Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove is a four-part American television miniseries that CBS broadcast from February 5 through February 8, 1989. It adapts Larry McMurtry's 1985 novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Simon Wincer directed the production from a teleplay by Bill Wittliff. Set chiefly in the late nineteenth-century American West, it follows two former Texas Rangers, Augustus "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, after their frontier careers have settled into the quieter but precarious routine of running the Hat Creek Cattle Company near the Rio Grande. Filmed in Texas and elsewhere, the miniseries uses the cattle trail to test their loyalties.

Robert Duvall plays Gus, the talkative and reflective partner who still seeks adventure and romance; Tommy Lee Jones plays Call, whose reserve and hard discipline govern the enterprise. Robert Urich appears as Jake Spoon, an ex-Ranger whose report of Montana helps prompt the decision to move cattle north. The expedition becomes an arduous passage through rivers, open country, storms, violence, and loss.

Danny Glover plays Deets, the skilled scout and Gus's trusted friend. Diane Lane portrays Lorena Wood, a young woman rescued from an abusive situation; her bond with Gus informs some of his most personal decisions. Anjelica Huston is Clara Allen, Gus's long-cherished love, living with her family in Nebraska. Ricky Schroder plays Newt Dobbs, the young cowboy Call regards with guarded concern. Chris Cooper portrays July Johnson, the Arkansas sheriff pursuing his own troubled path westward. Frederic Forrest plays Blue Duck, the outlaw whose attacks cast a threat over the travelers.

Blue Duck's violence threatens the travelers and leaves Lorena deeply traumatized, while other dangers expose the cost of Call's unyielding ambition. Gus suffers catastrophic injuries late in the journey, and the consequences bring the partners' long companionship into sharp focus. The conclusion has Call honor a promise concerning Gus, completing a journey that is as much about friendship and mortality as it is about cattle. The production became a major critical and popular success. At the 1989 Primetime Emmy Awards, it won Outstanding Miniseries, and Duvall received the award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special. Wincer won for directing the miniseries, while Wittliff won for writing. Its success led to later television productions connected with McMurtry's Lonesome Dove universe, including Return to Lonesome Dove and prequel miniseries based on Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon. The original remains especially identified with Duvall.