Meg Ryan Starred In This Underrated Western Series That Deserved More Episodes

It's hard enough to get a network or streamer to greenlight a pilot. And if you do manage to get a series order, don't go popping the champagne corks just yet. That show has to prove its Nielsen ratings worth, and, unless you've got a major star attached or a load of critical acclaim (and even then), your series could be heading for a quick cancellation.

Unfortunately for creator Tom Greene, Meg Ryan was four years away from becoming a bona-fide movie star in one of her best movies, "When Harry Met Sally...," when he cast her in the Western series "Wildside." In 1985, she was a cute-and-perky performer who was probably best known to soap opera fans for her run on "As the World Turns." Though "Wildside" was an ensemble piece, it was sold on the appeal of Howard Rollins, who'd received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor on the strength of his stellar work as pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. in "Ragtime." Rollins was primed for stardom, and he would achieve it three years later as Virgil Tibbs on the TV version of "In the Heat of the Night."

Alas, ABC did "Wildside" remarkably dirty by slotting it as a spring 1985 replacement at 8 PM on Thursday. This put it up against "The Cosby Show" and "Family Ties" on NBC, and "Magnum P.I. on CBS. Obviously, Tom Selleck's mustachioed Hawaiian gumshoe was the primary competition for Rollins' show, and it had a large, loyal viewership. Factor in the unpopularity of Westerns in the mid-1980s, and "Wildside" didn't stand a chance. It lasted a mere six episodes, and it's unavailable to stream anywhere, but you can watch a piece of one episode on YouTube, and it looks like a hoot!

The opening credits of "Wildside" set it up as "The A-Team" in the Old West with a twist. The series takes place in Wildside, California, a friendly little town that seems to attract unfriendly folks. Given that our five heroes are former outlaws, they're more than capable of defending the populace — though, judging from the footage I watched, they use an awful lot of dynamite to take out the bad guys.

If nothing else, the characters of "Wildside" have great names: Bannister Sparks (Rollins), Brodie Hollister (William Smith), Varges de la Cosa (John D'Aquino), Governor J.W. Summerhayes (Sandy McPeak) and, best of all, Prometheus Jones (pro wrestling legend Terry Funk). Ryan co-stars as Cally Oaks, the editor of the local newspaper. She's obviously an educated woman (she throws around references to Agamemnon and Achilles in one scene), and, according to the plot summary, falls for Hollister's dashing son Sutton (J. Eddie Peck).

This being an 8 PM show, "Wildside," like "The A-Team," couldn't depict our heroes killing anyone. So you see a lot of villains getting shot in the hand, lassoed or knocked unconscious by dynamite. I know this sounds silly, but the dialogue is genuinely clever. At the start of one episode, Brodie upbraids Prometheus for being late to a gunfight. "I was sleepin'," he replies. "No one told me we had choir practice this morning."

Hopefully, "Wildside" will turn up somewhere to stream one of these days. As for now, it's yet another lost series that never stood a chance due to its time slot. Meg Ryan hive rise up, and resurrect "Wildside" now!