Decades Before Landman, Billy Bob Thornton Was In A Sitcom Featuring A TV Legend

Billy Bob Thornton might be 71 years old, but as his Paramount+ series "Landman" proves, he hasn't missed a step. Taylor Sheridan's oil drama has been the perfect showcase for Thornton's considerable talents, and despite the fact "Landman" has yet to earn any Emmy nominations, the show has been consistently well received, with Thornton garnering Actor Award and Critics Choice Award nominations. Long before he reminded us all of his acting prowess, however, Thornton appeared on a very different TV series when he supported sitcom royalty and the future co-star of his film "Sling Blade," John Ritter, on the early 1990s CBS sitcom "Hearts Afire."

The show was created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who'd previously written for such well-known shows as "M*A*S*H" and had contributed an episode to "Rhonda" (one of many Emmy-winning sitcoms that we don't really talk about anymore). Of course, she remains best known for her 1980s/'90s sitcoms "Designing Women" and the Burt Reynolds-led "Evening Shade." In the case of "Hearts Afire," Bloodworth-Thomason teamed up with another established star in Ritter, who famously played Jack Tripper on the legendary ABC sitcom "Three's Company" between 1977 and 1984. She also drafted in Markie Post of "The Fall Guy" and "Night Court" fame.

The two stars play politically opposed individuals who develop an attraction to one another over the course of the show's first season. Thornton, meanwhile, plays Ritter's best friend, who divorces his wife and manages to stick around for the entire three seasons of "Hearts Afire," despite a major cast shakeup mid-way through.

In 1996, Billy Bob Thornton cast John Ritter as Vaughan Cunningham in "Sling Blade," the Oscar-winning movie that Thornton claims changed his life. By that point, the pair had worked together for three years on "Hearts Afire," and according to a 2003 Herald Times article, Thornton took the opportunity between takes on the sitcom to "crack Ritter up with the mentally challenged hillbilly character he'd use four years later as the centerpiece of 'Sling Blade.'" During their time on "Hearts Afire," then, Thornton and Ritter developed a close relationship that lasted until Ritter's passing in 2003.

At the time Thornton was cast on "Hearts Afire," he was still an up-and-coming actor. He'd made his screen debut in 1986's "Hunter's Blood" and racked up some small roles in TV shows including "Matlock" and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's "Evening Shade." Thus, when Bloodworth-Thomason set to work on "Hearts Afire," she thought of Thornton.

The show stars Ritter as John Hartman, a father of two whose wife has recently left him for her therapist. John is also a conservative senator's (George Gaynes) aide whose political views aren't exactly aligned with those of Georgie Anne Lahti (Markie Post), a reporter who hopes to become the senator's new press secretary. Nonetheless, the two are drawn to each other. 

Thornton, meanwhile, played Ritter's friend Billy Bob Davis. (He'd previously used his real name in "Hunter's Blood" and the pilot for a show called "Circus" as well.) In the series premiere, Billy Bob is kicked out of his house by his wife, Mavis (Wendie Jo Sperber). Meanwhile, Georgie moves in with John, and the first season follows their developing romance and experiences in Washington D.C. But when Season 2 arrived, the show underwent a major retooling.

"Hearts Afire" Season 1 debuted in September 1992 and ran for 23 episodes, ending in March 1993. When it returned for a second season in October of the same year, it was a different show. According to a contemporaneous report from Deseret News, the series' first season was "both too political and often of questionable taste" due to multiple jokes that were "completely inappropriate for an early time slot." Whatever the case, CBS decided the show needed reworking, and in the Season 2 premiere, the now-married John Hartman and Georgie Anne Lahti decide to move back to John's home town in the midwest with John's two children. There, they buy the local newspaper and attempt to create a wholesome life for their family in a town that John often doesn't recognize from his childhood.

While the political aspect of the show was abandoned along with several characters, Billy Bob Thornton's Billy Bob Davis made it to the second season, moving with the couple alongside his mother, Velma Davis (Maxine Stuart). It was a good thing the producers kept him on, too. As the Deseret News put it, Thornton's "deadpan observations and dry wit steal almost every scene he's in."

"Hearts Afire" ran for two more seasons, wrapping up after its third season in February 1995. During that time, the show benefited from the presence of another towering TV figure, Ed Asner, who played Georgie's father, George Lahti, in 12 episodes of the series. While the show didn't continue past Season 3, Thornton and Ritter's relationship very much did, with the pair re-teaming for "Sling Blade" and reuniting once again when Ritter was cast alongside Thornton in "Bad Santa."