Young Hootenannies
Yesterday, a piece of my teenaged years arrived in the mail from Amazon. "The Young Riders," season one, on DVD.
I loved that show. I watched and discussed it with Nicky, my high-school partner in crime, with whom I have sadly lost touch. I stood there in the living room looking at the boxed set and I thought, "I have to call Nicky, right now." But I don't have her current number, so I called her dad in Janesville. He said he'd get in touch with her and give her my number. No ringy-dingy last night, though, so I hope to hear from her soon.
Then I settled in to partake. If you somehow missed this show (shame!), it was a very fictionalized account of the lives of six Pony Express riders on the eve of the Civil War, including William "Buffalo Bill" Body (who did, indeed, ride for the Express) played by Stephen Baldwin (back when he had abs) and James "Wild Bill" Hickock (who did work for the company that ran the Express but was probably not a rider, although he and Cody were actually friends in real life) played by Josh Brolin. There was much male eye-candy to be had on this show, and make no mistake, although my favorite was always the mysteriously-named Kid, the arguable protagonist of the show, played by Ty Miller who inexplicably vanished after the show (although he does now have a recurring role on "Without a Trace" and he showed up on an episode of "Nip/Tuck" last year). He was good. He had a kind of laconic, poor-man's-Tom-Berenger thing going on where you always got the feeling he was smarter than he let people see.
You never know how shows you loved as a kid will hold up when viewed through the lens of greater maturity. I wondered if TYR would seem childish and hack. It holds up surprisingly well. It's a borderline-cheesy late-80's genre drama with Hallmark Movie of the Week production values, but it's very heartfelt and the characters are engaging and have a lot of depth to them as they grow and change over the course of the episodes. The writing is sometimes ham-handed but sometimes better than it really ought to be. The acting is pretty good among the main cast, especially from Brolin and Miller. I'm sure the producers were all excited to have gotten Esteemed Character Actor Anthony Zerbe in the cast (how does one become an Esteemed Character Actor, anyway? Do you have to attend the J.T. Walsh School of Esteemed Character Acting?) and he certainly earns his paycheck in scenery-chewing. The first season also features Melissa Leo, who went on to "Homicide," and Brett Cullen, who...was in "The Thorn Birds." Or something.
Some of the acting from the guest stars and secondary players is laughably bad, though. In one episode, fucking Rob Estes shows up as a white man raised by Indians, and I actually laughed out loud when he delivered the line "I must return to my people and my destiny," with this kind of "yo,dude" intonation and body language. And it's fun to spot the pre-fame guest stars (Christopher Penn! Cynthia Nixon!) and the post-fame guest stars (Gerritt Graham! Frank Luz!) not to mention the "am I supposed to know this person?" guest stars.
And I have to say, the show never forgot those damned Pony Express runs. Even in the middle of whatever crisis the heroic riders were facing this week, somebody was always having to hop on a horse and take the damned pouch to the next station.
It's all here. Bucolic Western settings. Buckskin outfits. Hot dusty men on horseback. The girl masquerading as a boy so she could work as a rider (and she kicked butt AND got the guy she wanted all without putting on a dress). All the issues of the day. Slavery. Secession. Indian problems. Everybody had a shady past they were trying to escape. Everyone had old enemies turning up right and left. Everyone had old friends who betrayed them or were killed horribly.
And they only waited until the SECOND episode to get all the riders shirtless. Thanks, guys!
I loved that show. I watched and discussed it with Nicky, my high-school partner in crime, with whom I have sadly lost touch. I stood there in the living room looking at the boxed set and I thought, "I have to call Nicky, right now." But I don't have her current number, so I called her dad in Janesville. He said he'd get in touch with her and give her my number. No ringy-dingy last night, though, so I hope to hear from her soon.
Then I settled in to partake. If you somehow missed this show (shame!), it was a very fictionalized account of the lives of six Pony Express riders on the eve of the Civil War, including William "Buffalo Bill" Body (who did, indeed, ride for the Express) played by Stephen Baldwin (back when he had abs) and James "Wild Bill" Hickock (who did work for the company that ran the Express but was probably not a rider, although he and Cody were actually friends in real life) played by Josh Brolin. There was much male eye-candy to be had on this show, and make no mistake, although my favorite was always the mysteriously-named Kid, the arguable protagonist of the show, played by Ty Miller who inexplicably vanished after the show (although he does now have a recurring role on "Without a Trace" and he showed up on an episode of "Nip/Tuck" last year). He was good. He had a kind of laconic, poor-man's-Tom-Berenger thing going on where you always got the feeling he was smarter than he let people see.
You never know how shows you loved as a kid will hold up when viewed through the lens of greater maturity. I wondered if TYR would seem childish and hack. It holds up surprisingly well. It's a borderline-cheesy late-80's genre drama with Hallmark Movie of the Week production values, but it's very heartfelt and the characters are engaging and have a lot of depth to them as they grow and change over the course of the episodes. The writing is sometimes ham-handed but sometimes better than it really ought to be. The acting is pretty good among the main cast, especially from Brolin and Miller. I'm sure the producers were all excited to have gotten Esteemed Character Actor Anthony Zerbe in the cast (how does one become an Esteemed Character Actor, anyway? Do you have to attend the J.T. Walsh School of Esteemed Character Acting?) and he certainly earns his paycheck in scenery-chewing. The first season also features Melissa Leo, who went on to "Homicide," and Brett Cullen, who...was in "The Thorn Birds." Or something.
Some of the acting from the guest stars and secondary players is laughably bad, though. In one episode, fucking Rob Estes shows up as a white man raised by Indians, and I actually laughed out loud when he delivered the line "I must return to my people and my destiny," with this kind of "yo,dude" intonation and body language. And it's fun to spot the pre-fame guest stars (Christopher Penn! Cynthia Nixon!) and the post-fame guest stars (Gerritt Graham! Frank Luz!) not to mention the "am I supposed to know this person?" guest stars.
And I have to say, the show never forgot those damned Pony Express runs. Even in the middle of whatever crisis the heroic riders were facing this week, somebody was always having to hop on a horse and take the damned pouch to the next station.
It's all here. Bucolic Western settings. Buckskin outfits. Hot dusty men on horseback. The girl masquerading as a boy so she could work as a rider (and she kicked butt AND got the guy she wanted all without putting on a dress). All the issues of the day. Slavery. Secession. Indian problems. Everybody had a shady past they were trying to escape. Everyone had old enemies turning up right and left. Everyone had old friends who betrayed them or were killed horribly.
And they only waited until the SECOND episode to get all the riders shirtless. Thanks, guys!