Ryan Gosling And A Scrubs Star Were In An Obscure '90s Western Series

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No one outside Canada has likely heard of the 1998 TV series "Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy," and its title might make you think it's a spoof from "The Simpsons." I assure you, however, that it is real. Indeed, the initial TV movie that preceded the TV series had a small role for a young Ryan Gosling, and both the movie and the TV series starred Sarah Chalke. Chalke, of course, is a longtime major TV star perhaps best known for her roles on the hit sitcom "Roseanne," "Scrubs" (she played Elliot Reed), and "Rick and Morty" (she plays Beth). 

"Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy" was based on the memoirs of the real-life Canadian rancher Richmond P. Hobson, Jr., who, in 1930, teamed up with Panhandle Phillips (yes, that was his real name) and moved to the Chilcotin Country of British Columbia to found the Frontier Cattle Company. Hobson and Panhandle split up in the early 1940s, and during World War II, he moved to Vanderhoof, the geographic center of the province, where he continued ranching until his death in 1966. 

Hobson's 1955 book "Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy" was actually the second part of a trilogy of memoirs that began with "Grass Beyond the Mountains" in 1951, and ended with "The Rancher Takes a Wife" in 1961. All three books serve as the basis for the 1998 TV movie and subsequent TV series. Chad Willett plays Hobson, Ted Atherton plays Panhandle Phillips, and Chalke plays Hobson's wife Gloria in the movie. Tannick Bisson plays Hobson in the TV series. Ryan Gosling was only in the movie and plays a ranch hand named Tommy. The adaptations possessed a light, comedic tone, and the TV series lasted for 26 episodes over two seasons.

It should be noted that "Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy" is largely a Canadian phenomenon. It doesn't have many reviews or write-ups from other countries and seems to be a Western specifically about the Canadian frontier as it appeared in the 1940s. By 1998, Ryan Gosling had already appeared in "The New Mickey Mouse Club," had scored many guest spots on various hot TV shows of 1996, and even landed a main role on the Canadian teen series "Breaker High," so he was no slouch. The same year as "Cowboy," Gosling also landed the title role in the Fox Kids series "Young Hercules." "Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy" was just another job for Gosling on his way toward the Hollywood A-list. 

The opening movie shows a crisis on the Hobson ranch when most of the ranch hands leave to fight in World War II. Tommy is one of those ranch hands. 

The TV series greatly expanded the narrative, featuring a wide variety of stories and characters. Some of them involve itinerant best friends who pass through the ranch and get caught up in romantic dramas. Robert Moloney plays Hobson's nemesis Connor McCann, and Robin Brûlé plays Gloria's best friend Muriel. Another episode sees Hobson comforting a beleaguered mother whose son has left to fight in the war. The two ranch hands often leave the ranch to find missing cattle or to take other jobs guiding people through the frontier. Gloria hates when they leave. Sometimes money is tight, and Hobson has to take odd jobs to make ends meet. 

The stories all sound simple and gentle, and the overall tone seems halcyon and sentimental, with a light comedic edge. There are struggles, but the characters are all stalwart. Perhaps the closest American analog would be "Little House on the Prairie," another frontier-based series based on a series of memoirs. Only "Never Too Good for a Cowboy" was about adults and featured more adult storylines, including romance, sex, and money. 

There aren't many professional reviews of "Never Too Good for a Cowboy" readily available online, but the show does have fan reviews we can look at. Many reviewers admitted they only wanted to watch the TV movie for Gosling's small role and didn't care much about the series otherwise. But some noticed that the characters were fine, and their interpersonal dynamics were interesting, even if the plot was scant. The central fan complaint about "NTGFAC" is that it meanders quite slowly through its incidents, and that the story isn't so much a story as a litany of events. It's an open-ended remembrance of life on a ranch, not a hotbed of manufactured drama. 

Sifting a little deeper, though, reveals the real reason why people liked "NTGFAC." It's because the lead actors are cute. Which is fair. I think we've all had that guilty pleasure series in our lives that we watched merely because we had a crush on one or more of the cast members. "Cowboy" certainly had that going for it. And if Ryan Gosling is merely a supporting player, you can only imagine the crush-worthiness of the leads.