Sam Elliott's Short-Lived Western Series Is A Forgotten '80s Relic

Today, Sam Elliott had found a home on the small screen, playing Billy Bob Thornton's dad in "Landman." But Taylor Sheridan's oil drama is far from his first foray into television. In fact, though he's known for his many roles in some of the great Western movies, Elliott has forged a considerable small screen career, which even included a little-known soap opera by the name of "The Yellow Rose."

Elliott made his debut in the forgotten Kirk Douglas Western "The Way West" back in 1967. A small role in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" followed, before Elliott found himself leading such films as "The Quick and the Dead" and "The Shadow Riders." He also played Patrick Swayze's mentor in "Road House" before joining the impressive ensemble of "Tombstone" and lending his velvety baritone to "The Big Lebowski." But even after he'd established himself as one of the best Western actors of all time, like any performer Elliott appeared in his share of overlooked and under-appreciated projects.

"The Yellow Rose" is one such example. Airing for a single season on NBC, this soap opera saw Elliott play an ex-con who, in the pilot episode, arrives at the titular ranch much to the surprise of his late father's other children and their families. The show then chronicles the newly reunited family's attempts to run the ranch and fend off encroachments from oil companies and a neighbor who feels he's owed the land on which the late rancher's family is trying to build a life.

It's strange to think Sam Elliott starred in a ranch-based soap opera wherein a family struggled to preserve a towering patriarch's cherished way of life. After all, Elliott once trashed "Yellowstone" (even though he was part of the franchise) for being "too much like f****** 'Dallas' or something." Not only is "The Yellow Rose" oddly reminiscent of Taylor Sheridan's hugely popular neo-Western, it was also one of many attempts to capitalize on the popularity of the very show Elliott seemed to dislike: "Dallas."

"The Yellow Rose" debuted on NBC in October 1983. It centered on the titular ranch, which was built on 200,000 acres of West Texas land. Some years prior to the events of the series, Wade Champion won that land in a bet with his neighbor Jeb Hollister (Chuck Connors), before eventually passing away and leaving it to his two sons, Roy (David Soul) and Quisto (Edward Albert). Wade was also survived by his 29-year-old wife, Colleen Champion (Cybill Shepherd), their daughter Love Child "L.C." Champion (Michelle Bennett), and Roy's son Whit Champion (Tom Schanley). Elliott's ex-con Chance McKenzie is also Wade's illegitimate son, and rocks up in the pilot to join the crew.

Together, the gang do their best to get along and keep the ranch running while fending off attempts by oil businesses to drill on their land and Jeb Hollister's repeated attempts to reclaim the ranch. Not that the show needed it, given its impressive cast, but having Chuck Connors, best known as the star of ABC's classic Western TV series "The Rifleman," play the bad guy lent the show some serious Western prestige. Unfortunately, it didn't help.

In many ways "The Yellow Rose" was a prototypical "Yellowstone." One episode sees Chuck Connors uses explosives to cause a landslide on the Champion family's property, foreshadowing John's Dutton similar use of explosives to reroute a river in Season 1 of "Yellowstone." More than that, ranchers flying around their property in helicopters and the general soapiness of "The Yellow Rose" all add to the sense of the show being a precursor to Taylor Sheridan's series, which similarly mined the vicissitudes and harsh realities of ranch life for melodrama.

Why, then, would Elliott — a man who openly disparaged "Yellowstone" for its soapy elements — agree to star? Well, for one thing, he didn't consider it to be anything like "Dallas." In a 1983 interview to promote "The Yellow Rose" (via UPI ) he said, "The only thing West about ['Dallas'] is it takes place in Dallas and some of the characters wear cowboy hats. I think that urban cowboy craze has burned out." His NBC series, however, was in his estimation a real Western. What's more, it seems the actor wasn't aware that he was, in fact, signing up for a ranching soap. As he told Scott Holleran in a 2006 interview, "I don't remember who was running NBC — they turned it into soap opera. They messed with it." This, he claims, was also why the show never really caught on.

"The Yellow Rose" ran until May 1984 when it was canceled after 22 episodes. It was briefly revived in 1990, though only in the form of reruns which accompanied reruns of James Garner's similarly short-lived early-80s "Maverick" sequel series, "Bret Maverick." Today, the series remains as much of a curio as the Elliott-starring haunted house movie that horror fans have to see.