lee Majors in one episode of Lonesome Dove: The Series. In fairness to Majors, he had much less to work with than the other Woodrows.

    Thus ends the Chimesfreedom series on Lonesome Dove. If you missed the previous posts on the franchise, check out Part 1 — where we considered the original Lonesome Dove and the prequels, Part 2 — where we rated the sequels, and Part 3 — where we discussed the weekly television series. If you are not sick of reading about Lonesome Dove by this point, there are a number of fan pages where you may seek out more information, including this fan page.

    Which is your favorite Lonesome Dove series? Leave a comment.

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    Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 3: The Weekly TV Series

    Lonesome Dove: The Series In the mid-1990s, the original Lonesome Dove miniseries inspired a syndicated weekly television series, with the first season entitled Lonesome Dove: The Series (1994-1995) and the second season entitled Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (1995-1996). Even though they were part of the same television series with the same setting and most of the same characters, because the two years differed so much, in our continuing discussion of the Lonesome Dove franchise, we are ranking the two seasons of the syndicated television show separately.

    Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years

    The setting for both years is an alternate universe from Larry McMurtry’s universe, where Newt Dobbs (Call) died from a fall on the Hell Bitch horse within around a year of the end of Lonesome Dove, according to McMurtry’s book Dead Man’s Walk. McMurtry dispatched Newt with only a sentence or two, apparently in an attempt to prevent the TV network from using his character. But in the television world starting with Return to Lonesome Dove, the television writers recognized that much of the heart of the original Lonesome Dove came from the character of Newt Dobbs. Thus, these later series focused on Newt.

    The same town and most of the major characters are in both seasons, but The Outlaw Years is the far superior season of the two seasons. Because the first season sets the stage for The Outlaw Years, though, you might want to start there — or at least with a few of the early and final episodes of the season — if you are delving into The Outlaw Years.

    (6) Lonesome Dove: The Series (1994-1995): The syndicated series picked up after Return to Lonesome Dove and followed the further adventures of Newt, played by Scott Bairstow. This first season, The Series, is a fairly traditional television western, focusing on Newt settling down with a wife in the town of Curtis Wells. The season ends with a tragedy, setting the stage for a different vision for the second season set two years later in The Outlaw Years.

    The title sequence from Lonesome Dove: The Series ended with a young couple laughing and swinging each other in a sunny grassy field. The contrast between the opening title sequence for The Series with the darker one for The Outlaw Years (below) may be the most drastic title sequence change in a series from one year to the next.

    The biggest strength of The Series is that it gives the back story for the superior Outlaw Years, so that is the main reason to watch it. The Series Rating: 4.

    (7) Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years (1995-1996) is one of the big surprises of the franchise. This second season is a much darker western with interesting characters that attempts a harder realism than the first season. There never may have been a television series with this much mud. In some ways, the series is a precursor to HBO’s Deadwood (2004-2006) with its gritty realism — although with less swearing.

    Actor Scott Bairstow takes Newt into some darker territory, and Eric McCormick creates an interesting character in Clay Mosby, who is more complex than traditional villains. And for a Western, the series has several important roles played by women.

    Overall, as the season continued and some episodes become more episodic instead of focusing on the overarching story of the main characters, the season does not consistently maintain the quality of the earliest episodes. But the continuing stories and the relationships among the regular characters remain interesting through the entire season.

    Unfortunately, the series was canceled after this season ended, so we are left hanging about the future of Newt and the citizens of Curtis Wells. But the final episode of the season gives hints about the future, so it is a satisfactory finale for the franchise considering they did not know it would be the final episode.

    On our Lonesome Dove rating scale, The Outlaw Years suffers by being rated in comparison with the complete stories of the miniseries in the franchise. But this TV series is worth checking out. The Outlaw Years Rating: 6.

    Stay tuned for the fourth and final chapter of the Chimesfreedom analysis of the Lonesome Dove franchise, where we will offer viewing advice based on all the rankings from this post, Part 1: The Prequels, and Part 2: The Sequels. We will also rank the many versions of Woodrow Call.

    What did you think of the television series? Leave a comment.

  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 2: The Sequels
  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 1: The Prequels
  • A Story of the Land and the People: Centennial Miniseries
  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 4: Conclusion
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    Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 2: The Sequels

    This post continues our discussion of the Lonesome Dove series, focusing on the series set after the original Lonesome Dove. Our post in Part One evaluated the original series and the prequels. In preparation for writing this series, I re-watched all of the series to be able to compare them.

    Return to Lonesome Dove
    Larry McMurtry’s Step-Child

    (4) Return to Lonesome Dove (1993) is the one miniseries in the group that is not based on a book by Larry McMurtry. The television network wanted a follow-up to Lonesome Dove before too much time passed, and since Larry McMurtry was not done with a sequel, they hired another writer and kept McMurtry as a consultant. Like the other series, Return to Lonesome Dove features some very good big-name actors, including Jon Voight (Woodrow F. Call), Barbara Hershey (as one of the best Clara’s in the series), Louis Gossett, Jr., and Oliver Reed. In addition to again using Basil Poledouris’s great musical theme from Lonesome Dove, Return to Lonesome Dove also features some of the same actors from Lonesome Dove, including Rick Schroder as Newt Dobbs and Chris Cooper as July Johnson.

    While Return to Lonesome Dove does not live up to the original, it is still an engaging series. The one weakness is that Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry did not write Return to Lonesome Dove, and it does deviate from some of his themes, etc. His books are interesting in that they try to escape from some of the Western myths. For example, in the other series, he does not follow the convention of having the main bad guy killed by one of the heroes, while Return to Lonesome Dove does feature such a resolution.

    Still, this series does have some surprises, and it is enjoyable to see some of the same characters and actors continue where the tale left off in Lonesome Dove. And it features standout characters from actors Oliver Reed and William Peterson, as well as Jon Voight’s excellent performance adding some new vulnerability to Captain Call. Even if McMurtry abandons his Newt character after Lonesome Dove, we still want to see more of his growth into manhood. If you expect another Lonesome Dove, you will be disappointed, but if you go into it with an open mind, you might enjoy it very much. Rating: 8

    (5) Streets of Laredo (1995) brought Larry McMurtry back into the franchise and for the most part still fits in the Return to Lonesome Dove universe because it picks up about two decades later in the 1890s, following Woodrow Call (this time played by James Garner) on one last adventure hunting a deadly killer. The film features a new set of fine actors, including Sissy Spacek as Lorena Parker. It is a little difficult at first to imagine Sam Shepard as Pea Eye Parker but he is an excellent actor and does a great job.

    Besides Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo is the only other book in the series that I have read, and from my recollection, it seems to follow the book well. To some extent, the book negates Return to Lonesome Dove by noting that Woodrow left the Montana ranch the Spring after they arrived and Newt was killed by a horse the following summer, with the ranch failing after just two years. But Streets of Laredo takes place far enough in the future from Return to Lonesome Dove that it minimizes any inconsistencies.

    Streets of Laredo revisits some of the themes from Lonesome Dove, especially on the role of family, how far we will go for our family, the search to find a family, and how one may still love a troubled family member. Streets of Laredo does not have the excitement or humor of some of the other series, but it is a good story and an honorable final portrayal of the character of Woodrow F. Call. Rating: 6

    In the next installment of Chimesfreedom‘s posts on Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, we consider the weekly television show. The previous installment, Part One, rated the original and the prequels. Check out all four posts on Rating the Lonesome Dove Series.

    Which is your favorite Lonesome Dove sequel? Leave a comment.

  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 1: The Prequels
  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 4: Conclusion
  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 3: The Weekly TV Series
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    Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 1: The Prequels

    The original Lonesome Dove is one of the finest miniseries and westerns. Lonesome Dove, based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, originally ran on television in 1989. It followed the adventures of Augustus “Gus” McRae, played by Robert Duvall, and Woodrow F. Call, played by Tommy Lee Jones, and also featured Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, and Chris Cooper.

    Lonesome Dove Lonesome Dove’s success spawned several sequels and prequels. Maybe you have not seen any of them and are wondering where to start, or maybe you have seen Lonesome Dove and wondered whether the others are worth your time. Well, Chimesfreedom is grading each series on a scale of 1-10, addressing each one in chronological order by the time period covered. In this post, we rate the prequels as well as the original Lonesome Dove. Future posts will address other series in the franchise.

    Dead Man’s Walk (1996)

    Set in the early 1840’s, Dead Man’s Walk follows the adventures of a young Gus and Woodrow, including a deadly forced walk across a desert after they are captured by the Mexican Army. Generally, the acting is good, featuring standout performances by Keith Carradine and Edward James Olmos. Johnny Lee Miller also does a very good job as the young Woodrow Call, while David Arquette’s portrayal of Gus leaves one wondering how the goofy young man survived to be the competent westerner portrayed in Lonesome Dove by Robert Duvall.

    Overall, the characters are engaging and the story and suspense are very good in Dead Man’s Walk, with the small exception of an odd sequence of events at the end to help Gus and Woodrow get home, leaving one thinking, “WTF?” Rating: 7

    Comanche Moon (2008)

    Comanche Moon follows a little older Woodrow and Gus in the 1850s-1860s. Of all of the series, this one has the fewest big name actors, with Val Kilmer as the sole major movie star in an odd over-the-top character performance.

    You will recognize other actors from TV, such as Linda Cardellini (from Freaks & Geeks and ER) as Clara. Steve Zahn, who often plays the comic sidekick in movies like That Thing You Do!, plays Gus McRae. His performance largely mimics Robert Duvall’s acting in Lonesome Dove, and it grew on me. You may enjoy the Robert Duvall impersonation or be annoyed by it.

    You may recognize other faces too.  Karl Urban, the Dr. McCoy in the new Star Trek franchise, plays Woodrow Call.  Additionally, Wes Studi (Dances with Wolves, Last of the Mohicans) stars as Buffalo Hump, the father of Blue Duck, who features more prominently in the original Lonesome Dove.

    Comanche Moon probably received the worst reviews of all of the Lonesome Dove series.  And it has the weakest stand-alone story and acting of the series.

    But unlike Dead Man’s Walk, which just told an adventure story using two of the main characters from Lonesome Dove, Comanche Moon provides a back story of the characters to set up Lonesome Dove, like the way the Star Wars prequels did. If you really love Lonesome Dove, you might want to see more of the background of the familiar characters, how Newt was born, how the town of Lonesome Dove got started, how Gus lost Clara, etc. But some things may be better left to the imagination. Rating: 5

    Lonesome Dove (1989): The Classic

    Lonesome Dove is the cream of the crop of all of the Lonesome Dove series. The series follows an aging Gus and Woodrow in the 1870s out for one last big adventure, while also conveying a meditation on friendship, aging, family, mortality, and the end of the West. By far, of all the series, this one has the best story, the best acting, the best music, etc.

    Lonesome Dove is not only the best of this series, it ranks with the greatest Western films of all-time. Time Out London recently ranked it among the Top 50 Westerns, although I’d rank it even higher than they did. Robert Duvall recently said in Esquire (Jan. 2011): “When I finished Lonesome Dove, I said to myself, Now I can retire. I’ve done something. Let the English play Hamlet. I’ll play Augustus McCrae.” Amen. The book won the Pulitzer Prize and the series won seven Emmys. Rating: 10

    Another Prequel?

    In 2014, the movie Lonesome Dove Church, directed by Terry Miles and starring Tom Berenger, was released.  Is there any connection between the film and the Lonesome Dove series?  Promotional material for the movie, including an interview with Berenger, make no reference to the series.  But Barnes & Noble claims that the movie is a prequel to the series started by Larry McMurtry.

    Lonesome Dove Church is advertised as the true story of the founding of the Lonesome Dove Church in Grapevine, Texas.  Berenger plays a preacher in the old West who works to save his outlaw son and eventually build a church.

    Because the church is named after the preacher sees a dove and because it is located in a town called Grapevine, it is likely that the church in the series has nothing to do with the fictional town created by Larry McMurtry.  Yet, McMurtry has noted that he came up with the name “Lonesome Dove” while eating at a steakhouse and seeing a church bus for Lonesome Dove Baptist Church from Southlake, Texas.  Thus, while Lonesome Dove Church is a decent but not great Western, we are not going to discuss it further in the context of the Lonesome Dove universe.

    In Part 2 of this series, Chimesfreedom will consider the Lonesome Dove miniseries that take place after Lonesome Dove, including how the network struggled to keep one main character alive while author Larry McMurtry summarily killed the character with merely a sentence. Check out all four posts on Rating the Lonesome Dove Series.

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  • Rating the Lonesome Dove Series, Part 2: The Sequels
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