Bruce Campbell's 27-Episode Sci-Fi Western Deserves a Second Chance

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The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. owes its wild blend of Western and sci-fi elements to a certain movie series. Fox executive Bob Greenblatt approached creators Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse to develop the series after watching and lovingBruce Campbell's 27-Episode Sci-Fi Western DeservesIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Boam worked on the final version of the script, while Cuse served as a consultant. Greenblatt wanted the duo to develop a television series that, like Indiana Jones, took after movie serials. That led Cuse to come up with Brisco County, Jr.’s winning formula, though he admitted in an interview with Slant Magazine that making movies and making television were two entirely different schools of discipline:

“I was very intrigued by this idea and actually went out and watched a lot of old serials and basically found that the serials fell into one of two categories which were Westerns and science fiction. So basically I had this idea, ‘wouldn’t it be great to combine the two genres.’ None of us had previously done much in the way of television. We approached it from the idea of trying to be incredibly cinematic about it. We wanted to make it more like we were doing a mini movie every week.”

“I was very intrigued by this idea and actually went out and watched a lot of old serials and basically found that the serials fell into one of two categories which were Westerns and science fiction. So basically I had this idea, ‘wouldn’t it be great to combine the two genres.’ None of us had previously done much in the way of television. We approached it from the idea of trying to be incredibly cinematic about it. We wanted to make it more like we were doing a mini movie every week.”

Cuse and Boam managed to keep the same energy of movie serials running through The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., with nearly every episode bearing a catchy title or ending on a cliffhanger—or both. Brisco County Jr. is also hilarious, using Campbell’s natural charisma. A key moment comes in the very first episode, where an outlaw named Pete holds Brisco at gunpoint; Brisco immediately snatches his gun and then hands it back to him, leaving Pete extremely befuddled. The Orb and other sci-fi elements, including an episode where Brisco rides a rocket like a horse, would serve as a basis for Cuse’s work on Lost.

Four icons and four completely different ways of walking into trouble.
This is the one you would have been out there, why it fits, and what it would have cost you.

You have never explained yourself and you have never needed to,
because people work out fairly quickly that you are the most capable person in the room
without you ever having to mention it.

• Eastwood built the character out of everything he refused to do, stripping away the
  backstory, the speeches and every bit of reassurance until only the competence was left.
• You keep your own counsel, and while other people occasionally find that unnerving, you
  have never felt any real need to fix it for them.
• The Dollars films work because he genuinely is in it for himself right up until the
  moment he is not, and he never explains that part either.
• You would be gone before anybody got a chance to thank you.

You are the funniest person in most rooms and the most loyal
person in all of them, and you would be genuinely insulted if somebody suggested those two
things were in any tension.

• Doc has no real reason to be in this fight beyond the fact that his friend is in it,
  which is the only reason he has ever needed for anything.
• You lead with wit, and it does a very effective job of hiding how seriously you take the
  handful of people you actually care about.
• Val Kilmer’s performance is the most quoted in the entire genre because the jokes keep
  getting sharper as the situation gets worse.
• You would spend everything you had on this and still describe it as a good week.

You never wanted this job, and you took it anyway because the
alternative was standing there watching somebody less careful do it badly, which is the most
Western reason there has ever been.

• Earp is the reluctant authority figure, a man who came to town specifically to be left
  alone and somehow ended up answerable for all of it.
• You are protective by instinct, so when something goes wrong your first thought is who
  is exposed rather than who is to blame.
• These films understand that keeping order costs far more than breaking it, and that the
  person holding the line almost never gets thanked.
• You would do the whole thing again, and you would complain about it the entire time.

Nobody has ever successfully talked you out of something you had
already decided was right, and a long line of grown adults has found that out the hard way.

• Mattie is the most relentless character in the Western canon and she manages it through
  argument, paperwork and flat refusal rather than a fast draw.
• You have no patience for being managed, so you negotiate, you check the details and you
  turn up exactly when you said you would.
• True Grit is the rare Western where the moral centre is the youngest person on screen
  and every adult around her has to catch up.
• You would get what you came for, and the film is honest about what that takes out of
  you.

Bruce Campbell Wants to Bring Back Brisco County Jr.

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While The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was a critical darling and scored high ratings when it first premiered, it suffered the same fate as other sci-fi series on Fox and was canceled after a single season. Yet that didn’t stop it from becoming a cult classic, or one of its stars from wanting to reboot the series. In an interview with Collider, Bruce Campbell said he’d play Brisco County Jr. again if he got the chance, adding that he has a lot of ideas, including exploring an older, more grizzled Brisco who hung up his guns and returned to lawyering.

Genre mashups are a dime a dozen on television nowadays, but The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. is one of the first to stand out. It mashed up the pleasures of a Western with the intrigue of a science fiction show, creating a hilarious, action-packed show that deserved far better than it got.

The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.