Western TV showshave been shaping the medium since the genre first started gaining steam, and these 10 were more influential than most for one reason or another. Plenty ofolder Western TV shows still have an outsized influenceon all the TV that has come after, butnewer Westerns have made their markas well.
The hallmarks of the genre can seem kind of quaint when examined on their face. Tough men riding around the unsettled West, protecting the good, innocent people of the frontier from unknown dangers; that’s as twee a genre as you can get.Westerns offer so much more hidden in those lines; these 10 shows in particular.
The Cisco Kidwas a half-hour Western series for children that aired for six seasons and followed the titular Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo), a charmer, and his partner Pancho (Leo Carrillo), two desperados who went around helping the downtrodden wherever the police or government was corrupt or ineffectual.
The series is notable for being the first TV show to be filmed in color, though it was not always broadcast as such. The switch from black-and-white to color on TV was a massive one, particularly for Western shows, where the colors of the frontier are as much a part of the show as anything else.
Chuck Norris stars as the titular frontier lawman, Cordell Walker, inWalker, Texas Ranger, following the special agent as he goes around fighting villains and solving crimes.The series features a significant amount of martial arts, unusual for a genre with guns as a key component, giving the show a unique flavor.
A reboot titledWalkerpremiered on The CW in 2021 and ran for four seasons with Jared Padalecki in the title role.
While Walker is surprisingly moralistic for a genre that often features very gray characters,Walker, Texas Rangeris also a series that helped popularize the idea of one super cop making a difference. Other Westerns likeJustifiedwere inspired by the idea that one man with a badge can have an impact on the safety of a community.
ThoughFireflyonly ran for 14 episodes, that was enough to leave a long legacy and create a cult following so strong, the series could probably just be referred to as a classic rather than a cult classic. The series follows the renegade crew ofSerenity, who travel the outer rim of the government-controlled galaxy.
These outlying planets are essentially the American frontier, and the crew of theSerenityare cowboys and cowgirls trying to make their way in the galaxy while defending the innocent at the same time. The combination of science fiction and Western tropes was not unique, but rarely has it been done so satisfyingly.
Based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder,Little House on the Prairieis not your typical Western. It’s more of a traditional family drama series, but with the Western aesthetic and some traditional themes of the genre. The series focuses on the Ingalls family, who live together on a farm on Plum Creek.
The series follows the Ingalls family as they grow together and interact with the people of the nearby town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. With nine seasons and three post-series movies,Little House on the Prairiewas a staple of television and mixed themes of the frontier and the unknown with a carefully told story about family.
The Wild Wild Westcombined two popular genres into something completely novel for the time. Science fiction and Western storytelling elements come together in this four-season CBS series.Ignore the Will Smith remake of the show;The Wild Wild Westis an extremely influential series.
The aesthetic of the futuristic-Victorian series would come to be known as steampunk and would be massively influential in the coming decades.
The series follows two Secret Service agents during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant from 1869 to 1877. These agents scour the West, fighting megalomaniacal villains to protect the country and the president. The aesthetic of the futuristic-Victorian series would come to be known as steampunk and would be massively influential in the coming decades.
Thesecond-longest-running American Western, behind onlyGunsmoke,Bonanzasometimes feels like it plays second-fiddle to that groundbreaking series, but the NBC series has a legacy of its own. The series chronicles the adventures of the wealthy Cartwright family who live near Lake Tahoe in Nevada.
Unlike other Westerns of the time,Bonanzawas more about the relationshipbetween patriarch Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) and his three sons, who all have different mothers. The series was an early example of how a Western could just be a setting, and a family drama could be the real story of the series.
For some people,Yellowstonemay be all they know when it comes to Western TV shows. The series was the first in theTaylor Sheridan universe of TV shows. It certainly inspired his storytelling, but it’s also influenced a lot of the TV that has come after it, with shared universes no longer being the sole providence of the MCU.
It’s a neo-Western that owes a lot to the shows that came before it, but which will be owed a lot by the series that follow.
The series is set on the titular cattle ranch in Montana and revolves around the owners, the Duttons. The family protects their land from interlopers, violently if necessary, and it’s often necessary. It’s a neo-Western that owes a lot to the shows that came before it, but which will be owed a lot by the series that follow.
Justifiedhas only appreciated since the series ended, and it’s now considered one of the signature neo-Westerns, a genre that has taken over streaming services and networks in the 21st century. Timothy Olyphant stars as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, whose range is primarily the Eastern District of Kentucky.
While the series is set in the modern era, Givens is a man out of time. He’s a problem child for the U.S. Marshals Service and has his own theories about law enforcement and justice, most of which would be at home in the 19th century. It’s a series that solidified the anti-hero cowboy in these neo-Western TV shows.
Thelongest-running scripted American primetime television seriesuntilThe Simpsonsknocked it off its perch,Gunsmokeran for 20 seasons between 1955 and 1975. The series is set in Dodge City, Kansas, in the years following the American Civil War, where U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) operates.
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earpcame out four days beforeGunsmoke, making it the very first “adult” Western.
As one of the first two original adult Western TV series,every Western show that has come after it owes something toGunsmoke. The serialized nature of the show and the fact that Arness stuck around for 20 years have also influenced all sorts of TV shows ever since. It’s a series synonymous with the genre.
Deadwoodtook all the lessons from older Western TV shows, put them into one coherent story, added an incredible cast, story, and production, andupdated the genre for the modern audience while still maintaining the ethos of the Western. The series earned seven Emmy nominations and one win.
The show is set in Deadwood, South Dakota, in the 1870s. Right on the edge of the American frontier,Deadwoodtracks the growth of the town from a group of tents into a bustling city. It’s wonderfully written, staged impeccably, and whether they know it or not, mostWestern TV showshave been influenced by it.
