Throughout television’s history, the most memorable miniseries have left an indelible mark on pop culture. Alex Haley’s Roots is still taught in schools. HBO’s epic WWII drama Band of Brothers is still hailed as a riveting small-screen account of WWII. Angels in America blazed a trail of compassion and empathy among the AIDS community in the 1980s. With plenty of other powerful examples to cite, they all fall short of the high bar and standard of quality that arrived on CBS in February 1989.
Based on the sprawling 843-page novel by venerated author Larry McMurtry, there’s nothing overdramatic about declaring Lonesome Dove the finest miniseries ever made. Winner of 7 Primetime Emmys and ranked #151 on IMDb’s Top 250 TV Shows, the masterful storytelling is only eclipsed by the towering performances from the all-time great cast led by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. Harsh as it may sound, no one has a right to call themselves a true Western fan without having seen Lonesome Dove at least once.
‘Lonesome Dove’ Set an Impossibly High Bar That Has Yet to Be Reached
Based on Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove was originally written as a feature film prospect for John Wayne, James Stewart, and/or Henry Fonda. Peter Bogdanovich, who adapted McMurtry’s The Last Picture Show to great acclaim in 1971, co-wrote the script with McMurtry. But when Wayne expressed concerns about the melancholic nature of two men on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana, McMurtry expanded the script into a massive 843-page novel best suited as a four-part miniseries that plays like four consecutive feature films.
The story traces Gus McCrea (Duvall) and Woodrow Call (Jones), two retired Texas Rangers from Lonesome Dove, Texas, who agree to help their fugitive friend Jake Spoon (Robert Urich) escape to Montana. During their 1,500-mile journey across the high country and hard land, Gus and Call are met with a slew of harrowing misadventures and dangerous rivals. But perhaps the biggest conflict is the philosophical and existential differences between Gus, a happy-go-lucky womanizer, and Call, a laconic leader who lives by a code of honor, as they forge a path toward unconditional friendship.
Split into four distinct 90-minute parts, Lonesome Dove is every bit as big, bold, and expansive as its Pulitzer-winning source novel. Airing as a four-part event on CBS in February 1989, the universally beloved miniseries was viewed by 26 million households, transcending the limits of cinema at the time. With the high-quality standard of four feature films piped into viewers’ living rooms, Lonesome Dove set a bar that has frankly never been reached, much less eclipsed.
‘Lonesome Dove’s Star-Studded Cast & High Production Values Set it Apart
While McMurtry’s acclaimed novel laid the blueprint for an all-time great story, it’s worth noting that CBS backed Lonesome Dove with a hefty $20 million budget (roughly $54 million, adjusted for inflation in 2026) to reinforce its prestigious, cinematic quality. Moreover, it was partially filmed at the Alamo Village, an expensive set built for John Wayne’s 1960 movie The Alamo. The immense resources poured into the production, including a 90-day shoot, account for the show’s superiority, as it aimed for a movie-caliber result rather than a typical TV series.
To wit, Duvall and Jones performed their own stunts in the show, minus one instance that required a stunt double for Duvall. As great as their performances are (Duvall won a Golden Globe), the supporting cast is the tie that binds the story. Danny Glover plays tracker Joshua Deets, Diane Lane plays companion Lorena Wood, Chris Cooper plays Sheriff July Johnson, Anjelica Huston plays Gus’ former flame, Clara Allen, and Steve Buscemi plays drifter Luke. With supporting turns by D.B. Sweeney, Frederic Forrest, Barry Corbin, Glenne Headley, and more, Lonesome Dove‘s impressive ensemble gives McMurtry’s story the epic quality it deserves.
All told, Lonesome Dove was nominated for 19 Primetime Emmys, winning seven, including Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series or Movie (Simon Wincer). The show also won a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries and was named Best Program of the Year by the Television Critics Association Awards.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
