LONESOME DOVE
SERIES DIRECTED BY SIMON WINCER
MOWTOWN PRODUCTIONS/ CBS
Information from IMDb
Plot Summary
Retired Texas Rangers Gus McRae and Woodrow Call are content to live out their remaining years in the tiny Texas town of Lonesome Dove. Then their old friend Jake comes to town, and tells them about the incredible oppurtunities for cattle ranching in Montana. Encouraged by this, Call convinces Gus and many other townspeople to go on a perilous cattle drive to Montana. Gus has another agenda though: his former sweetheart now lives in Nebraska, and he hopes for a second chance with her. As the drive goes on it takes on an epic scale, ultimately becoming what could well be called the central event in the lives of all involved.
Written by rmlohner
Episodes
Season 1, Episode 1: Leaving
Original Air Date—5 February 1989
Season 1, Episode 2: On the Trail
Original Air Date—6 February 1989
Season 1, Episode 3: The Plains
Original Air Date—7 February 1989
Season 1, Episode 4: Return
Original Air Date—8 February 1989
Series Cast
Robert Duvall ... Augustus 'Gus' McCrae (2 episodes, 1989)
Tommy Lee Jones ... Woodrow F. Call (2 episodes, 1989)
Danny Glover ... Joshua Deets (2 episodes, 1989)
Diane Lane ... Lorena Wood (2 episodes, 1989)
Robert Urich ... Jake Spoon (2 episodes, 1989)
D.B. Sweeney ... Dish Boggett (2 episodes, 1989)
Rick Schroder ... Newt Dobbs (2 episodes, 1989)
Anjelica Huston ... Clara Allen (unknown episodes)
Chris Cooper ... July Johnson (unknown episodes)
Timothy Scott ... Pea Eye Parker (unknown episodes)
Barry Corbin ... Roscoe Brown (unknown episodes)
William Sanderson ... Lippy Jones (unknown episodes)
Barry Tubb ... Jasper Fant (unknown episodes)
Gavan O'Herlihy ... Dan Suggs (unknown episodes)
Steve Buscemi ... Luke (unknown episodes)
Frederick Coffin ... Big Zwey (unknown episodes)
Travis Swords ... Allan O'Brien (unknown episodes)
Kevin O'Morrison ... Doctor (unknown episodes)
Ron Weyand (unknown episodes)
Matthew Posey ... Jim #1 (unknown episodes)
Nina Siemaszko ... Janey (unknown episodes)
Brandon Smith ... Bartender (unknown episodes)
Julius Tennon ... Frog Lip (unknown episodes)
Michael Tylo ... Dee Boot (unknown episodes)
Joel Palmer ... Luke Wyatt (unknown episodes)
Jerry Biggs ... Roy Suggs (unknown episodes)
Matthew Cowles ... Monkey John (unknown episodes)
Nada Despotovich ... Mary (unknown episodes)
Tony Epper ... Dixon (unknown episodes)
Pierre Epstein ... Xavier Wanz (unknown episodes)
Adam Faraizl ... Joe Boot (unknown episodes)
Bradley Gregg ... Sean O'Brien (unknown episodes)
Sean Hennigan ... Eddie Suggs (unknown episodes)
Matthew Hotsinpiller ... Calvary Man (unknown episodes)
Helena Humann ... Peach Johnson (unknown episodes)
Elberta Hunter ... Townswoman (unknown episodes)
O-Lan Jones ... Sally Skull (unknown episodes)
Danny Kamin ... Capt. Weaver (unknown episodes)
Jordan Lund ... Hutto (unknown episodes)
Margo Martindale ... Plump Ogallala tart (unknown episodes)
Wallace Merck ... Fowler (unknown episodes)
Paul James Vasquez ... Buffalo hunter (unknown episodes)
Howard Young ... Outlaw (unknown episodes)
Series Produced
Suzanne De Passe
William D. Wittliff
and others..
Series Writing Credits
Larry McMurtry (unknown episodes)
William D. Wittliff (unknown episodes)
Series Original Music
Basil Poledouris
Trivia
* Originally written by Larry McMurtry in 1971 as a movie script. He intended John Wayne to play Woodrow Call, James Stewart to play Gus McCrae and Henry Fonda to play Jake Spoon, with Peter Bogdanovich directing. Wayne turned it down, and the project was shelved. Ten years later McMurtry bought the script back and wrote the book (on which the series was based).
* The set of San Antonio street, at the Alamo, is the set built for Alamo: The Price of Freedom (1988). It was designed by Roger Ragland.
* The Latin phrase, "uva uvam vivendo varia fit" that appears on the Hat Creek Cattle Company is a corruption of the latin phrase "uva uvam videndo varia fit" from the scholia to Juvenal 2.81. It means, literally a grape changes color [i.e., ripens] when it sees [another] grape.
* Virtually every major role from this film has also appeared in one of its sequels, and almost all of them have been recast, sometimes several times. In three cases, original cast member have been able to work with one of their successors. Timothy Scott reprised his role in the unofficial sequel "Return to Lonesome Dove" (1993), but died before production began on the official sequel, "Streets of Laredo" (1995). He was replaced by Sam Shepard, who had directed him in Silent Tongue (1994). Tommy Lee Jones was replaced in "Streets of Laredo" by James Garner, with whom he appeared in Space Cowboys (2000). Danny Glover was replaced in the prequel "Comanche Moon" (2008) by Keith Robinson, with whom he appeared in Dreamgirls (2006).
* The set for Ogalalla, Nebraska, was originally a set built for Silverado (1985), which also starred Danny Glover.
* For authenticity the producers decided to use real ranch horses in the movie. When the effect of "bullets" hit below Gus' horse, the response was genuine and Robert Duvall was actually bucked off. Because it lent itself to the authenticity everyone desired, the cameras continued rolling and the scene was kept in the final cut.
* Principal photography lasted for 16 weeks at 6 days a week, and encompassed 89 speaking parts, 1000 extras, 30 wranglers, 100 horses, 90 crew and 1400 cattle. Some scenes were so complex that they were shot from 6 different cameras at once.
* The set of Lonesome Dove itself was built just outside Del Rio, Texas.
* In 1985, Suzanne De Passe bought the rights to Larry McMurtry's unpublished novel for $50,000 with the idea of doing a miniseries in conjunction with the release of the book, but she was turned down by every major network in America. After the novel was published, became a massive success and won the Pulitzer Prize, every network who had turned her down contacted her to try to persuade her to make the show with them.
* After the novel won the Pulitzer Prize, both John Milius and John Huston attempted to adapt it into a feature film before Suzanne De Passe and Larry McMurtry decided to do it as a mini-series.
* The first episode got a 26.8 rating and a 38 share when it first aired on CBS in 1989. According to executive producer Suzanne De Passe, CBS were optimistically hoping for a 23 share.
* Tommy Lee Jones (who owns a ranch in Texas and genuinely breeds horse and cattle) refused to use a stunt double for any of the riding scenes.
* Charles Bronson was originally offered the role of Woodrow Call but turned it down. Robert Duvall was next cast but the producers decided to give him the part of Augustus instead. James Garner was chosen next but bowed out for health reasons. After Garner, Jon Voight turned down the role, and ultimately Tommy Lee Jones was cast. However, both Garner and Voight would portray Woodrow Call in sequels.
* Augustus McCrae's (Robert Duvall) pistol in the film is a Colt Walker 1847 revolver with a conversion to fire metallic cartridges. Cartridge conversions are commonly done to percussion revolvers in films because firing black powder is potentially dangerous and using metallic blank cartridges is both safer and cheaper to use. While cartridge conversions were popular in the actual old west, they typically allowed the guns to be easier reloaded, while guns used in films try to make them less noticeable to fool the audience into thinking they ARE percussion guns.
* The following famous "Old West" firearms are used in the film: Gus McCrae - Colt Walker (in the novel, Gus actually carries a Colt Dragoon, an improvement on the Walker design, and it is Deets who carries the Walker); Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call - 1860 Henry rifle; Jake Spoon - 1875 Remington with a pearl grip; July Johnson, Blue Duck, and various Hat Creek hands - 1873 Colt Single Action Army, aka "Peacemaker"; Blue Duck - 1859 Sharps cavalry carbine; Dan Suggs - 1875 Remington revolver carbine; Roscoe Brown - 1851 Colt Navy with 1872 cartridge conversion; Dog Face (Blue Duck's sharpshooter) - 1859 Sharps buffalo rifle; Jim (the smaller of the two robbers who attack Roscoe) - "Buntline Special", a version of the Peacemaker with a 12 inch barrel; Various - 1873 Winchester rifle.
* The 1847 Walker Colt carried by Gus in the film is as ubiquitously iconic as the as the Texas Rangers. Designed by Sam Colt and produced at his Patterson, NJ, factory at the behest of Texas Ranger and militia captain Samuel Walker. The pistol is enormous - 16 inches long with a 9 inch barrel and almost five pounds loaded. It owes this size to its intended use as a heavy cavalry pistol, meant not to be worn on the belt but carried in a saddle-mounted holster, and powerful enough at short range to have one-shot stopping power against both man and horse. The long cylinder holds a .44cal bullet on top of 60 grains of black powder - making it the most powerful black powder revolver ever made. Modern tests have shown the Walker to have stopping power at least equal to the metal-cartridge .357 Magnum. However, the cylinders issued with the Walker initially were not strong enough to handle the combination of such a large powder charge and frequent improper loading of conical rounds, causing the guns to have a bad reputation for cylinders exploding during firing. The later Colt Dragoon pistol improved in the design by slightly downsizing the gun overall and being equipped with thicker-walled cylinders. Only about 1100 Walkers were produced, 1000 for Col. Walker's order and another 100 added by Sam Colt for special gift and promotional guns.
* Despite the huge ratings and massive critical acclaim (20 years later, it is still mentioned at every Emmy Awards show when they reference the greatest mini-series of all time), Lonesome Dove inexplicably lost the 1989 Outstanding Miniseries Emmy Award to "War and Remembrance" (1988).
* The "Buntline Special" Colt Peacemaker carried by Jim, one of the two outlaws who jump Roscoe in the woods, is a period firearm produced by Colt supposedly after Ned Buntline, popular dime-store novelist of the day, placed a request for five Peacemakers with 12-in (standard length was 7.5-in) barrels to give to the lawmen of Dodge City, KS - including Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson - in recognition of their brave service to that town. Little, if any, evidence survives to support this story. However, Colt, as with other leading gun makers at the time, did produce both longer- and shorter-barreled models of its popular pistols. This includes known 19th century factory-model Peacemakers available in 3, 4, 5.5, 7.5, 12, and 16 inch barrel lengths. The popularity of both Buntline's novels and the story of his infamous gift to Earp et al led any long-barreled Peacemaker to be referred to as a "Buntline Special"; however the question of whether the accuracy of such a long barrel would be worth the slower draw time for a gunfighter or lawman is the subject of much speculation.
* Two scenes in the miniseries are based on actual incidents that occurred during a cattle drive from Texas to Montana: 1. Some cowboys asked "how far is it to Up-North?", believing it to be place, not a direction. 2. During one of the river crossings, the cowboys stripped off their clothes and rode the horses naked. Both episodes are related by Teddy "Blue" Abbott, a 19th-century Texas cowboy who participated in a cattle drive from Texas to Montana. Abbott remained in Montana, married the daughter of cattle baron Granville Stuart and become a relatively prosperous rancher. He wrote a book of memories called "We Pointed Them North".
* During the storm that hits early into the cattle drive, the herd of cows are struck by lightning, which is then conducted from cow to cow by means of the tips of their horns. This is a real phenomenon, known as "St. Elmo's Fire."
Although author Larry McMurtry claims that they have no basis in historical fact, it seems likely that the characters of Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call are modeled after cattlemen Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight, respectively. Upon the death of their scout, an escaped slave named Bose Ikard, Goodnight carved a sign for his grave, just as Call does for Joshua Deets. Loving died of blood poisoning from Indian arrows, just like McCrae. Upon his death, Goodnight carried his body back to Texas for burial, just as Call does for Augustus. Indeed, Goodnight is actually featured as a character in a small scene in the original novel.
Goofs
* Continuity: When Augustus is thrown from his horse after first being shot at by Blue Duck's men, he drops his canteen. When he climbs back on his horse, the canteen is back hanging on the saddle horn.
* Continuity: When Call wakes up and sees the three vultures on Gus's corpse, the vultures are all turkey vultures. The close-up shows a much larger and more aggressive black-headed vulture pecking at the corpse. When Call screams and runs at the birds, all three are turkey vultures again.
* Continuity: After Gus kills his horse to use as a "fort" he shoots 4 attacking Kiowa Indians from their horses, before the gang attacking him retreats to a safe distance. In the rest of the scenes with Gus and the gang interacting and shooting, the dead bodies of those Indians are nowhere to be seen. (Nor are their horses, but they could have run off.)
* Revealing mistakes: When Captain Call is breaking the "hell bitch" you can see clearly a flank strap which makes the horse buck.
* Continuity: When Call is breaking the "hell bitch", and he walks up with the saddle, the horse is mostly white with a black spot on its neck. After the horse bucks and Call drops the saddle, the horse has a lot more grey in its coat, and the spot on its neck is gone.
* Revealing mistakes: When Gus goes to shoot up the Indian encampment with July Johnson, count the number of Indians who "go down" from being hit versus the number of shots fired. One more Indian dies than the number of shots fired.
* Revealing mistakes: In the first episode, when the storm is first seen appearing on the horizon, the storm is obviously a projection on a screen (identifiable by the fact that all the bushes on the ground are holding perfectly still and no dust is being kicked up.)
* Continuity: When the Irish kid falls in the water and is attacked by the snakes, he is bit by one of them on the cheek at the end of chapter one. In chapter two, when his wounds are being investigated, there's not a bite mark on his cheek.
* Revealing mistakes: When Gus kills his horse to use it as a shield against fire from Blue Duck's men, the horse can clearly still be seen breathing. Additionally, it moves one of its legs in a later scene.
* Continuity: Before leaving Lonesome Dove when Gus and Lorena are "Cutting the cards", the fifty dollars keeps changing positions on the table.
* Revealing mistakes: The "Hell Bitch" is described as a "Kiowa mare," but is plainly a gelding.
* Continuity: After Jake gets to Lonesome Dove, and he and Gus are sitting and talking, as Jake is falling asleep, Gus sets the Jug down, and when the camera angle changes, he sets it down again.
* Continuity: When Call walks out while Gus is baking biscuits, Gus removes his pipe. When the camera angle changes, he removes his pipe again.
* Continuity: While tracking Jake and the Horse thieves, when they see the buzzards circling, Gus points up and says something to Call, but there is no Audio.
* Factual errors: Cavalry "Captain" Weaver wears a uniform with the double-breasted three times, three button pattern of a major general. Even if the captain had been wearing a frock coat as he is in the film, it would have been single-breasted without the three separate groupings of buttons.
* Crew or equipment visible: When Roscoe is camped in East Texas, you can see the outline of a crew member walking in the forest behind him.
* Continuity: When Deets removes the Mesquite thorn from Jake’s thumb, he grabs it with his fingers, and gets blood on them. When the camera angle changes, the thorn is on the end of the needle, and his fingers are clean.
* Factual errors: After crossing over 80 miles through the "Badlands" without water, the cattle don't start running until the river is in view. In truth, thirsty cattle can smell water for many miles, and would have stampeded towards the water much earlier than depicted in the movie.
* Miscellaneous: During the scene where Captain Call is aboard the bucking "hell bitch" and the two come out of the round pen and head off through the yard past the house, it is easy to see that Call is falling off before the camera switches.
* Revealing mistakes: When Call beats up the Cavalry Scout for hitting Newt, the branding iron that Call uses flexes when he moves it around. It is obviously made of rubber.
* Errors in geography: Miles City is shown to have large mountains surrounding it, with a landscape similar to western Montana. In reality, Miles City is nowhere near any mountains but is in fact in the middle of the great plains in the valley along the Yellowstone river in eastern Montana.
* Errors in geography: The location of the ranch they build in Montana is surrounded by mountains and looks like it is in mountainous western Montana. However, according to everything they say in the film, along with the map provided in the DVD extras, the ranch is supposibly located in eastern Montana, a land of vast flat grasslands and no large mountains at all.
* Continuity: During a conversation in which Gus is lecturing Woodrow on his previous treatment of Maggie, both Gus and Woodrow state that Maggie died in Lonesome Dove. However, in the prequel, "Comanche Moon”, Maggie is shown dying in Austin, Texas, before Gus and Woodrow decide to move to Lonesome Dove.
* Continuity: As Gus is ladling out dinner at the beginning of the movie, when Newt reaches out his plate, the plate is empty, when the camera angle changes, there are now two large slices of bread that he pours the beans over.
* Audio/visual unsynchronized: July Johnson (Chris Cooper) enters a room to visit Elmira, who is sick in bed. He closes the door behind him, and the audio is the sound of a door solidly closing shut. But look closely, and you will see that the door did not close shut, but in fact "bounced" open, and remains a few inches ajar with some light coming in from the outside.
* Factual errors: When the army is trying to take the horse from Dish, the Captain mentions that his horses were tired of chasing Red Cloud. "Red Cloud's War" lasted from 1865 until the signing of the Treaty at Fort Laramie in 1868. In the second episode, Captain McCrea mentions upon leaving the saloon where he beats up the bartender that they would have been remembered if they had been killed by the Comanche's like Custer had by the Sioux. The Battle of the Little Big Horn where Custer was killed was in 1876, eight years after the Treaty of Laramie that concluded Red Cloud's War.
* Continuity: When Wade comes back to the camp from turkey hunting, he finds Luke trying to rape Elmira. He grabs Luke's boots and drags him off, on his belly. The next scene, Wade is holding Luke's boots and the heels are facing out, as they would be if Luke was still on his belly, but in the next scene, Luke is on his back. Again in the next scene, Wade is still holding Luke's boots, belly down, but Luke is still shown on his back.
Filming Locations
Alamo Village - Highway 674, Brackettville, Texas, USA
Angel Fire, New Mexico, USA
Austin, Texas, USA
Black Lake, New Mexico, USA (as Montana)
Bonanza Creek Ranch - 15 Bonanza Creek Lane, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Brackettville, Texas, USA
Cook Ranch, Galisteo, New Mexico, USA
Del Rio, Texas, USA
Eaves Movie Ranch - 105 Rancho Alegre Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, USA
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico, USA
